Something I've always wondered is, what is the fate of Coops where only the looks have been heavily modified?

Because that kind of modding (even if it looks totally crap to others) usually has the owner being quite passionately involved, as they spend time, effort and money customising the car's appearance to their tastes.

So after all the initial ruining of the car's looks has taken place, do all these Ferrari wannabe/widebody kit/''that looks nothing like a Fiat Coupe at all'' ones actually get looked after by the owners and end up lasting a very very very long time?

Probably very unlikely as taste in cars changes when you get older.
I wanted to mod my Coupe 8 years ago...now I see that it is the most beautiful when it's "almost" original (I think aftermarket LE kit and m3 spoiler doesn't ruin the car).
And it will be more valuable if I sell it in the future.

Riced Italian cars newer get loved...they get riced, loved for about 2 years and sold in pretty much scrap money....

But im completly wrong when it comes to this guy:
Youtube

His name is Pietro Sardu and I think he owns the most modded Coupe of all time / you can also find him on facebook

Why does it sound like a diesel / top end has failed???

Would be great to hear from our Italian friends about the values in their country where the coop was born

Values seem definitely to be increasing, a cat C plus with circa. 70K miles, and needing lots of work just sold for £2400.00 on eBay. This assuming the buyer turns up and stumps up the cash of course.

Regardless, it's made a good price for the condition it was in. And, personally, I think for what you get, a classic italian car, it's not too bad a price to pay!

Looks like the plus on eBay actually went for £2,400. Definitely an interesting era for coupe owners.

If a rough plus and being a Cat C on the register is worth that and this is what people will pay, then everybodys Coupe is going up in value, means a sorted LE, Plus or Standard Turbo will double in value in a few years time despite what condition it is in.

In 5 years time, i do not think there will many bargain coupes around, as most will be in the hands of people who actually care of keeping the cars on the road and looking after them, other than stripping, breaking or scrapping them. Most eBay sellers are short term owners of less than 12 months, who just want to say i owned one, but not to do the maintenance or upkeep of them and cherish them, hence they get passed on very cheap, which has a knock on effect with Coupes of average order and above, take that LHD one on eBay now, what a dog that is for the money.

Values are finally going the right way. I bought my 10th Coupe only yesterday and no not that one but another LE. I've accumulated 4 x LE's 4 x Plus, one being a 16vt Plus, 20vt and my original 16v Turbo.

Going back to the original discussion, an LE will always top the chart, colour won't come in to it. I personally think the 16v turbo will one day turn in rarity and popularity so people hang on to them..

My poor old 20vt doesn't get a look in with my line up.

Sell it to me then....

I think she looks fantastic in Energy Green!

I bought my '98 LE for €1950,- (that is £1500) She is in a need of quite a bit TLC, but when she is done, I bet I won't lose any money when I should sell her. (Not that I would sell her ^^). I think for myself that is the bargain of the century!!

Personally I find my modified 20VT very desirable.

It is in the right colour, has a bodykit that modernises the car, the best OEM wheels and runs 350bph all day long. Long live the Coupe!

I tend to agree although I recognise purists probably won't - it's not like we're altering antiques or defiling rare transcripts, we're updating our cars quite tastefully and there's a strong, increasing market for those types of car too imo.

I agree with you both. For tasteful and thoughtful modified cars there will always be a market.

(a) It is impossible to have an original car anyway - things wear out and get broken
(b) Modifications to make the car smoother or more powerful in most cases just improve on the original and improve the drive
(c) People want to buy these cars for the power, the power is of interest and therefore influences the buying decision
(d) I believe (I believe) that so long as the modifications to the cars body are in-line with the modifications Fiat themselves developed, there is no harm.

With my silver 20VT it will have the Zender style body kit, improved turbo and cooling and improvements to the suspension (GT type, not coil overs). Also I have made what I see are smart improvements to the interior - removal of the awful rubber coating on hard plastics.

Ow yes it is!!!!

I don't know too much about them. But generally they are rare to see on the roads these day's.

I can only think of two times during the last year that I've seen one.

One was on someones drive. Just a standard N/A 20v in the burgandy colour.

The other was in Digbeth by Motormech when I've popped down to get a wheel refurbished. So I was likely to see a coupe there due to a specialist being there.


Desirable? Hm difficult. I';d say prices are heading north slowly. Prices tend to be all over the place as I am looking into buying one.

However they are old car's now. Yes they tend to be quite quick. Some of the more knackered ones have clearly died. But they tend to be tough old units.
Fortunately I think because of the insurance group it tends to ward of most that would neglect them.

I'm 30 and owned a few Alfas and fiats mostly. They will become ma classics. Coupes always tend to. Just so happens Fiat managed to make a surprisingly good one. Well pinna did anyway.

