so how?

[jimincalif]

stupid freaking piece of junk. I love it.

Great post!

[mdrburchette]

I believe you summed it up perfectly, Danno.

[spiderrey]

Good one.

[Spudder]

The year was 1984 and my father was stationed at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Back then the drinking age was 18 and you could get your drivers license at 14. I was fifteen and had a hand me down 77 robin egg blue Chevy Luv which supported my lawn mowing business and enabled me to save up for a car of my own. My parents agreed to go halves and the quest was on. After church on Sundays we would go by the base "lemon lot" to see what we could find. One particular Sunday I noticed a convertible on the lot....hmm. That looks pretty cool, what the heck is it? It was a 1979 British racing green Fiat Spider. Tan top, tan interior. It only had 24k miles on it and the young enlisted kid was being transferred overseas. My father and I test drove the car, and that's all it took! We agreed upon a price of $3600 dollars and the car was mine, well, ours. Somehow I managed to keep the car in one piece thru high school with the exception of a "steering box"replacement and a broken clutch cable. My freshman year of college my parents would not allow me to take the Fiat, so it sat in their garage, or so I thought....One evening my father calls me out of the blue, and I can tell something is up. It was a nice sunny day, (now in the suburbs of Seattle) and he decided to take the Fiat out for a spin to make sure everything was working properly....He was out on a particularly fun twisty road and managed to hit something in the road which smacked into the oil pan, breaking the oil pump. Wow. What do you do, it's your dad? At the time Dave's in Lynwood was the last Fiat dealer in the northwest and that's where it went. Fortunately he had stopped the car in time and there was not any significant damage. It was at this time I began to realize what a gem I had. My Fiat only had 36k miles and was in fantastic shape. There were many times that I would find notes under the wiper with an offer to buy it. It was then that I purchased an 84 Subaru 4x4 wagon to allow the Fiat to "hibernate" its winters under a cozy cover in my parents garage. Fast forward to 1995 and another phone call from dad. Nice weather had hit the pacific northwest and he decided "help me out" and get the car ready for spring. Of course this also required a test drive. During his test drive my father was inching out of a blind intersection where a massive Dodge pickup truck destroyed the front end of my Fiat. I did manage to take a few mementos from her and they are proudly displayed with pictures on the garage wall. Five states and fifteen years later my better half has given me the green light to find another. I am excited that she will someday soon have the opportunity to experience the north cascades highway in a Fiat. Thank you for the inquiry. It was a pleasure to read the other posts and to share mine. Take care!

[cohiba]

The year was 1972, two years after my wife and I were married. While looking to buy our first new car my wife came across this add for Fiats being sold at the local dealership. Went to look at the 850 Spider because of the price ($1,800.00) or close to that. Well wouldn't you know what they had sitting on the showroom floor, a Fiat 124 Sport Spider with all the trimmings, even an AM FM radio. Price tag.....after taxes $3200.00 out the door. That set us back a little more that we wanted to spend, but how could you pass that up? Three weeks later we drove her from Las Vegas to Miami Florida. All I can say is WOW. Now the year is 2010 and I still have the Fiat and the wife. How lucky can one guy be.

[NCArachnid]

Fifteen years ago, I couldn't have told you what a Fiat was, let alone the different models or years. I grew up working on cars with my dad; mainly 1960's GM. But in school I became interested in more unusual cars; MB SL, BMW 3.0, TR-6, P1800 (all way beyond my financial abilities). A buddy of mine had a beautiful red Alfa spider and got all girls, so I thought there might be something to these Italian cars. To add to my favorable impression of Italian cars, I stumbled across an old Road & Track article that stated that the early '70s Fiat Spider was more advanced and better performing than the 280 SL.

Several years later, I married and moved to So Cal for more schooling. We needed another car as our second vehicle was a bicycle I found in a dumpster. I kept searching the papers for a unique, cool car that could take advantage of the great weather (convertible baby!). About that time a classmate, on a whim, picked up a red 1980 spider. I helped him fix a few things on it but once he let me drive it, I knew I had to get one. I searched for about a month before I found my '72 spider; not running, stored indoors for 5 years, obviously well cared for. I gambled $800 and towed it home. After the usual check of all systems and a few minor repairs it ran like a champ and passed the California smog test (still required on a '72 back then).

