Mini or Fiat 500?

[arther dailey]

I went through a couple of motorbikes, then got a no mot mini for £40 , which on £4 10s a week flat wasnt bad , learnt a lot on mechanics/points and it got me to work and back , lot to be said for learning to stand on your own two feet , earning, paying your own way.

 

[Migmac]

My youngest bought a Seat Leon itech, insurance was reasonable for him. No black box, his mother was a named driver which helped. Friends son isn’t into cars, doesn’t care what he drives. He bought what he calls a granny car, a Fiesta Titanium, kids don’t drive them not cool.

I’d have a 500 abarth, next door neighbour has one. It’s fun

 

[Memmeddu]

My youngest bought a Seat Leon itech, insurance was reasonable for him. No black box, his mother was a named driver which helped. Friends son isn’t into cars, doesn’t care what he drives. He bought what he calls a granny car, a Fiesta Titanium, kids don’t drive them not cool.

I’d have a 500 abarth, next door neighbour has one. It’s fun

A colleague of mine has an Abarth 595 pista 180 HP not indicated as first car .
Built on a Fiat Panda frame , I'd never buy one even if cool little, and very powerful car
I'd rather prefer a Punto Abarth or an Alfa Mito quadrifoglio (same engine as the 595 but with a far much more better frame and suspensions)

 

[Blobber]

No?
Have you experience of them?
Not the last word in refinement but they do fantastic mpg. Thousands of them about and there seems to be loads with very high mileage making me think they mustn't be that bad? Corsa's in general are very popular with young drivers.
His older brother now has a 1.2 tsi petrol Polo which is a nice car but diesel Polos without galactic mileages are significantly more expensive that the Corsa Cdti.
I actually really like the Fiat 500s but apparently they are "too girly" for teenage boys.
Crazy the prices for 1st time cars as well now. We bought a 2014 Up in 2018 with 42000 miles on it. 5 years later and the same age (2014) cars with many more miles are still similar prices at 9 years old.
Plenty of time to research though birthday not til next spring.

and the Corsa 1.3D engine is used in the Fiat/Alfa models, dont know if thats a good thing but its going to mean spares are cheapish

 

[dobbslc]

No?
Have you experience of them?
Not the last word in refinement but they do fantastic mpg. Thousands of them about and there seems to be loads with very high mileage making me think they mustn't be that bad? Corsa's in general are very popular with young drivers.
His older brother now has a 1.2 tsi petrol Polo which is a nice car but diesel Polos without galactic mileages are significantly more expensive that the Corsa Cdti.
I actually really like the Fiat 500s but apparently they are "too girly" for teenage boys.
Crazy the prices for 1st time cars as well now. We bought a 2014 Up in 2018 with 42000 miles on it. 5 years later and the same age (2014) cars with many more miles are still similar prices at 9 years old.
Plenty of time to research though birthday not til next spring.

I have experience of Vauxhall's that's all I need to know!

I actually do like those little VW UP's Citygos etc but I fear I'll be wasting my time trying to convince him about one of those .

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Wrong! he did over 13,000 miles the first year, we kept having to add mileage so ended up costing us over double

He'd have ended up walking if he'd been mine.....

 

[Bobupndown]

I have experience of Vauxhall's that's all I need to know!

I actually do like those little VW UP's Citygos etc but I fear I'll be wasting my time trying to convince him about one of those .

Have to admit a Vauxhall is not a car i've ever owned, or wanted (except maybe a Lotus Carlton). Driven plenty of Astras and a few Insignia's in work. A bit bland and uninspiring. Im just thinking of the wee diesel Corsa this time because of its fuel economy. That and they are quite nice in 3 door form and look the part for a young fella with a nice set of alloys. Re the Up, they are a great wee car, decent build quality too. Very handy for a learner as there is virtually no overhang front or rear so easy to judge parking. If we'd been smart we should have held onto the one we already had when the eldest son upgraded but it would have sat gathering dust for 3 years.

 

[Bobupndown]

That's a coffin turbo and supercharged small car , I'd love to have one

A coffin?
Assuming predictive text at work here?

 

[Memmeddu]

A coffin?
Assuming predictive text at work here?

We call "coffins on wheels" small cars with some horsepower .
Like the Uno TURBO IE which is the reason we coined this term
118 HP on a 780kg car front wheel drive ...
It has been a widow maker so we call "LA BARA" AKA "THE COFFIN"
This car was developed to have a great acceleration to humiliate supercars owners at the traffic light in the 80's ,it had success in that

Steering wasn't it's better quality , they used to go straight ,or tilt over in a ditch .
Other "coffins" out there, every single one had a good power weight ratio but not a good handling or something else like catch on fire ,and things like that which caused many mortal accidents
Then considering that in the 80s and 90s people used to swap turbos with bigger diesel trucks ones , using standard electronics provided with the car maybe adding resistors somewhere to troll the ECU and make it work as if in normal conditions , with bigger injectors ,ported heads , different camshafts, and polished Conrods .
Small cars like the Uno soon had 100 + more HP than stock but everything was DIY so safety wasn't guarantee

 

[Morrisman]

A coffin?
Assuming predictive text at work here?

