I remember the name . . .

[i_rebel]

One of my aunts owned a Fiat . . .

That was YEARS ago . . . I don't believe they are marketed in the US anymore, true?

Is there anything special about Fiat?

[dmer]

I would assume by your post you are trying to start a flame war! What's special about Fiat........why ...almost 100 years of history is all. Grand prix legacy, Mille Miglia, Campione del Mondo, why you young whippersnappers, gasp, sputter, wheeze...........Ok Ok I'm recovering now.
No really, there's a lot of history there. Any car and I mean any car produced by Fiat was intended to be driven as if each stop light signaled the start of a grand prix! Ok it might have only had 60HP but it was supposed to be driven flat out. Until it broke. Which was fairly regularly but hey, you want reliability, buy a Toyota!

[Jay!]

What was the little one? The 600R, or something? Those look awesome! I only know about them from Gran Turismo. Us poor Americans...

[dmer]

The username is just a contraction. No not like stomach cramps or any thing.
Here's a pic of the ride, it's a 1966 1500 Cabriolet.

[Jay!]

LOL, sorry. That's a link to a thread that asks you to explin your user name. It's part of my sig, so it shows up after each of my posts. You can set up your own by looking in the "profile" link at the top right of the page.

They used to rally a bunch of old Fiats, right?

[dmer]

The rally scene is still huge (in Europe of course) plus the DTM stock car series.
In the good old US of A the 124 series spiders have a loyal following. With twin cams, 5spd, four wheel disc brakes etc in the sixties, they were state of the art. My cabrio has discs and a 5spd. It's a pushrod motor, but has a neat crossflow head and weber carb. Revs lots better than comparable MG etc.

[Jimster]

FIAT have been providing Itallians (and the whole of Europe) with cheap, decent cars that drive nicely for 102 years. The early FIATs were always reliable, such as the 128/127, 124, Bambina, 1500, 130 and Spider. These cars were also built all over the worls, however by the 1980's FIAT had fallen from grace and needed a revolution: Enter- Uno. The FIAT Uno was stylish (In those days) and had a zippy FIRE engines, which made them an instant hit, this as followed up by the Tipo, Brava/Bravo, Punto, Marea, Coupe, Multipla and Stilo.

I gotta tell you FIATs these days aren't reliable, the Marea and Ducato were reasonably trouble free and the Stilo shows great improvement, but all the rest are dogs, the Uno was probably the worst as it rusted easily and the electrics were dodgy, although the engines were very Robust. The FIAT Regatta and Strada are two reasons for the downfall of FIAT in the70's, the Croma that followed never helped either.

However the FIAT brand will never be beaten on sheer value for money