M5_POWER

Hi Lads,

I'm thinkin of selling my M5 and buying a cheap car for around 5/6 grand.As i am doing 20K miles a yr and the M5 is gonna get ruined.

I still think the looks of the fiat are stunning, but i remember i had an uno turbo and the build quality was a shambles, though it was so much fun.

I also know a fiat coupe turbo can be heavily modifed being a turbo.I just wish it was rear wheel drive too.

Anyone had one??
Jat

slim_boy_fat

Buy a Porsche 944 S2 for that kind of money, 10 times the car.

If you want to spend more get a 944turbo easy 330bhp 350lbft (like mine ) and is a seriously fast car. Both can eat any amount of miles you want to throw at them.

fatherpierre

20k mile per year in a Coupe??????

I don't think they were made for that type of use LOL.

I suppose if it's all 5th gear on a fast road then most modern cars would take that sort of unstressed use.

Why not go for a decent TD?

falkster

20v turbos do suffer from furious torque steer!!!! I almost bought one but the issue of white lining and torque steer made me decide against it. You'd be battling the car rather than enjoying the drive....plus theres also the aweful coloured dashboards aswell

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

'20v turbos do suffer from furious torque steer!!!!'

Least of your worries !

I had one and when I put decetn tyres on it torque steer wasnt a problem bur oil consumption was, a litre a week !

Unless you find a minter dont bother they are a pain in the ****, sold it and the poor sod put a new turbo on it (what we thought was the problem) and ended up with an engine rebuild on his hands, to his credit he did it but what a job.


Bought a Rover BRM and the engine is fcked, bought a Saab 9-3 with the LPT engine and to be honest it feels pretty fast without the manic on/off boost behaviour and feels like it will go forever despite having a lot more miles.;

Build qulity wasnt a problem on the coupe, well put together, just deeply flawed, Fiats's tolerances allowed oil consumption of 1 litre per 1000 miles and the average non enthusist muppet drove it 10,000 miles between services hence a lot were run short of oil.

If you must buy one, choose an enthuiast owned one offf www.fccuk.co.uk .

Basically buy a Saab !

kammy

Psssh to all of it. You want a good, newish, fun to drive decent looking car?
Nissan s14a.
Kam

jonc

I used to own a 20VT LE, and there is very little torque steer actually. It has a viscous coupling front diff and put the power down on the road pretty efficiently considering it putting 220bhp and 227lbft through the front wheels and handles pretty well. They do like oil, mine went thought about half a litre every couple of thousand miles or so. Early cars suffered from cracked manifolds and nigglely electrical problems, but on the whole, the car is pretty reliable. The Fiat Coupe 20VT was launched in the UK around 10 years ago and to this day its one of the fastest FWD cars around.

However, if you are doing around 20K miles a year, you're probably better off with something like a 200SX but they're not exactly a head turner. I'd suggest, in no particular order, a honda Integra TypeR, VW CoradoVR6, Toyota Supra 3.0, Nissan 300ZX, Clio 172.

pete1977

after seeing a fiat coupe half explode in front of my car (he was trying to outrun me!) this really put me off them.id be frightened to give it some stick!youll miss that m5 though!

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

I had a 16v turbo that I put 50k on over two years. It was fine & was reliable throughout but I did find the gearcange poor & the handling uninvolving.
Given the choice again i'd get a M3 3.0 & avoid the Evo vanos scare stories.

D

jonc

Try finding an M3 for £6K. Forget what I said earlier, stick with the M5, it should easily take that sort of mileage. Not worth selling a decent car to get a "lesser" car.

MattW

A mate of mine has a nice example in red, full leather, he is selling soon, PM if interested.

falkster

Yeah but the overall cost of ownership will be shocking on the M5 doing 20k a year.....a cheaper car wont depreciate much.

juan

http://www.fccuk.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php

fiat forum

add a sub 100 quid strut brace and torque steer is gone (plus and LE models have em as standard)

mozzaITA

my friend had a 20VT and he was putting in £70 petrol in a week it was killing him, i thought it wasnt all that to be honest, i bought a 200 sx in the end but i wouldnt travel 20k a year in it though!