 

[Bobupndown]

We call "coffins on wheels" small cars with some horsepower .
Like the Uno TURBO IE which is the reason we coined this term
118 HP on a 780kg car front wheel drive ...
It has been a widow maker so we call "LA BARA" AKA "THE COFFIN"
This car was developed to have a great acceleration to humiliate supercars owners at the traffic light in the 80's ,it had success in that

Steering wasn't it's better quality , they used to go straight ,or tilt over in a ditch .
Other "coffins" out there, every single one had a good power weight ratio but not a good handling or something else like catch on fire ,and things like that which caused many mortal accidents
Then considering that in the 80s and 90s people used to swap turbos with bigger diesel trucks ones , using standard electronics provided with the car maybe adding resistors somewhere to troll the ECU and make it work as if in normal conditions , with bigger injectors ,ported heads , different camshafts, and polished Conrods .
Small cars like the Uno soon had 100 + more HP than stock but everything was DIY so safety wasn't guarantee

Well its 105 hp in a car that weighs just about a ton. Its not a fast car, just nippy enough to be a nice drive. The 1.8 GTI at nearly 200 hp would be more 'entertaining'.

Sorry for derailing the OPs thread!

 

[jmp49]

I had to lol at some of the vauxhall comments in this thread, because I recently bought my son a 98 Astra G with the 1.6 ecotec as his first car. It was super cheap with lots of stupid issues & leaks but had a new mot (CT). I told him I'd pay for all the parts so he didn't feel the need to skimp on repairing something vital to save money, and help him fix them plus it meant I got to have a really really good look around it to be sure. Yeah I could have just paid a bit more and come out ahead slightly without having to fix things but that wasn't my intent...
Because it was so old the insurance was cheaper than a base punto or similar & its ok to drive now we've finished with sorting it out and more importantly to me, he's invested personal time & effort in getting it sorted and will I hope treat it far more sympathetically and sensibly during his danger period than if he'd just been handed the keys to a shiny new car. Its also as someone already said, firmly a underwhelming old mans car in external appearance with neutral handling, complete with towbar although it has recaro seats and alloys and we did a mp3 headunit, but he doesn't have to live up to a boy racer image, 101hp and 1100kg, its not fast, but it'll be ok and its better than the 1.2 chevette hatch I had as my first car. As its value has gone way past rock bottom as a modern youngtimer and as its eligible for classic registration in a few years meaning no CT or emission zone restrictions, its value has started to go up again & it has very little rust on it and what bit it had, we sorted. So if he doesn't wreck it in a ditch or something he's got a asset to sell to someone to relive their youth, paying for something more fun once he's out of his probation period.

Cant wait for my daughters first car now which probably will be more modern and hip although the first car she ever drove was a disco1 I bought as a engine donor offroad so maybe there is hope... So far the only defined criteria is a a pink roof on a cute white car, I've never wrapped something as big as a car before though I've done tanks and sidepanels and mirrors so it'll be her and me armed with some vinyl and squeegies the same way.

 

[dobbslc]

@Memmeddu
I saw this on holiday in Croatia.

Very nice!

 

[Memmeddu]

@Memmeddu
I saw this on holiday in Croatia.
View attachment 414661View attachment 414662
Very nice!

That's a Fiat Tipo there was a variant powered by a turbocharged engine, can't remember if was the same used on the Delta HF or the Thema HF

 

[knighty]

helped a young lad at work buy and insure a car

a 1.2 polo was thousands cheaper to insure than anything else

found him a decent one for £700

 

[Dilkris]

My youngest bought a Seat Leon itech, insurance was reasonable for him. No black box, his mother was a named driver which helped. Friends son isn’t into cars, doesn’t care what he drives. He bought what he calls a granny car, a Fiesta Titanium, kids don’t drive them not cool.

I’d have a 500 abarth, next door neighbour has one. It’s fun

I'd have a 500 Abarth also - if I could afford one.....

 

[Martin Hocking]

Panda 169 would be my vote.

I had a black 05 1.2 8v for some reason the 1.1 are no where near as nice.

Simply an astonishing vehicle, considering what people expect out of a little car.

I drove mine to the French alps doing 90 the whole way full to the gunnels only stopping for fuel. Did a similar trip Norwich to Bristol doing 80 the whole way on the space saver tyre.Transported 2 whole fzr600’s broken into pieces and god knows how many other vehicle parts. Strapped a whole chicken coop to the back of it to move it, it looked like a baboon driving up the road. Moved countless bits of wood longer than the car, one was a 4 x 8 joist that I held in place with the front electric window. It only smashed when I parked after driving up my garden when I got home. Drove it through a barb wire fence twice so it looked like a tiger had attacked. The door handle on the stoved in door was one from b and q. And a goat died in the back of it so it was haunted.

It never missed a beat in spite of being redlined whenever my brother drove it.
The only reason i don’t have it anymore was because I mistook a rotten core plug (the engine looked like it had been in the sea it’s whole life) for a head gasket failure and after making a meal out of changing the engine I just couldn’t spare it anymore time and scrapped it.

I cried on the way home from the scrap yard. Long live the black bullet!

 

[Dcal]

That's a Fiat Tipo there was a variant powered by a turbocharged engine, can't remember if was the same used on the Delta HF or the Thema HF

Don't think we got a turbo version over here.
We did get the 2l IE which had the 16v Lampredi engine.

My da had a 124 sport with the original 1.4l 8 valve version of that engine.
Late 1960s I think, not a bad run for an engine design and went on the win more world rally championships than any other engine in history.

I think it was the first production engine with a toothed belt drive for the camshafts.
The car before that was a Morris Minor Traveller so quite the upgrade.

Wonder where my interest in Italian car comes from?

 

[bricol]

I think it was the first production engine with a toothed belt drive for the camshafts.

First twin cam to use one, in 1966. First production four cylinder was a Glas 1004 (no, I hadn't either) in 1962

 

[dobbslc]

it looked like a baboon driving up the road.

a goat died in the back of it so it was haunted.