They have shed that reputation somewhat…in Europe. There’s something about making a car US-compliant that they can’t seem to master. To their credit, even though JD Power puts FIAT on the bottom of the rankings, they still give them 4 stars out of 5 for reliability, and the ranking is mainly due to the horrific 500L…
Your sister’s car was probably a 128. FIAT decided that the 128 was the car they were going to use to break into the US market, shipped huge numbers over here, and sold them for next to nothing. The story goes that they forgot to educate their service network on some essential maintenance issue (I vaguely think it was mandatory timing belt replacement) and they all died around the same time.
My parents’ first car was a Fiat 124. Then they launched into a unbroken run of tedious Toyotas for the next 30+ years (until I palmed my Civic Type S off onto them when I left the country).
More reliable anyway. It also has much better lines, the 500L is kind of off.[quote=“Donald_Petersen, post:106, topic:81394”]
she says it was a '62 1200 cabriolet
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That’s a pretty cool car, though one it replaced (the 1200 Spyder) was awesome. (For example, it had seats that swiveled around for easy in/out.)
I drive my wife’s Outback with three kids in car seats in the backseat and it’s perfect.
I mean, cost-no-option I’d have a Volvo wagon or MB E63 or whatever, but for a family car that’s not a minivan? Hard to beat the Outback.
Sure, the CVT is mushy feeling and the ESC can’t be turned off and whatever- but for hauling a ton of stuff in shitty weather with kids in the car? It’s a beast. Love it.
I don’t know where the coils are but a lot of modern cars have them on top of the plugs in the well between camshafts, so it sounds like a good idea. It’s like boats; if you need to draw the prop plan to check and if necessary replace the shaft bearing and rudder bearings at the same time, because dry docking is the most expensive job.
Oh, agreed–I liked driving it as I’m a big person and the car fit me better than my ‘little’ Impreza, but that Impreza is my daily, as is an even smaller KLR650, so the width and length of the Outback took some recalibrating.
Of course, I learned to drive in old land yachts (late 70’s Cadillac, late 70’s Lincoln), so I can appreciate the creature comforts of larger vehicles, but I’m cheap and the Impreza does pretty much everything I need it to do.
