More Gripes with Hire Cars

[DrStrangelove]

Fiats are rubbish, the only thing they do well is rust.

They certainly rust well, though I loved my ancient Croma Super IE, and the Seicento some years later which was the first car I've ever found it necessary to replace both the sump and the petrol tank due to rust.

Remarkable.

[joebog1]

Having owned many Fiats, they are amoungst my favorite cars. Ive never had ANY rust at all. I did have lots of lovely twin cam engines that loved eating V8's for speed and acceleration. They didnt ueat much fuel back in the day, even with twin twin throat side draught webers attached. Four lovely Brembo disk brakes, independant suspension, radial tyres from new, not rags, four headlights, intelligent wiring where you switch the ground NOT 12 volts, rack and pinion steering, and of course five on the floor. Bucket seats, seat belts as standard, velour apolstery, carpets on the floor, full set of instruments.
They also make very fast race cars. Do I need go on ?. Mind you I have never owned or driven a toplino AKA mouse car. They also make very fast race cars. Do I need go on ?. Mind you I have never owned or driven a toplino AKA mouse car.

If I take a General motors offereing at the same time as I owned Fiats ( and later Alfa Romeo's ) its 4 off 6" drum brakes, a bench seat, vinyly apolstery, rubber floor mats, three on the tree. feeble headlights, radiators about half the size they should have been, four bearing six cylinder engines and to top it off, A set of idiot lights on the dash that when they came on meant: If you look in the rear view mirror, that rubbish laying on the road behind you is a set of bearings, YOURS.

Still, If I could afford it, I would still buy Italian!!.

Joe

[Kalee20]

Having owned many Fiats, they are amoungst my favorite cars...
They also make very fast race cars. Do I need go on ?

I think this is the Fiat to aim for, above all others... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eToHTf-QUBA

[joebog1]

Yep Kalee, pretty amazing isnt it, must reach incredible high revs, like 750  . I do like "the fire breathing dragon " exhaust ports.
I am a regular viewer of Goodwood racing, one of the better channels on uchoob.

Joe

[DrStrangelove]

Having owned many Fiats, they are amoungst my favorite cars. Ive never had ANY rust at all. 

Joe

I think that may be down to where you live. :D 

Over here with all the salt on the road in the winter you can watch them slowly dissolve.

Though the Tempra I had was galvanised which did improve things a bit.

[boater sam]

Having owned many Fiats, they are amoungst my favorite cars. Ive never had ANY rust at all. 

Joe

I think that may be down to where you live. :D 

Over here with all the salt on the road in the winter you can watch them slowly dissolve.

Though the Tempra I had was galvanised which did improve things a bit.

In the UK you can hear the tin worms eating a Fiat.  Let us not forget that Lancia is also Fiat and look at some of the terrible rust problems they had.

[ppppenguin]

30 years ago Fiats and Lancias would rust away as you looked at them (many other makes weren't much better) but is that still true now?

[boater sam]

30 years ago Fiats and Lancias would rust away as you looked at them (many other makes weren't much better) but is that still true now?

No modern car will rust as bad or as quickly as many used to. Its all due to design and paint prep. Having said that I don't think we keep cars as long as we did.

[Kalee20]

Lancias were certainly rust-buckets, but I don't think any were as bad as the Renault Dauphine (which is a shame, there's almost nothing that looks as cute).

[joebog1]

You could be correct about salt in winter. I moved out of the mountains many years ago ( I HATE being cold ) but I still have two brothers that do live there.
No salt on the roads, and I am unaware of main roads ever having used it. How about shagwah ( Jaguar ) for rust??.
You can see the drivers legs moving through the whole missing bottom of the doors. Or for plain defective an early model E Type with a one pint radiator.
They boiled five minutes after starting them. Change the spark plugs on a V12 jag, you either cut great big holes in the firewall, or remove the engine.
I was quite a car nut when I was younger, and my memory hasnt failed me yet if I remember correctly :-).
Cars are much better today, regardless of brand, although zero backup or parts is the biggest gripe here for some of the more exotic imports.
When I win the lotto I will buy a new one. Even a cheap Ford here will set you back over $100,000 for a fully optioned one.
Iveco will be the new one. THEN lets see who gets the parking dents.

Joe