Hi,

I have just recently joined and wish to know whether my 16V is one of the first cars to arrive in the UK. I was told at the Brooklands meeting by a Club member that the chassis numbers started at 25000 for UK Right Hand Drive production, however, my chassis number is 24960!!!! Any ideas? Does the Club keep a list of Chassis Numbers and Registrations? Thanks.

Flavio.

Hello Iggy,

As mentioned at Brooklands unfortunatly we dont keep records of this however now you have mentioned it I will fire a few emails to Fiat and see if we can get this data.

Cheers!

Mario

Ciao Mario,

Many thanks for your prompt answer and good luck with Fiat. Let's hope they will kindly supply you with all the data they have as this will be very useful for the Club.

Thanks again!

Saluti.

Flavio.

Just a note Flavio, there were a number of pre-production cars registered on "M" plates as demonstrators for the dealerships and press.

Yours may be one of those.

On that topic, I meant a guy about 4/5 years ago who had a 16v coupe on an L plate (non private).

Would that have still been a 95' car?

Ross

L plate was for Aug 93 - Aug 94, so would probably have been a LHD import from first year of being on sale in Europe (not sold officially in UK until 1995 IIRC)

Hi Mario,

Interesting observation. I'm not sure of the history of ownership on my 16V but the car was first registered on 01.08.1995 and, hence, is on an "N" registration.

Ciao.

Flavio.

It was just after I got my coupe and didn't have the peace of mind to ask any questions.

That an my mate owning a 1.8 in this country. Although thinking back, it may have been LHD the 1.8....

Ross

Flavio,

Yours just predates mine - I've had it since 24/10/95 - with serial number 25016 and build number 62.

As far as I know there weren't any M-reg cars that weren't dealer cars; there was a very long delay between ordering and delivery (four months and two rude letters for me). Fiat were accepting orders - and had demonstrators of both the 16NA and 16VT - in June or July of 95, but they weren't offering any deliveries until after the registration change. That someone got one registered on the day the N-reg went live suggests a certain amount of influence at the dealers!

Neil

Hi Neil,

Wow! You must be the longest owner of a Coupe'in the UK and a rarity in that yours is a one owner car. Fantastic! How did you find out about the build number?

Flavio.

If you lift the carpet in the boot on the right hand side, there's a small strip of metal tacked onto the boot floor with the build number on it.

Neil - I collected my 16v today and checked the chassis number - it's just three earlier than yours - 25013, but it's on an 'M' plate with a registration date of late June 1995

Makes me wonder how the two cars can be so close in chassis number, but mine was registered several weeks before yours.

I would certainly be interested to find out if mine was a dealer car. There's nothing particularly special about it - it has cloth, no aircon and a sunroof.

So did mine when I got it! I regret in some ways changing the seats for leather; the cloth seats were more comfortable. Odd that the serial number is so different but mine was an early build, though a later delivery - I have wondered why.

Build number is inside the rear right cubby.

BTW - I lifted the boot carpet when I was checking for rust - didn't see anything tacked to the floor - is it on the boot floor or in the spare wheel well?

I'll check for the build number plate in the morning

BTW - I agree about the cloth seats - they are very comfortable, and of course, there's none of the sliding around you get with the leather - I'll definitely be keeping them, although I have a funny feeling, they aren't original - they look very much like the 20VT cloth seats I had in my first Coupe, and nothing like the seats Lee had in his 16v

It is inside the "cubby hole" on the righthand side of the boot.

The original 16v seats had a striped/rectangular pattern that is vertical with the seat, and the rear seat back will almost certainly have faded to pale green by now. The 20v seats have a diagonal pattern.

Checked - build number is 199 - how does that work? - lower chassis number but higher build number and earlier registration

I can also confirm that 20v seats are fitted

Looks like leather may be the only option to get back to standard then? - I guess good 16v seats are like the proverbial hen's teeth?

Only Fiat kinows, mine is 25404 with a build number of 239, built on 2nd June according to eper and registered at the end of August.

As for the seats, I preferred the cloth for comfort, but the rear seatbacks had faded badly and it was only a matter of time before they shredded. Leather it had to be.

I've never seen unfaded cloth seats. Joe gets cloth seats in and scraps them; no-one wants... might be worth a call when he's back from Spa.

Not much on Eper for mine - entered the chassis number and it merely confirms its a 16v and tells me the "vehicle number" is 24885 - doesn't give me a build date

Any ideas?

Edit - just entered Neil's chassis number and his build date is shown merely as "06", but mine is "05", suggesting May 1995 (I guess it must be if it was registered in late June)

My old 16vt was an M reg from May 95 and I passed it on to a forum member in the N/E. I'll try and contact him out of interest to ferret out the relevant numbers. It was a standard motor, no sunroof or a/c, cloth seats.

Well... I had a close look with a good light this morning. After having been told by CarlT years ago that the build was 62, I discovered a faint but definite '1' in the continental style. I now think the build number to be 000162.

Which is still before Nigel's 199 for his allegedly earlier build - very confusing.

Where about's is this build number? I had a look on the rear right, but couldn't see anything, bearing in mind I don't have a cubby hole as there is no trim in the boot

Draw a line back from the inside of the rear arch. It's inside that line, where the cubby should be. A metal strip about three inches by a half, or so.

Had a look earlier today for the build number on my vehicle which is 265 and my chassis number is 24960 so am confused as all the rest of you how earlier build numbers can have later chassis numbers?

Maybe Pininfarina can't count?

Nigel pointed out why I couldn't see the build number, it was because my external fuel swirl pot is sitting over the top of it