I'd never even seen a Fiat coupe before 2 weeks ago. I was purchasing a whole other car when I saw the seller had one. It stole my eye but I was busy on the other purchase. So when I got home I googled it. Then again the next day. I was thinking far too much about the car. It was just like when I fancied Anne-Marie across the road when I was 13. So I started watching youtube and scouring the net and talking to mechanic friends. I even called the guy back asking could I visit him and sit in his coupe for a few minutes. He recommended this website. I've read it inside out and backwards and love it, I'll be a new member soon. Yes, you guessed it, I'm going to buy a coupe. :-)

I'd really like to get this purchase right, more for the sake of personal satisfaction than the money that's being spent. The car needs to be "right." So what should I look for? What should I avoid? Is high mileage and a good service history a good place for value or should I seek out the low mileage examples for reliability? What about extras and trim, anything I should know? Any particular weaknesses to watch out for? I'm not after a £10k+ Man Utd top of the leauger but I also don't want to end up with a Newcastle FC'er that should be great but will break my heart. A touch of glamour and a solid history with the odd flourish would be just about right, Spurs on a good year perhaps? Any pointers, feedback, thoughts and warnings are very welcome.

And of high importance, as a Fiat Coupe owner who has probably seen many, many more of them than me (I've seen 1!), what's your favourite factory colour?!

Welcome. Look in the for sale section here. Low milers are not necessarily recommended unless they have serious history; higher miles and history are often a far better bet and will be less expensive.

All coupes are at least 7-8 years old and thus, 90+k miles just indicates average use. Also, the high miles motors are likely to have had the costly jobs done - there are several that cost £400+, while the low milers may still need these done. You'll also pay a premium for low miles which may not be warranted. There are also plenty of clocked cars out there! What model are you after - the non turbo cars will usually cost less to run. All will cost more than a Focus to run for sure however. This link is for one of the foremost specialists and will give you an ideal of running costs http://www.poweritalia.co.uk/

There's a very good buyers guide in this section and it may be advisable to see if an experienced owner can take a look with you - there are ample abused dogs around

Oh and yellow is the only colour to have

I've always liked Portofino Blue.......

I have always liked the LE Black. Good solid colour! :-) Goodluck with the car buying hope you get a nice one.

Hi and welcome

First thing to do would be to scour this forum thoroughly about the pros and cons of a Coupe and there's a buyers guide somewhere on here (someone will put a link up for it, I'm useless at using the search engine).

Once you get some colour names, then Google for some images as there are some lovely colours, but only you can decide what you like.

Obviously, being a Sprint Blue owner, that's my favourite Coupe colour.

Others I quite like are: Black (the LE straight black), Portofino Blue, Electric Blue, Wine Red.

Sorted that misquote for you T

Everyone likes Portofino blue, not everyone is man enough to admit it

Just buy the best one you can, and see what colour you end up with. That's bound to be your favourite colour before long!

hello there,sound advice from all above , i,m pretty much new myself as i,ve only owned my coop for a few months. i don't know how old you are but the 20vt is the one
colour wise i know its like food but the sprint blu looks great. see the cars&coulors in the flesh, much better.
for what they are the coop in my opinion is quite a cheap car for what you get thing is the bills can soon mount up, running costs can be high. i still get a thrill & have a stupid grin on my face when i drive the coop, braw. best of luck with your choice what ever you choose

Correct.

As Swiss Toni said...

"Choosing a car is like choosing a woman. Firstly have a look through some magazines, to see which type you prefer".

Did you buy that Plus in the only colour to have then?

Hi and welcome. For a safe, warranted car, look here:
http://dealerservices.autotrader.co.uk/18035/soloitalia.htm

Also look on pistonheads and the for sale section here.
Aim to spend up to £6500 for the very best car but not less that £3000. The 20 Valve turbo is the model to go for if you want performance. Avoid modded cars like the plague. If I was buying now, I'd be tempted by this:
http://www.pistonheads.com/SALES/652022.htm

Late, low mileage 6 speed model with aircon/sunroof/leather and enthusiast owned. He's asking a bit too much I think considering the paintwork isn't perfect. Try and take someone from here with you when you look at any perspective purchase. Just post and ask.

