Bad Reputation - Fiats

[RaneeHobbs]

I just bought my 76 Fiat back in October 2015. I love this car, but talking to people out in the world (Great Falls Montana) I hear nothing but bad thing about our cars! Seriously what is the deal?

[CajunMike]

Piss poor after sales service back in the day combined with poor quality parts not to mention the poor rust resistance = bad reputation. Undeserved IMO as fiats in my experience are much more reliable than just about any other British car or other Italian car of the era. True story when my parents bought my fiat for me in high school we made our first trip to a foreign auto parts store. 1984. The parts guy asked us what kind of car and we told him a fiat spider. He said to us "I'll be seeing you often". We eventually got to know all the staff on a first name basis. I do jest though..it was overall a fairly reliable car and was always on the road when my friends with tr6s and Mgs were always working on theirs.

[RRoller123]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY4C68-WJ9Y

After watching this history documentary of the Agnelli family all the way through, it is amazing under the circumstances of the 70's that they could build anything well. Great video, well produced and worth watching all the way through, but if you want to jump ahead to about the 22 minutes mark and see the effect of the Communists in the unions, Selling a large chunk of the company to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, Red Brigades Terrorists attacking and killing multiple FIAT Managers (24+), Government interference, etc around ~1979, it is quite revealing.

Pete

[aj81spider]

And it's not helped by the fact that the current Fiats sold in America are at the bottom of every quality rating published.

[narfire]

I love this car, but talking to people out in the world (Great Falls Montana) I hear nothing but bad thing about our cars! Seriously what is the deal?

It's not a pick-up....

Love Montana (spent a summer in Rollin's on Flathead Lake once) Back in the day in areas that had winters with plenty of salt on the road, the cars rusted out in no time with corrosion and electrical issues, usually bad grounds.
In 75 I bought a 70 spider as my first car and the car's rocker panels were pretty much rusted out, top trashed and plenty of rust bubbles showing on the fenders. In Vancouver there was no shortage of salt on the roads in the winter.

[joelittel]

I like to remind people that no cars in the 70's were very reliable. When they start to argue I remind them of how many tow truck companies there used to be.

[Frog2Spider]

The Fiats, back in the late '60ties, '70ties & early 80ties got a really bad rap, much of which was not really entirely Fiats fault.

First, you had the European auto invasion, which set the stage for a lot of negative press. This was most likely inspired, at least to some extent, by the the Big 3 auto manufactures, here in the US.

Next, mechanics were simply not trained, or had little training, of 'import' cars of the day.

Finally body rust was the big problem. I've read that this problem was generated because the cars were shipped unwrapped to North America on 'open' ships. Yes, this could be viewed as a downfall of Fiat thinking, because when they were unloaded, the cars were all white with sea salt.

So it became a Dealer responsibility.

While the dealers had the lot boys wash the cars, little attention was paid to washing the undersides of the cars. The result was that even cars, bought bye buyers who had their Dealers undercoat the car, ended up with a rust problem. This was due to the fact (I'm told) that the undersides of the cars where not cleaned first to remove the salt. This actually speeded up the corrosion issues faster, than on those cars that were not undercoated at all.

[aevansgatech]

And it's not helped by the fact that the current Fiats sold in America are at the bottom of every quality rating published.

True, FIAT is currently ranked at the very bottom of nearly every industry-sponsored quality metric. Yet, they are ranked #1 in JD Power from actual owners.

How the same car can be ranked first by owners and last by the industry just screams of corruption to me.

[aj81spider]

Where did you see that they were #1 at JD Powers? I was surprised by that and went to the JD Powers web site. Fiat as a brand is the fourth lowest rated brand http://www.jdpower.com/ratings/study/In ... ake/565ENG for 2015.

[aevansgatech]

http://www.autotalk.com/fiat-500-snags- ... udy-32321/

[aj81spider]

Not trying to be obnoxious about this, but I was curious because the article goes against every other piece of data I've seen. It turns out this was a lesson in being careful about data presentation.

I went to the JD Power web site again with a new search. The article is right, the Fiat is first in its class (class = city cars):

http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2 ... -study-vds

However, if you look further, the class consists of three cars: the 500, the Smart Fortwo, and the Chevy Spark.

If you look at overall brand reliability (which for Fiat is equivalent to 500 reliability), Fiat is 6th from the bottom with reliability way below the industry average (and Smart is 3rd from the bottom).