He went through front tyres/brakes quickley and it drunk oil for some reason! ahh best avioded in my opinion!

scoobynutta555

Dare i mention a golf gt tdi? They can be had on 2000 plates for the money you want to spend. Will return 50-60 mpg. Not nearly as fast as the fiat, but more reliable cheaper to run and very capable on long motorways.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

They do like drinking oil, mine was knackered and got through a litre a week at the end, no smoke though ?

There was always a feeling of impending doom when driving it, it was a pain in the **** around town, jerky power deliver, nothing, nothing, bang (that might have been my particular car), the turning circle is crap, in fact I am not sure if the front wheels turn at all !

It wasnt that bad on fuel, 27 on average even when chipped, the 16 valve turbo is less powerful but worse on fuel.

They are reasonably well put together, they can (and do) rust a bit though and finding one with straight sides is almost impossible, very susceptible to car park damage.

Torque steer wasnt really a problem, like the man said, the viscous diff helped a lot, both wheels spin instead of just one, a change from 'Champiro' (should have alerted me to the standard of maintenance ) tyres to Continentals improved traction to the point that even in the wet, wheelspin was minimal, with the crappy budget ones, it would spin up in third which was alarming.

I think basically I got a snotter, couldnt tell it was using oil when I bought it and the dealer (Chartoak in Wilmslow) were not interested, useless bunch of cowboys imho.

I wouldnt say dont ever consider one, but bear in mind they are getting on a bit and the first owners werent generally enthusiasts (they just liked the looks of it) and didnt read the manual that covered Fiats crappy tolerances by saying it could use a litre of oil in 1000 miles, hence loads were run short of oil and parmed off on the likes of me, just get a good one from an enthusiast, somebody off fccuk, use the user search facility and check all their old posts which can point to why they are selling it.

Still reckon they are the best looking coupe from that era. I ended up with the aggro because the wife refused point blank for me to get a Scoob.

Rokerlad

I had a 20v non turbo version and it was ****e. Loads of rattles from the centre console, fuel injector warning lights coming on all the time affecting performance, rubber seal round the door falling off. ****e ****e ****e....avoid!!!

ScoobyJawa

Mullered one of these on the M3 on Friday

crofty

Had one for 6 months went well didnt let me down, but smoked alot from cold, eat clutches, and £600 to £700 for a cambelt service

Silvafox

iTrader: (1)

I had a 20 VT for 2 months. Loved it, but developed a few 'noises' that didn't sound too good, one from the rear axle and one from the engine. Was a bit of torque stear. Best part about the car I thought was the noise, a real induction roar and its the only turbo'd car I've driven where you can feed the power in without setting fire to the clutch from first gear. Build quality was a bit ****e and the spraywork from the factory (around the sills) was shocking...looked liked they'd used masking tape. I had the bright blue one (forgotten its colour name) I liked it but most people hated the colour including the missus! They only used that particular blue on the 20 VT's i beleive. 5 cylinder is smooth too compared to the flat 4 of my scooby. Only other thing I didn't really like was the tall gear stick! Looked like it was out of a 1970's bus!

budgie55

Would also go for the TD route tbh. Dare I mention the Golf TDi's on here

Or any other VAG group turbo diesel tbh they just keep going.... or at least ours has up to now. Fingers crossed eh

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Fiat Coupe or Golf TD, hardly comparable, ones a flawed Italian junior supercar and the other a worthy but dull Diesel Hatch driven by people with a point to proove, usually the one that spending nearly 20 grand on a Diesel hatch was a brilliant idea to save a couple of quid a week on fuel. Unless you do 30k miles a year they just arent worth bothering with, and as for the Fiat, probably not a good idea but at least it will fail in new and exciting way in between costing you loads of money and being very fast.

