when to stop spending?

I only paid 700 for my 16vna.
But replaced all belts, tensioners, plugs, dizzy, rotor arm, leads, oil, air filter, tyres, discs pads all round, sump, and rocker gaskets, window regulator being done nxt week.
It must stand me at 1200 now.
Its low miles and very tidy is it worth 1200???
my head says stop spending, my heart says spend spend spend.
Do you think 16vna will be first to achieve classic status?
The lampredi is legendary and with it being none turbo?
Could I be sat on a future classic?

I've always thought the 16v n/a will be the first to go classic, due to its rarity (yes, I know there are less 16 vt left)

LE seems to be showing strongly though

My advice would be to keep it mechanically and cosmetically sound, without spending a fortune to make it concours

Barnacle has his insured at a replacement value of 10k, so quite possibly, yes.

How I see it you won't get your money back anyway , spend to keep it mechanically sound and spend to make it look sweet not a much better looking car on road now days for the price my 16vt stands me at approx 3k I brought her for .£600 I'm sure most owners are in the same boat

Never, if you stop then it will deteriorate. If it deteriorates itll cost more in the long run!

bought my first coupe a 1.8 vna for 2.2k euro's, spend 500 on it, sold it again for 2.5 to get a 2.0 16VT that i bought for 3.5k euro's, spend about 750 on it, then found out i bought a crap car, so much was wrong with it that i had to get rid of it. Spend a other 5000 euro's buying a 20 vt that has already cost me 1.4k in the first week. so what i am trying to say, no you haven't spend much and if you like the car and can afford to keep it, keep fixing it

I'd rather spend a few quid maintaining a "classic" car than see a new car depreciate by £1000's as soon as it leaves the forecourt.

Coupes are dirt cheap to buy, so a couple of grand to get it how you want it [just don't say mint] seems a good deal to me.

I suppose all in £1200 isnt a bad figure for a car that looks and runs nice.

Im in the process of restoring mine, its a 03/1994 16vt been in family since 1995. Early dealers car with low badges on b-pillar, no pass airbag, different stearing wheel and other detailes thatsdiferent.
Im replacing everything that moves under the car, powdercoating everything thats not mint, its geting a paintjob an engine upgrade, but all reversable and keeping all original parts in garage, totaly im expecting to use more than 10.000k£ over a years time. Worth every penny.
I think the 16vt will be the most desireable classic, only in production 2-3 years, most of the driven to pieces allready, proper motor directly from the Integrale at the time this was going out of production, only fiat ever with that engine.. But than again, its mine and i love it

Oh! And the car is absolutly rust free and has a milage of 75000.

I'm doing much the same with my 95-from-new NA.

A point which seems to have been missed: the coupe had the last incarnation of the Lampredi twin-cam engine...

Yep Thats one of the main reason i think theese will be the most collectable..

(Actually, it might have been in the last Kappa a year later!)

Spend, spend, spend. That`s what i`m doing with mine.
My bib is, if maurice minor and austin aggro are regarded as
classic cars by the all knowing motoring press then there
really is no comparison with the coupe which not only
looks good but performs too,unlike many of the 60`s and
70`s bathtubs.

in early 2010, as I was contemplating replacing my leggy Sprinty, I worked out the total cost of ownership over the 6.5 years and 153,000 miles that I'd done up to that point (I did another 15k before I eventually replaced it):-



that worked out at around £75,000 over six years - now THAT is when I realised I needed to stop spending...

Wow that's ridiculous

its a classic. full stop.
i brought a alfa gtv for £750 14 years ago. now they change hands for 25k!!
dont let it be a case of "i wish i had kept that"
if you dont want to run it, find a garage and lay it up. its time will come. and i dont think it will be long.

No offence Nigel but I don't think you can count Fuel along with the rest to figure out what a car has cost you.
I mean, every car, any car will consume fuel no matter how you look at it. granted one will use up 10liter per 100km and the other might use 20 for the same distance but that's what you get when you choose to drive a 'sport' car or 'gt' car.
Reason I respond is cause on the way back yesterday from work to our house my wife commented the same thing. She was asking me why I was accelerating so fast when it was obviously not needed. I responded that I did it cause it was fun to do and feels great in the car, and that the day that I have to start driving economical with a car like this is the day that I hang up the key's for good.

end of rant

Well said
My daily drive is a Ford Transit, as good a steer as it is, it doesn't make me smile like the Coupe does. I have a coupe for the pleasure of ownership, when it works!
Which is most of the time

I agree - on the original post, I also calculated that the total cost of a three year old Ford Focus would have been around £50,000 for the same mileage, so I was happy enough with a 50% premium for running the Coupe

10 points to you sir

Great thread, mine's due for belts, clutch and disc/pads this year which will probably cost more than it's worth but what's the alternative!!

Have a friend with nearly new bland bmw and his service/repair costs are seriously eye watering (and ontop of the hp!!).

You pays your money and makes your choice, as they say!!

I agree,
I've just spent another £380 on mine today and it still needs a small hole welding up after winter.

I've decided not to add up what I've spent on my Coupe since I bought it in 2007, although I'm confident it's over £10k excluding fuel insurance and tax. If you're interested I posted my complete list in 2011 and it's safe to say it's got larger by a similar amount for each year that's passed since then.

It still needs plenty of work but it's definitely worth it.

Tomorrow !

Well not including buying my 2 coupes iv spent 5k in the last 2 months!!!!! Ouch!! But hey at least I smile when driving my coupes!! Lol

Surely we should not be counting wear items. They would be the same for all cars with provisos like some cars may have longer-lived parts and others may have cheaper parts. Fuel costs are also likely to be in the same ballpark for very broadly similar cars.

Improvements should not be counted either as they are not necessary. That is just part of the hobby.

That really leaves the extra costs for running a coupe, like rather frequent belt changes for the 20V, suspension refreshes, etc.

When we buy an old, well used car, it is cheap because it has been used and is worn. One expects to have to make it fit again if one expects to use it. So if we want to run a Fiat Coupe we have to get it to a condition that it will run well. That means buy price plus the outstanding refreshes and repairs. From that point onwards, it should be similarly expensive as other cars of similar complexity. Just because people get rid of them for 1000 Pounds does not mean that one should not invest some money into them to make them run right. The were probably sold because they needed attention and the owner was not willing to give it that attention for whatever reason.

New cars usually cost very little in repairs but depreciate loads. Old cars are cheap but usually cost something to make them reliably usable. The end result is the same - a reliable car that suits the owners requirements.

have been keeping a running total and rolling log of all expenses on my coupe... so far spent 11K over 1 year with her...

on the long term list is a few more expensive jobs to do but waiting untill the funds are ready for it.