The Fiat is only first in its class because the class consists of three cars and the other two are probably the two crappiest cars ever built.

[spidernut]

Most people who say "Fix it again Tony" have never owned one. I usually respond with an excited look on my face and ask "Oh, what year Spider did you own?" It is almost always met with "well, I didn't own one, but my aunt's third cousin's dog's veterinarian's secretary's aunt Ruth had one and boy was it a piece of junk." I reply "Huh, mine has been fantastic".

My 1979 Spider has been behind a tow truck twice since 2000 when I purchased it. The first time was my fault for not replacing a maintenance item that was way beyond its lifespan, the second time was due to a faulty 35ish year old check valve that I hadn't replaced. These are both maintenance items.

Compare that to my father-in-law's 1979 Mercury that he bought new -
1. In the shop the first day for complete electrical system failure.
2. In the shop about 8 times for random stalling
3. In the shop within the first few months for transmission failure
4. In the shop in the first year for seat mechanism failure
5. In the shop about 10 times for backfiring through the carburetor

He sold it.

To be fair, I'll compare this to the repairs I had over the same period of time with my new 1981 Fiat Spider
1. Air flow meter replaced because my wife pumped the gas before starting and it backfired damaging the air flow meter (under warranty)
2. Fuel gauge sending unit went out at about 12,000 miles ($25 part at the time)
3. Occasionally the starter wouldn't turn the motor over (4 years old). A typical Fiat problem

They do require more maintenance than the average car. They are Italian cars and they are heavy on needing regular maintenance thanks to a really poor electrical system. If kept cleaned up (the grounds), it can give you many years of reliable service. As stated earlier, they are way more reliable than most of the other European sports cars of the era.

[DUCeditor]

One cannot compare the way cars are today to the way all cars were back when out Spiders were built.

My wife and I drive Nissans as our daily drivers. My 2012 Altima has never been in the shop except for an oil change. My wife Rogue is newer but so far similar.

My dad was a traveling sales rep and during his career through the fifties and sixties he found the average safe life span of a car to be fifty thousand miles. After that breakdowns and repairs occurred to often for his level of dependency.

My `77 Spider is still running strong with 120,000+ on her. She was towed I think three times. Once when the electric fuel pump failed with 85,000+ on the car, once when she started running poorly due to a bad ignition condenser, and then again last year when the ignition switch failed.

But she does require looking after. She is not and never was designed to be an add fuel, change the oil, and forget about her machine.

The front end has been rebuilt several times. And alignment is never stable enough to get the type of mileage from a set of tires newer cars get. "Tune ups" every driving season or two. And yes, electrical hassles such as the rear light suddenly not working.

But still. She is a 39 year old car! I have no complaints.

-don

[81SPIDERMATT]

i have done some work ..... I maintain it when needed ..... and drive it like its stolen ... would not hesitate to take it anywhere no matter how far .... easy to work on ... and with this site any thing is right at your screen for the asking .... how is that not better than most cars on the road ??? ....

[Yadkin]

I grew up in the 70's and all cars built between '73- '79 or so were crap. Back then I had a '72 Ford LTD (A Galaxie with some options) that my dad drove 90k miles then gave to me. It burned oil and was rusted from the top of the wheels down. I pulled the heads, had them rebuilt, did the basic crappy body work and drove it. I eventually had to have the rusted frame lifted back and new steel welded in by a professional. After my early head repair it consistently gave me 18 mpg, never leaked or burned oil, and passed smog tests with flying colors. I sold it after 9 years, reaching 185k on the odometer. One of it's final journeys under my ownership, my wife spun it on an icy interstate, was hit by two late model Japanese cars that had to be towed from the scene, and she drove home. I still regret the fact that I didn't pull the 351W motor out and store it for a future project.

Consumer reports consistently rated my Ford as crappy, and anything with a Japanese nameplate as steller. Several friends who owned Japanese cars of that era never had the dependability that I had. Most of the interiors fell apart.

I remember exactly where I was as a kid, probably 12 or 13 years old, 1971 or 72, walking through a parking lot and stopping to admire a brand new Fiat Spider. And I was a huge Mustang fan. The "Fix it again Tony" label was common back then.

Two years ago when I bought my 74 Spider I owned a small repair shop and I was selling a customer's 69 Mustang 289-2V convertible on commision. Sitting side by side in the shop I was able to make a close comparison. The Fiat beat the Mustang in fit and finish, quality of materials, brakes, etc. Of course the Fiat was a much more expensive car in those days.