What's the modern day Fiat Coupe?

[Vladimir]

FWD, contrived styling, flaky build quality, nippy but far less so than claimed and considered a near supercar by all owners - it has to be almost any petrol Alfa post 1995...

[405dogvan]

Fiat Coupe 20vs are quick by ANYONE's measure of quick - given the time they existed.

0-60 a little over 6 seconds - there's a bit of road near here, off a roundabout onto a dual and I've been known to 'lepton test' a range of cars on that.

I've had Porsches, a few ricers, one RS500 and the only cars to nudge a (dash indicated) 150 (leptons) were a Coupe 20v and a Conti GT (which nudged quite a bit more than that) - a VXR Astra (earlier one) was nearly there but that's a brown-trousers car at those leptonages...

I drove a Coupe 20v back-to-back with an Accord Type-R (Accord handles better - Coupe MUCH quicker otherwise) and a Mk1 TT 225 (worst of the 3 in handling - somewhere between them in speed)

Coupes are quick before you tinker - tinker and many good things happen I hear?

The also look the bks - sound fantastic - all they needed was a better driver's seat really...

[MiniMan64]

405dogvan said:

Fiat Coupe 20vs are quick by ANYONE's measure of quick - given the time they existed.

0-60 a little over 6 seconds - there's a bit of road near here, off a roundabout onto a dual and I've been known to 'lepton test' a range of cars on that.

I've had Porsches, a few ricers, one RS500 and the only cars to nudge a (dash indicated) 150 (leptons) were a Coupe 20v and a Conti GT (which nudged quite a bit more than that) - a VXR Astra (earlier one) was nearly there but that's a brown-trousers car at those leptonages...

I drove a Coupe 20v back-to-back with an Accord Type-R (Accord handles better - Coupe MUCH quicker otherwise) and a Mk1 TT 225 (worst of the 3 in handling - somewhere between them in speed)

Coupes are quick before you tinker - tinker and many good things happen I hear?

The also look the bks - sound fantastic - all they needed was a better driver's seat really...

I'm sure other cars might have more power on paper but there really is something about how the Coupe delivers on the road, proper shove in the back stuff. Plus the noise probably helps!

Alfa GTs go to top of the list. Only problem is that there doesn't seem to be very many! 5 on EBay, 6 on Autotrader, what's up with that?

[MiniMan64]

And only 2 on PH classifieds! 1is sold and one is a horrific colour!

[Amateurish]

Mr2Mike said:

I used to get 30mpg from my 20VT Coupe pretty regularly on my commute without really trying, and the 6 speed version was supposed to be even better, but I've never heard anyone even claim to get that from a V6 GTV. As for speed, unless you are talking about the (rare/expensive) 3.2L engined variant then the Coupe is quicker in 0-60, 0-100, standing 1/4 etc. and of course extracting quite a bit more power from the Coupe isn't difficult.

I used to get 30mpg out of my Fiat, and 28mpg out of my Alfa on the same commute, so very little in it really.

Yes, I was referring to the Phase 3 3.2 version being more powerful.

Mr2Mike said:

I don't think the Alfa is 'streets' ahead on any of the things you've listed either. The Alfa V6 certainly makes a wonderful noise, it's iconic in fact, but the straight 5 in the Coupe is hardly a bad sounding engine. The Fiat's interior is also very good, far more distinctive than the Alfa as well. The Fiat's looks are very much marmite however, I like them but plenty of people don't and the Alfa has a far broader appeal.

Oh, I admit it's all very subjective. But I just loved those Alfa leather seats:



All in all, two great cars

Edited by Amateurish on Thursday 26th September 13:56

[Jurgen]

Amateurish said:

Oh, I admit it's all very objective. But I just loved those Alfa leather seats:



All in all, two great cars :thumbsup:

Those are the momo seats right? They look great, but aren't very nice to sit in! The standard Fiat seats look ok and are very nice to sit in, but they offer almost no side support (the leather ones at least). The Recaro ones on the Plus and LE versions are great though

[underphil]

The seats in my GTV looked great and were comfy, but terrible for cornering

The seats in the GT are awesome though !

[r11co]

chockymonster said:

The Alfa GT and Brera are not really 2+2s they have 4 seats but you have to have no legs and short driver/front passenger to make the rear space even remotely usable.

Disagree. The GT has very usable rear space for two adults - it just feels claustrophobic in there because of the small rear windows and low seating position. The hatch space is also surprisingly large for a coupe.

The Brera is a different matter - your description is pretty much spot on. One of the reasons it failed because depsite being a car from a 'bigger' class than the GT it was smaller inside, not as practical, worse to drive, yet more expensive.

[Jurgen]

underphil said:

The seats in my GTV looked great and were comfy, but terrible for cornering

The seats in the GT are awesome though !

I agree, the seats in the GT are awesome. The look ok, but they ware very impressive once you sit in them. They are actually nicer than the 147 GTA seats (which are ver impressive to look at )

[anonymous-user]

Bit of a rare beast but what about a Laguna coupe V6

[dai1983]

Don't think there is anything built after the Coupe that would compare really. Same goes for the Ford Puma.