I enjoyed it daily for 2 1/2 years and then we relocated to Fort Worth. The car was then replaced as a daily driver and preceded to fall apart. It failed Texas state inspection because the master cylinder was going out so I broke down and rebuilt the entire front-end, including calipers and master cylinder. We then relocated to the Carolinas and the car just sat for years as life happened. Now, 3 children later and more established, I'm at a point to continue the tradition of the father-son garage time as we have started to bring the spider back from the brink. I am committed to turning this car into a reliable, respectable, fun car again. Even though I know I will spend a lot more money and time on it than it will ever be worth, this car is worthy.
As for me not knowing what a Fiat was...until just recently my son thought all convertibles were Fiats!

[billstyer]

Some great stories here! I've really enjoyed reading them, and decided to add mine.

Flash back to the early 70's........ My Dad had what seemed to be a lifetime subscription to Popular Mechanics magazine. I read them too - interested, bored, whatever. There was an article about import sports cars in one. I can't remember any other car mentioned in the article, aside from the Fiat. Thinking back, the Fiat they described might even have been the 124 Sport Coupe, I'm not sure, but I am sure I was hooked. I had never seen one, let alone the Spider, but I was drawn to the technical sophistication of the Fiat. (I come from a long line of engineers) A year or so later, still not old enough to drive, I got a job at the local church as a janitor,after school, earning $21.18 per week, after taxes. The choir director drove up one afternoon in his new car - brand new 1974 Fiat 124 Spider, chocolate brown, with tan interior. Love at first sight! I can't guess how many hours I spent mooning over that car. I was never going to afford one on my pay scale, and I was lucky to have found a job at all. I wound up with a Plymouth Fury - pushbutton automatic and all, which I sold when I joined the Marines.

A few years later, fresh out of the service, with a new job, I got the itch that you all know about, or you wouldn't be reading this. I bought a '69 Spider that had two wheels in the junkyard, and the other two on wet pavement. When I test drove it, there was an awful thumping noise coming from under the passenger seat whenever we hit a bump. I didn't even bother to question it. It was a Fiat that I could afford! Got it home safely, and discovered that the center u-joint in the two piece driveshaft was hanging by one bolt - the other one had fallen out, along with a significant fraction of the floorboard. No problem - just stick a long bolt up through the passenger seat mount. Ah, the bliss! Long rides with the top down, punctuated by stops to let the engine cool off. Changing the oil in the radiator about once a month. Nights under the stars following the feeble yellow pools of light cast by the headlights. Flicking my Bic to check the temperature occasionally, since the only instrument illumination came from the dim red glow of the battery light. Leaving everyone behind in the long sweeping curves while all four tires moaned their protest. The sound of that little engine that could straining for the redline. Waking one morning to find a tree branch in the passenger seat. Finding a new replacement top at a local gas station for $20. The new paint job to cover all the Bondo on the wheel arches and rockers. (Does Earl Scheib still paint cars for $49?) The realization that this thing is going to fold in half the next time it hits a good pothole. Watching a used car dealer bid more than I had in it at the auto auction.

I went on to college, started flying (another childhood dream) eventually bought a plane, got married, started having children, sold the plane, and, eventually became a single parent about five years ago. I couldn't afford to buy another plane, but, with gas prices going up, and my Expedition burning the stuff at an alarming rate, I really needed a more fuel efficient vehicle. (Does this sound like rationalization?) After a a search of several months, and looking at several cars, I finally found the rust-free '81 Spider that I have been driving ever since. Good thing too - It got the attention of a lovely woman, and after she decided that the guy driving that really cool car wasn't too bad either, they lived happily ever after.

I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

[JohnnyRaggs]

My Dad used to own a '69 Alfa Spider, he hated it as it always broke down. In '71 his brother bought a orange fiat spider, showed my dad and he fell in love. Drove the alfa to the fiat dealership and somehow was able to snake the salesman to trade the alfa for a new spider straight up. He drove home a brand new red Fiat spider and loved that car until I was born. Traded it in on a '79 citation (poor poor man). My uncle kept his and whenever I saw it I cursed my dad for selling his. After his divorce, my uncle moved to cuba to work for a Canadian oil company, he left the fiat to his youngest son (my cousin). Dave, with no mechanical knoweledge, never touched the car and let it sit and collect dust. He moved it to my grandma's condo and basically forgot about it. When my grandma died, and we sold the condo, he waited till the last day to get the Fiat, I was just waiting to call a tow truck to get it to my place, but away it went for more alone time. Last year I recived a phone call from Dave, telling me that he just bought a new subaru and didn't have space for the Fiat and if I wanted it. BOY DID I. I was there the next day towing it away and now its mine......and my dad is so jealous.