1999 Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo 2.0 turbo from UK and Ireland

Summary:

A beautiful car that really needs to loose the Fiat badge

Faults:

Engine under tray came loose - bad fitting on 'Pre-delivery inspection'.

Engine oil leak - 3 visits to determine a gasket loose on an oil filter?

Replacement gear box - main dealer in Birmingham took 7 weeks and 5 days to return the car. I would never use them again.

Central locking/alarm - intermittent fault.

Black paint below the doors started to come off - supposedly due to salt from the roads.

Interior door trim - came loose.

Boot seal leak - badly fitted after repair, carried out by new local dealer.

Accelerator cable - snapped at a joint with the main pedal pivot. Fixed by the 'AA', then replaced by the dealer.

Rear light - inner circle paint just starting to bubble (64K miles).

Air conditioning - another intermittent fault, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

General Comments:

Deceptively quick car.

Very good looking.

Pain work needs looking after.

Glorious sounding engine, when on full boost and running at 5K revs.

Pretty well built, for a Fiat.

Wouldn't buy another one and do 25K+ miles a year in it. But, would be excellent as a car doing perhaps 12-15K miles per year.

Standard seats rather uncomfortable, but you get used to them.

Wouldn't touch one without a leather interior. The standard interior looks like it comes out of a Fiat Panda, NAFF!

Seats four quite comfortably.

Dashboard looks the 'business'.

Standard speakers need upgrading as the stereo is too powerful for them.

Be careful with your tyre choice, the standard Pirelli P-Zero's were OK but I tried many different makes and found that the Yokohoma A520 were the most consistent in both wet and dry. Downside was that I only got about 15K miles out of the front set.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 13th May, 2001

1999 Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo Limited Edition 2.0 20v turbo from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Best thing this side of a Ferrari

Faults:

I have owned the car for several months and had no problems so far. It's been great.

General Comments:

This is one of the fastest cars I have ever owned with fantastic acceleration. Handling is superb as is the ride for a car that handles so well.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 30th April, 2001

30th May 2001, 17:38

I owned one, too, and tend to agree with you, but beware of that handling. If you push it too hard into a corner you can forget making that apex as it can catch you out completely. You'd be forgiven for expecting a front-wheel drive car with so much grunt to turn in much more tightly and tend to over-steer, but I found it was just the opposite!

And, yes, I did have the suspension geometry and the wheels & tyres checked because I couldn't believe it was set up so clumsily. I put it down in the end to a compromise on comfort, as it's not really an out and out "drivers" car. You'd need an Elise for that...

18th Jul 2005, 03:33

Obviously the person who wrote the last review drives a BMW of some sort and has no idea about Italian cars( or any other car for that matter), Fiat or otherwise!

28th May 2006, 13:10

Yes, I have a Coupe 20VT, and it is fast, real fast. My mate has got one that knocks out 480hp rolling road tested, then he's got NOS, so how fast can it go? Let's put it this way, you will only think of overtaking it and he's gone. And like the man said, go to www.fccuk.org and tell them there that you can't get a Fiat to do 170; see what they say.

p.s. Move over BMW, there's a Fiat going to pass you LOL. Sounds wrong, but it's well true.

21st Nov 2007, 07:44

Dose the fiat not always feel like its letting you down because it's a fiat? I agree its probily very fast, but its as I've sed a fiat, a cheap run around?

22nd Nov 2007, 04:56

Your right about the boring BMWs, I'd much rather have a Fiat Coupe. BMW and Audi are like the new Ford and Vauxhall, except ford and vauxhall are still here too. So all you see are Fords, Vauxhalls, Audis and BMWs. If I see another A4!...