budgie55

was only answering M5s question ... he/she is looking for a cheap 5/6k car to do 20k miles per year.. perhaps I was wrong to suggest a Golf Diesel but for economy and reliability alone at that sort of annual mileage you really need to look at a diesel IMO. Whether M5 decides on a tractor or something a little more comfortable I leave up to him/her

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

No, Budgie, they are a good choice, just me and my predjudices about Golf Diesel drivers and the attitudes, sure a 150 TDi will blitz an MX5 but it isnt a sportscar whatever they try to tell you, the classic quote is that theirs always has the sports suspension that delays the tyres squealing for another 3 mph.

We have the Sharan with the 115 engine in so I do have a grudging admiration for what VW did with a a 1970's 8 valve design, now the Sharan, that is a proper sportscar..........

brunny42

i had a 20 vturbo i am in the motor trade and specialise in fiat and alfa slowly trying to get into scoobies, i had a 1999 moded with decat \(if this is done a 360 thrust bearing seal must be installed in turbo at cost of around £150 notes) or she smokes like a **** and uses loads of oil,plus this allows higher boost all the way to rev limit, blitz boost controller set to 1.2/1.3bar, not a problem with torque steer, the early 16 v had funny steering, different set up on the 16 to 20 valve cars, they are seriously quick and fairly reliable. mine ran a 13.851 1/4 mile did pull away from scoobies well in fact it ate them once in third gear, they are really only good in straight lines they dont handle too well the rear end feels as tho she going to kick out at speeds, but GOOD set of tyres will help and give you the confiddence. mine had gone up agains a noble m12 gto the coop was not far about two car lengths behind on long straight, they eat porsche boxters but thats not hard,sorry, they do have few week points the brakes are crap once used heavilly three four times even tho i had pagid 16 grooves and fast pads, steel braided hoses help greatly not expensive70 quid, the front lower wishbones tend to go alot 100 per side, exhaust manifold cracks 280 quid plus fitting, oil coler pipe work rots 350 quid, do you want me to go on,i could for a while, oops best tell you if modded too high no 5 piston lets go, oops saying all this i would have another and advise you find a GOOD EXAMPLE threy do over 1.60 mph mine did daily, squeeling brakes not to forget,if you get 6 speed box in the special eds and ltds they been clocked at 175 mph plus, if you get one of these with the correct mods and fuel setup etc, it will do over 200mph in my opinion, i have over ten years experience on the fiats and alfas, been working on the coops and modding them since they were released.

scoobynutta555

Who on earth mentioned 20k They guy wants to spend several grand on a car to do quite a bit of mileage a year.

Diesel IMHO is the way to go if you want to save a little and have a very capable long route mile muncher. The MPG returns are very good as are resale residuals and reliability is quite high.

Not so sure about a Fiat, they have a bad reputation reliability wise.

FlightMan

Early Honda Accord Type R.
Bullet proof.
Fun.

I had one.

budgie55

Agree they deffo aint no sports car hell I get the jitters doing a corner at 35 in the Golf that I would do without raising an eye brow at 60 or more in the scoob. The economy and low down torque is great though and the new diesels are nothing like the old ones. Your right though they aint no sports car but they sure as hell are usually cruisers for clocking up the miles.
Never been in an MX5 so cant comment but they certainly more of a sports car than the golf to me. They also look like a lot of fun.

Each to their own I guess some people like some cars others have different ideas. One thing I like is I'm lucky and have access to best of both worlds. The wife has the Golf TDi (130) and I have the scoob, certainly know which one I prefer despite the running costs

budgie55

"Quote from M5: i am doing 20K miles a yr and the M5 is gonna get ruined.!

Thats where I got the 20k miles a year from

doh ignore me see where you were coming from now Scooynutta555

Think J4cko has miread the post a little. Ignore me long day

scoobynutta555

lol £20k