In a few years you may say the Scirroco but it's just a fat assed golf!

[Alex]

Found some interesting pics of Coupe Fiat production.


1377603_523247264419958_1350668857_n by Loconinja, on Flickr


1377086_523247301086621_807445123_n by Loconinja, on Flickr


1374775_523247291086622_538666100_n by Loconinja, on Flickr


1174765_523247274419957_118081694_n by Loconinja, on Flickr


547801_523247261086625_540054592_n by Loconinja, on Flickr

[snotrag]

Gotta go with the crown and suggest Alfa GV v6 or even the 147 GTA?


As an alternatvie - it might not be 'rare' or interesting, but the 2,5ltre FocusST is a great car, very different to most hatches. Itsa a really good, strong, GT type car, comfy, power delivery and sound just like the Fiat too - masses of torque and in gear shove. Decent steer all round too and of course, its a Focus, so perfectly usable, cheap parts etc etc.

Likes a drink but thats about it.

[405dogvan]

MiniMan64 said:

I'm sure other cars might have more power on paper but there really is something about how the Coupe delivers on the road, proper shove in the back stuff. Plus the noise probably helps!

I'd love to see some fly-on-the-wall research done into how people perceive 'how fast' cars actually are - because I'm sure the actual power/gearing/speed and the perceived 'shove and noise' aren't always in agreement.

The Coupe does one thing very right - you CAN drive it normally (the Accord Type-R did this too), there's a point where it just goes NUTS and you can stay below it - wheras the TT 225 didn't have that, it was constantly urging you to poke it a bit harder, I found it utterly tiresome.

I'm willing to bet if you put people into those 3 cars (not knowing the stats) and just drove them around they'd rate the cars one way - ask them to drive the cars they'd rate them differently again - and none of the ratings would relate to actual performance stats.

[MiseryStreak]

It sounds to me that you just need another Fiat Coupe.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

I never realised just how nice the interior was on these. I love everything about them apart from the shockingly hideous four spoke wheels, they do seem to go with the styling but on their own they are nasty, wheels should not be allowed to have less than five spokes.

[405dogvan]

Jurgen said:

Those are the momo seats right? They look great, but aren't very nice to sit in! The standard Fiat seats look ok and are very nice to sit in, but they offer almost no side support (the leather ones at least). The Recaro ones on the Plus and LE versions are great though

My mate had the standard leather seats and they were poor - NO side support, very slippery, not much support anywhere else.

At one point he acquired a pair of standard non-leather front-seats - I believe leather was an option rather than these being aftermarket? - he assumed they'd be better but they were much the same and so they were chucked-out again 'so that everything matched'.

Did they put better seats into the LE? Never drove one of those, always assumed the 'glued-on gear' was a gimmick and the kit was heavy-handed.

[405dogvan]

MiseryStreak said:

It sounds to me that you just need another Fiat Coupe.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2012...

I never realised just how nice the interior was on these. I love everything about them apart from the shockingly hideous four spoke wheels, they do seem to go with the styling but on their own they are nasty, wheels should not be allowed to have less than five spokes.

I think those wheels work on the car - the colour on that one is a BIT challenging (esp with that interior colour) and it seems a touch pricey? Have they 'bounced' in value already!?

[MiseryStreak]

I think it's a one off as it's very low mileage (<2,000 miles per year) and very good condition. Most seem to be £1,500-£4,000. I thought that blue was the Coupe's signature colour?

[405dogvan]

MiseryStreak said:

I think it's a one off as it's very low mileage (<2,000 miles per year) and very good condition. Most seem to be £1,500-£4,000. I thought that blue was the Coupe's signature colour?

Red was the Calibra 'signature colour' and your point is?

Cream interior is a bit crass over that blue - black or grey would be nicer - and the metallic (Portofino?) light blue is MUCH lovelier (the colour of choice IMO - makes the shape really work).

There's a 50K miler for a little over half that money - and a tidy (looking) Plus for less again - you'd have to be bonkers to spend more, it's a 16-year-old car, miles are less important than actual condition and proof-of-work-done.

My mates was a hard-used daily-driver - regular 300 mile trips to see family - couple of trips abroad - 130K in 5 years. All that went wrong in that time were 2 clutches (which also caused a gearbox alignment issue thanks to the dealer doing it wrong) and a few oil leaks - oh an an appetite for factory exhausts (most people chuck those?). In the end someone hit it and the repair wasn't done well which caused an argument with his insurer and - I think he gave-up on it, which was a bit of a shame...

Edited by 405dogvan on Thursday 26th September 17:24

[MiseryStreak]

405dogvan said:

Red was the Calibra 'signature colour' and your point is?

My point was most of the ones I've seen are that colour, it was always shown that colour when released and I assumed it was a favourite, certainly not challenging. I could well be wrong, it's certainly not a typical colour that any car would look good in.

What is your point about the Calibra? That they look st in red? I don't disagree, especially as they all faded within a year.