https://www.gumtree.com/p/fiat/fiat-coup-e-20v-15-000-documented-miles/1181575883

Don't know the car but if thats genuine thats the lowest mileage I've ever seen on a Coupe.........

Look again Nello.....

Read and believe

Here is the full listing

I've quite a bit of expertise around this. You'd need to know what phase of the programme this is from and why the car isn't registered. My hunch is that the car isn't roadworthy because it predates much of the development work that's needed to prove out the body structure. You'd also want to find out the component level of everything in the car; the door cards as an example look to be prototype level.

This could be a terrific buy for someone, but I'm not sure registering it for the road would be the best thing for the car.

Love the gearknob!

"Built by Bertone" ???

Yes, that as a surprise, maybe they were better placed to produce the pre-production model at the time. They have no acknowledged design credit in the program and their involvement has never been mentioned before to my knowledge

Bertone gear knob maybe

Door cards are OE skzom.

Either way she looks gorgeous

I would have thought the "proving build" would be done by Pininfarina ? Wouldn't all the tooling etc need to be developed first or did Pinin just assemble?

Maybe he has his Bertone mixed up with his pininfarina? If not, this is a spanner in the works

The design appears production, but the look of the plastic (around the speaker) appears not. I could be wrong but given what's mentioned in the ads, and some of the interior details we can see different, this is probably a mid programme car.

maybe not, Fiat have worked with Bertone before. I wonder if Bertone built the body?

The door cards and speaker surrounds look normal to me, only the gear knob looks different, looks like it has been cut and a new monstrosity glued on top, can't imagine why? Even the steering wheel looks "late" 16v since it doesn't feature the small round FIAT badge on very early cars seem in Europe, and the B pillar badge is in the normal position and not lower down as was seen on early cars. Don't forget that the Coupe was launched in late 1993 (November, at Brussels) with cars being sold mostly from 1994 onwards in Europe, and RHD versions did not arrive until mid-1995 (M/N reg) so any "early" RHD version would have likely come along around half way into the 16v/16vt production run. The chassis number will reveal all, I suspect it's in the range 10000-20000.

No, maybe is right I think. Bertone did go bust as stated in the advert, but in 2014 not 2012, whereas Pininfarina are still going but stopped producing cars in 2012. It's well known that the cars were assembled in the Pininfarina works, and I think highly unlikely that Bertone would have been involved. Also don't forget that some people less familiar with Italian cars can't spell the various names correctly, and are easily confused (like the car having sunroof for example, or only one key)

But there may be some proof in the papers that go along with the car..?

Maybe we should all crowd fund the purchase of this or convince Beaulieu they need to add it to their collection.

Anybody want to guess what their reserve price is?

If you are talking crowd funding I am guessing a lot

Amazing!.....hadn't seen that one either patch .... though I seriously think they've mixed their styling houses up. I was Bertone's Grugliasco factory in 1994 and 1996 and never heard or saw anything on their involvement with the Coupe. And I was given access to the full Bertone Collection too! I can understand basic errors but that ones a little too much for me........ I think the gearknob is just a push on protector to prevent wear....

Oh dear. As there are only 12 of us, that's going to be about £2k each. Or thereabouts.

I wrote to them and they corrected some of the information on the ad.

Edit They still have a couple of references to Bertone in the ad though.

Pininfarina for the WIN

To go back to the O P and the low mileage na, what a beaut

Had it a tan interior I'd be on my way to London.

It'd be good to get a look at it. The reason I'm curious is that it's not registered;there are very few reasons you wouldn't register the car. As you say given the date it wouldn't be style sensitive. Also it's said to be 1 of 15 used to prove out the body and trim. What I can tell you is that in 800 miles you don't prove out a body.

I'd guess it's a show pony for RHD, but given the sectioned carpet it could be an older car made RHD. Potentially a really interesting car for somebodys collection.

The point of pre-production builds is to iron out any assembly problems before volume production starts. Not to prove dynamic abilities.

It had been in production in LHD form for some time, but different parts are involved in RHD versions and tolerances and assembly methods still have to be tested.

Usual practise no matter what you are making. I did over 10 years of it as part of product introduction in the computer peripherals industry.

That's genuinely fascinating, Pete

I had no idea such practises in industry where commonplace...

That gear knob makes me feel queasy. Wether it is Bert or Tony

Pete, I'm working in automotive currently. In fact managing these types of cars is the day job. You can and do get pre production vehicles destined for dynamic work. You have to, as an example you need to certify production representative cars before you sell them.

As I've been alluding to, some of the ad doesn't seem to fit. I think if a buyer could get a contact in Fiat there'd be more history that the seller isn't aware of.

So does anyone know how much this guy is wanting for it?

Agreed, my point was that the dynamic testing would have been done earlier on LHD cars and on prototype hand built RHD vehicles.
By then the main concern would have been that the different bits for RHD cars were assemblable on a production line.

They would have also wanted some cars to show dealers examples of production vehicles.

Probably not. Changing the hand of drive is quite a big deal and warrants testing to meet different markets.

Given what's mentioned about carpets and door seals I'd agree it's likely a dealer car, but I think it could have been built earlier than 94 otherwise the interior should have been more defined. It might be a prototype; 1 of 15 to take to shows/dealers?