Its still quite quirky cars. But the 5 pot is quite an engine in the fiat / alfa / lancia stable. Always has been. Like Alfa's Busso V6. Something about the engines in these car's that tends to be a cut above.

Even if the rest of the car is some what flawed. Car's like that do become iconic.

Definitely - mods which are an improvement over an inadequate or faulty design (or because parts are no longer made) will be accepted even by purists.

There are plenty of classic cars which people won't touch unless the mods have been done. Uprated cooling systems being a common one.

What I'm less sure of are stylistic or major engine/suspension mods. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder....

All fair comment and interesting to hear an outside enthusiast's views

Agree, although I am not sure if any of the OEM Coupe was inadequate or poor, just that they did some bits better with later models.

On power and engine modifications, the beauty of the Coupe power plant (we now know with hindsight thanks to tuning pioneers) is that you can just tweek map, turbo and exhaust to get modern high performance leaving internals stock. All reassuringly reversible.

Sorry I wouldn't say poor. But I've yet to come across any Italian car that didn't have some strange way of doing something. Either Mechanical or otherwise.

I'm sure the coupe has some of these. It wouldn't be Italian if it didn't.

If the speed in which the Green plus sold for yesterday is any indicator, then I would say very desirable.

Advertised in the morning at £4800 and sold within 10 hours!

An average 2L petrol car that is 15 years old will struggle to reach £480, the coupe is making an impressive showing

And not wanting to be disrespectful but looking at historical comments on the colour and sales, it's been one of those colours that hasn't always drawn the most interest.

I for one love it!

Considering a Cat C ink black Plus sold for £2400.00 on eBay last week - that had been off the road since 2009, didn't start, needed Cam belt, paint, dents doing and no doubt much more as it's been let sitting outside for so long....

Naf's energy green example was a bit of a bargain!! No wonder it sold so fast.

Indeed, it was priced right, not too high. Maybe in a few years good condition (but not majorly restored) Coupes will commonly sell for over £5k, even £6-7k, but I don't think that time is now.

I find this thread very interesting. As a newbie I am still trying to get my head around valuing a coupe. What has really thrown me is two Cat C Plus cars sold recently, one for £800, one for £2400. They both appeared to be in similar condition so why the disparity in prices?

I can only assume that the cheaper car was undervalued and sold quickly as it was a classified ad. The £2400 car maybe benefitted from a bidding war, all good for the seller but maybe not representative of the market.

I went to see the £2400 car. The interior was immaculate and it appeared to have very little rust but it needed quite a mechanical jobs doing and also some bodywork. The seller was wondering whether to accept a £1500 bit and said that he wouldn't be surprised if the auction finished for less that that. He did well to let the auction run.

I am currently looking for a car and there are two on my radar. One is a two owner 99 20vt car with 110k miles that needs the belts doing and has cloth seats. The other is an LE with 130k miles and needs an MOT having need laid up for a year but has had the belts replaced recently. I'm very tempted by the LE but an advisory for floorpan corrosion on the last MOT concerns me. I suppose only by getting underneath it will I find out if the corrosion is light surface or perforated metal.

They are both 99 cars but there is nearly £1500 price difference. Is an LE really work so much more?

i think the two that recently sold on Gumtree were sold by owners who did not really appreciate what they had. Hence why the went so quickly at that money.

The interesting thing to me, is that the Couoe, really offers the owner something that is unusual looking and something that has real supercar power. Don't most all want this from a car? If you look at what other older cars are fetching the Coop's value (in this country) is not appreciated. Look at escorts, Fiesta's, 205's and the like. Ridiculous money! But, people want them so the value climbs.

Look at the values for Nissan R32 / 33's and 34. Skyrocketed over the past year.

I think, we are seeing a change these days, people are now beginning to want and recognise the Coupe. > wanted threads on here and those that have been on Gumtree recently.

Compared to the prices for the Nissan 200sx, the value of the Coupe is still generally way below that. A 200 with under 90K miles is around 7-10K .... The coupe beat the 200sx in most all the reviews at the time. You will also find £1-2K 200x's.

The 200sx did not have any special editions as far as I am aware, the Coupe did - hence the perceived value in the factory tarted up models at the moment. But eventually, I feel that all of the Turbo'd cars will rise steadily.

The market is changing for Coupe's ..... for sure! As we are all seeing for ourselves now.

My personal favourite is opening the drivers window after a quick wash of the windscreen.

Form over function.

Yep done that, much to the amusement of any passenger!

Brilliant areodynamics ....

To put the value of your coupe into perspective ....

Here's a £30,000 Escort 1.6 Mk2 sport......????

CLICK TO EBAY

Cant compare a circa 1974 Escort to a 1993 Coupe
The escort is a mature classic car..
How many here owned a escort ? Must be a few with the ages been posted