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Yeah… $5 should get you a nice 1978 brown X1/9 with a cracked dash, a broken clutch and a big rust spot over the engine cover. Actually, it cost me $200, but $500 in repairs later, I sold it for $500, so I was out $200 original purchase price plus the additional $150 in proprietary Fiat tools. Isn’t auto restoration fun?! 1 year of my life and $350 and I couldn’t wait to get the thing out of my garage.
Actually, I wish I had the money, knowledge and resources back then that I have now to fix up the X1/9. I would have bought a 1974 model, I would have gone with red or black and I would have lost 80 pounds before trying to squeeze into it. It truly was a great car; a poor man’s Ferrari.
I would love to have an early Fiat X/19 (ex one nine). I have driven several of them years ago. The engineering was excellent, but rust was the big problem. Most of the Italian “production” cars of that era were made from re-cycled Russian steel (rust was built in), Most old Alfas, built by PininFarina or Bertone, were built from virgin steel and had similar quality to Ford and GM.
Proof positive that you get what you pay for.
I have owned 2 Fiats ( a 124 Spider and and a 128 SL coupe) and they were worth what I paid. (!) I hope you have as much fun as I did as a young and dumb and full of c** youngster in your life with today’s cars! Really, I so hope, but I doubt you will.I went to high school with a kid > his dad owned the Buick dealership in town. (I graduated high school in 1968) The Buick dealers carried Opels (German) and they were very good cars, and then they carried Opels “by Isuzu” ( not so good). Then they carried the Renault “Le Car”. My friend’s father, when “Le Car” was discontinued, hauled the entire inventory of Renault parts to the dump (Even though this inventory was valuable) and threw the “Le Car” spares into the trash pile with much enthusiasm.
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