RE: Fiat 124 - first pics
Discussion
Good Heavens! Just listen to you all - well, nearly all! These are just photos at the moment. Suggest we all hold fire a while until we get a chance to see the car in the flesh and read how it stacks up once the road test mags get their hands on it.
Nice to have another affordable N/A RWD sports car due to hit the streets, surely? After decades of FWD cars? Yes, I had two of the old 1970's RWD Fiat 124 Sports (the Coupe actually) way back in the day and they were fabulous cars to drive.
Fairly sure the new 124 Spider will be a good steer and that, as with many cars, the looks will grow on people once they've had a chance to walk around the car and see it on the move.
Patience, compadres!!
Nice to have another affordable N/A RWD sports car due to hit the streets, surely? After decades of FWD cars? Yes, I had two of the old 1970's RWD Fiat 124 Sports (the Coupe actually) way back in the day and they were fabulous cars to drive.
Fairly sure the new 124 Spider will be a good steer and that, as with many cars, the looks will grow on people once they've had a chance to walk around the car and see it on the move.
Patience, compadres!!
RoverP6B said:
It'll still be a turbo I4... yawn...
yeah know what you mean, you must belong to the "no substitute for cubic inches" generation like me I guess?http://www.hubgarage.com/mygarage/RuffTin/blogs/18...
Veeayt said:
Looks alot like Solstice
+1 for Solstice, and a less-pretty one at that (which is saying something considering how forgotten the Solstice is).Fiat's arse is passable, its face is butters.
Windscreen surround also jarring to my eye, apparently I'm not alone in this.
Won't be wooing many MX5 buyers, unless the Fiat badge is super-chic in some international markets that I'm unaware of. 124 can be as dynamically sweet as it likes, they've blown it with a gopping design right from the get-go...
124 represents a massive missed opportunity given how good the chassis/ mechanicals/ drive will likely be. It seems to be increasingly difficult for major manufacturers to produce clean, elegant designs that don't end up looking 'fussy' or designed by committee. Anyone else reckon a 'Design us a new 124 and win a tenner' thread on PH could have yielded a more aesthetically pleasing product?
I understand modern safety legislation/ pedestrian protection etc. makes it more challenging to produce classically beautiful/ elegant designs, but the last few years have seen something of a mini-renaissance in pretty cars imho, so Ill say that the 124 is simply a (significant) 'miss'.
I believe that front-engined, 2-seater roadsters must be the least difficult car category for designers to 'get right'. There are inherently fewer compromises needed in comparison to almost any other car type, so it's doubly frustrating that the 124 looks so 'off'. How many front-engined, 2-seat roadsters (from any era) have looked this disappointing and poorly-resolved at launch? I certainly can't think of many...
briang9 said:
yeah know what you mean, you must belong to the "no substitute for cubic inches" generation like me I guess?
http://www.hubgarage.com/mygarage/RuffTin/blogs/18...
Nope, I'm a 'no substitute for a rev-happy naturally aspirated six-pot in a sports-car' advocate. I'd love, for example, to see BMW put their 1.6 litre I6 bike engine in a pared-back base-model Z4. A modern Triumph Vitesse, if you like. Or a Mazda MX5 with a little screamer of a 660cc three-cylinder Kei car motor. Either way, make sure they're also equipped with manual gearboxes and 125-section tyres. While big V8s and V12s are enjoyable in their own way, a sports car should be as small, light and exploitable at sensible speeds as possible... and not break the bank in fuel, insurance and tyres.http://www.hubgarage.com/mygarage/RuffTin/blogs/18...
RoverP6B said:
Nope, I'm a 'no substitute for a rev-happy naturally aspirated six-pot in a sports-car' advocate. I'd love, for example, to see BMW put their 1.6 litre I6 bike engine in a pared-back base-model Z4. A modern Triumph Vitesse, if you like. Or a Mazda MX5 with a little screamer of a 660cc three-cylinder Kei car motor. Either way, make sure they're also equipped with manual gearboxes and 125-section tyres. While big V8s and V12s are enjoyable in their own way, a sports car should be as small, light and exploitable at sensible speeds as possible... and not break the bank in fuel, insurance and tyres.
RoverP6B, you read my mind so accurately it's eerie. I'd written almost exactly the same re BMW (or come to think of it now any of ze Germans) putting a screaming, revvy lump in something small, pared-back, and 'fun'. Deleted my comment because I suspected it was just the wine talking (very likely still the case)...I'd actually prefer to see something sub-Z4 in the range, closer to a Z3 (aware Z4 was its direct successor) but properly executed/ more focussed. Why the Germans don't/ won't/ haven't developed something like this I'm not sure- maybe they simply don't feel the need to compete here? Would relatively small-engined cars of this size be regarded as too 'effette' to wear M/ AMG badges, or does market research simply suggest this niche is covered by current Z4/ SLKs? The current Z4 to me isn't even the same species as the new MX5...
