Has anybody mentioned depreciation yet??

I wouldn't go near a new £25k Fiat with somebody else's barge pole, unless planning on doing a Barnacle and keeping it indefinitely.

Lots of special edition Subarus, or things like the Lotus Elise, that were were similar to buy ten years ago, which are predictably worth a damn sight more now.

As a private buyer would definitely put me off, and I'd imagine company reps wouldn't go near one because of the badge.

Though as has been discussed ad nauseam previously, anyone who buys pretty much any car expecting it to appreciate sufficiently to make a profit as a classic is fooling themselves.

Even if I sold mine for what I paid for it, I'd still be subject to fifteen year's depreciation, maintenance, and running costs... and add to that the fact that collectors, as a rule, don't buy cars to drive. How many times do you see in (e.g.) Classic and Sportscar adverts things along the lines of 'twenty thousand pounds spent in ground-up restoration' for a car being offered - not sold, mind, just offered - for twenty-five or thirty? And you look closely and see that the thirty-year-old Ferrari has under five thousand miles on it... what's the point of that?

We have a car which *to us* is rare and desirable. To others, not so much. So what? Do I need to defend my choice, my taste? No. Not even as 'well, it's cheaper to buy and maintain than to get a new rep-mobile' - because it's *not* a rep-mobile, nor a silly-money penis extension. It is what it is; enjoy it for that and don't worry about the cost.

You're absolutely right Neil...
I'll continue to enjoy mine (when the bloody thing starts) and won't give a damn about value within reason..to me it's worth a lot..but to most it's just another aged coupe...and a Fiat as well!

Woops! Lol

I didn't mean it in terms of a car being a classic, or an appreciating asset, or anything like that. As you say, you'd have to be psychic.

However, it's an inescapable fact that big Fiats, or more pricey Peugeots, for example, depreciate a lot more than other marques selling in the same £20-£30k price range.

Had you bought a BMW, for instance, my money would be on it holding a lot more of its value than a similarly priced Fiat after three years. Perhaps the Coupe even escaped this - I don't know what supply or demand was like as I wasn't in the market for a new car at the time.

Granted, it won't be a consideration for the true car fanatic - you want whatever car you want just because, and to hell with the costs, but it's something that lots of buyers do consider - especially if buying a new car on finance or if there's a balloon payment at the end of it.

I wasn't attacking the Coupe at all - and no, you don't need to defend your choice or indeed your taste, if I could have kept mine as a practical car I would have. I was just pointing out an issue that does come into play when private buyers are choosing a brand new car.

Sorry if I offended.

No offence, Phil. The conditions that obtained when the car was new are different from those now. When it was new, there was deliberately more demand than supply; these days it's a cheap money pit/nearly-classic. It didn't sell badly; it sold small numbers because that's all they built but it sold so well each was built to order. When I ordered mine - a couple of days after they were first available - it took three or four months to be delivered.

For what it's worth, I came to the coupe as a first new Fiat after ten years of nothing but Nissan/Datsun; I never even considered the BMW/Mercedes/Jag market. Didn't appeal either in image or looks.

you pays you money and you takes you choice!

I dont remember to be honest the launch or press related things to do with the coupe. Just at some point I saw one and wanted one. Did not know anything about power etc just the design. I wanted one. Bought a few months old Porto 20vt P reg.
What I do remember was the whole Audi TT thing. And how many left hand drives I saw around London as people could not wait for the UK ones, for above the cost. Did this happen with the Coupe? when launched in any guise? Also,somewhere in the ether I remember something about that the TT killed off the Coupes sales.Could be wrong, cloudy memory.

Still when you can mod a TT like this one which appeared one morning on my street well... love to know the story, or maybe not! [IMG]http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab66/1flamingeye/tt/04.jpg[/IMG)
[IMG]http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab66/1flamingeye/tt/03.jpg[/IMG)
[IMG]http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab66/1flamingeye/tt/02.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i850.photobucket.com/albums/ab66/1flamingeye/tt/01.jpg[/IMG]

Well, spelling is evidently not one of the "modifier's" talents.

ive got about 20 magazines with fiat coupe road tests one of favourites is the 20th nov 1996 autocar review
porto 20vt on the cover with a escort cossie in the background with the title "say hello to the new cossie" and its quicker than a cossie too it would have got 5star rating but due to brakes and chassis got 4*,in other mags the coupe always come on top

ahaa nice job!!

All i know is i adore these coupes and couldnt care less if they were a big seller, in fact im incredibly pleased as you hardly ever see another one on the road unlike the audi TT common as muck springs to mind. As joe always says: Long live the fiat coupe

The fantastic pictures in this article were the final straw...I HAD to have one.
And so began 13 years of ownership.
Every now and then I take another look at the article and I still feel the same.

Success isn't always measured in numbers.