Always thought that little VW roadster concept thingy from afew years back could have done well, and it seems to me it could prove very useful for VAG right now as IIRC it had some real 'green' ethos around it. A welcome addition that would fill a gap in the range, while providing much needed 'eco' credentials and tempting MX5 buyers/ keen drivers...
Id really like to see some oneupsmanship amongst manufacturers in a similar vein to the hot-hatch horsepower/ 'Ring time wars of recent years. Who can produce the best 'have your cake and eat it' affordable, front-engine RWD roadster? Who will be first to unseat the MX5 as the default, go-to car in the category? Who can squeeze the most power/ economy/ lowest C02 out of the smallest (preferably NA) lump while retaining 'character'? Who can produce said car with the broadest appeal, being desirable to Joe Public and 'car people' alike- I believe a 'classless' modern 2-seater roadster would be achievable if executed correctly. If one major manufacturer releases something that legitimately competes with/ is superior to the MX5 (read; a financial success), the others will soon want a piece. I'd personally be happy with something leccy/ hybrid/ turbocharged if it somehow managed to convey 'soul' (ugh, sorry).
Back on topic, the 124 is precisely the car that should have offered a viable alternative to the MX5; like a privileged, underachieving rich-kid, it was afforded every opportunity, and had only one real job; 'don't f*ck up'. All Fiat needed to do was make it look pleasant, and it would've been granted a pass; as it stands it's almost universally regarded as a let-down. In the absence of a legitimate Jap (MX5 aside), Euro or Yank alternative, I find myself asking a rather unsavoury question; would one of the Korean manufacturers attempts at building a competitor be objectively any 'worse' than the 124, brand snobbery aside? Given some recent Kia/ Hyundai efforts, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that a Korean roadster might actually be prettier than a Fiat roadster... now there's a statement I thought I'd never make...
RoverP6B said:
Nope, I'm a 'no substitute for a rev-happy naturally aspirated six-pot in a sports-car' advocate. I'd love, for example, to see BMW put their 1.6 litre I6 bike engine in a pared-back base-model Z4. A modern Triumph Vitesse, if you like. Or a Mazda MX5 with a little screamer of a 660cc three-cylinder Kei car motor. Either way, make sure they're also equipped with manual gearboxes and 125-section tyres. While big V8s and V12s are enjoyable in their own way, a sports car should be as small, light and exploitable at sensible speeds as possible... and not break the bank in fuel, insurance and tyres.
ISTR that Caterham twigged that recently, too.Martin 480 Turbo said:
The ND seems to be a flop, but has not been fully available this year.
Some more fact reading and less babbling would do these forums no harm
Some more fact reading and less babbling would do these forums no harm
Pre-orders taken as early as February this year.
Over 1000 sold since September when they officially went on sale.
Some versions/colours you will now be waiting for until February/March.
Some dealers retaining full margin on every one that they've sold.
I bet some franchises would sell their grandchildren for that kind of flop.
I actually think that's beautiful...
The Mazda looks fantastic, in a aggressive shark kind of way, whereas this looks more like a "gay" MX-5.
Therefore, the Mazda will be purchased by lots of men who appreciate the car's excellent abilities, but never wanted to buy one for fear of accidentally being mistaken for a homosexual.
The 124 probably will be the one bought by the homosexuals and hairdressers.
Therefore, I want a 124
The Mazda looks fantastic, in a aggressive shark kind of way, whereas this looks more like a "gay" MX-5.
Therefore, the Mazda will be purchased by lots of men who appreciate the car's excellent abilities, but never wanted to buy one for fear of accidentally being mistaken for a homosexual.
The 124 probably will be the one bought by the homosexuals and hairdressers.
Therefore, I want a 124
Are they really going to be made in same factory?
So if that is the case.....and it's in the EU, then for the EU they will rust proof them properly?
They should build them in the UK.....Sunderland would be my choice.......Do you ever see a broken down Micra?.....never see any rust on them either......they go like rockets (it don't mater how fast you are going some spotty faced youff will be hammering past you on their way to and from "UNI"
So if that is the case.....and it's in the EU, then for the EU they will rust proof them properly?
They should build them in the UK.....Sunderland would be my choice.......Do you ever see a broken down Micra?.....never see any rust on them either......they go like rockets (it don't mater how fast you are going some spotty faced youff will be hammering past you on their way to and from "UNI"
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