Good luck

Nothing wrong with buying modded coupe as long as the mods are sympathetic and your aware of the consequences of the mods in terms of maintenance. I would far prefer an enthusiast owned lightly modded coupe than a random non modded from autotrader.

As buy on condition and history not mileage, make sure you can afford the maintenance and check insurance costs and you should have a happy coop life.

rubbish - a modded car suggests an owner that was interested in how it goes as much as how it looks, and is therefore more likely to be aware of what's under the bonnet

There is however a glimmer of truth in the statement - a poorly-modded car will probably break sooner than a stock example. If you're looking at anything with mods, check it out more carefully than you might otherwise have done. With most Coupes and *especially* modded ones, history and condition is everything. You can almost disregard mileage and age. My high-mileage, heavily modded 1998 20VT is probably in better condition (mechanically AND cosmetically) than most bog-standard 2000 / 2001 low-milers.

I can only echo Nigel's post.

A well modded car will always be more trouble to maintain, and you will have to learn a lot to do so.

A badly modded car that has been owned by someone without a clue, i.e. a chav that has just turned the boost up is pretty easy to spot. A coupe that has been poorly maintained is pretty obvious - just look at the bodywork, alloys, interior, and tyres. If it looks tired then it's obvious the owner has not looked after it.

I would only buy one from someone that knows a lot about the cars - never from a 'one carefully lady owner' who's definition of maintenance is to put some oil in when a light comes on.

Sprint Blue is a great colour - IF it has been polished and looked after, otherwise it looks faded and poor IMO.

Isn't that what I said?

Soon, Vickster

I also agree with Nigels post, BUT... if you dont know much about how things work under the bonnet then either be prepared to learn fast, or go for a standard one, IMHO

There is also a massive difference between a chav that turns the boost up and someone with a real enthusiasm to get the car running the very best it can. Not everybody who wants more power will then abuse it or run it to within an inch of it's life...

I agree that the LE Black is the best........when its clean, bloody nightmare!

And no matter how good a coupe is it'll never reach the lofty heights of the great MUFC!

[quote=Nigel
a poorly-modded car will probably break sooner than a stock example.
[/quote]

Probably?...probably?
For someone not familiar with coupes, it makes sense to not take risks. A lot of enthusiastic owners who really pamper their cars and don't spare any expense tend to be older owners who don't like modded coupes. Not all of us running standard cars are dunces who don't check their oil.
All other things being equal, the standard car is a better bet every time.

A better bet for what? It all depends what you want from the car

Alan, the point people are making is to make a statement like "avoid modded cars at all cost" is not actually that helpful. Firstly what is modded car? A car with a stainless steel exhuast is modded. Maybe you should have qualified your point by saying highly modified?

Also to exclude modded cars means missing out on many of the best looked after coupes in existance. Mods can actually increase safety, reliability, usability - its not all about running more boost and getting more power you know.

Plenty of people run these cars on tight budgets though, turbo starts smoking and it's a big hassle and expense. A well modded one tends to have had loads spent on it, maintained regardless of cost. Nobody is saying that all standard cars are neglected and run down, there are good ones and bad ones on both sides.

Chances are (given the same owner with same budget and same knowledge), a standard one may last longer, and cost less to maintain, but a well modded one will be more fun and more capable performance-wise. I'd rather have 2 years at 300bhp than 3 years at 200bhp, especially if I can afford to fix anything that might just so happen to break

Well im gonna disregard the comment on modded coupes being trouble.

Mines modded and its still not missed a beat, thats probably because i run it at well below 75% of what the mods ive done will allow and therefore havent pushed the safety of the internals.

Coupled with this, decent maintainence has really helped matters and i havent had any more work to do than some people i know with a standard one.

Only thing thats gone wrong recently was a perished boost pipe which was there since the car and that could happen to anyone.


Id say pick one that "feels right" preferably backed up by the sellers knowledge and enthusiasm of the car and paperwork for all the right bits being done at the right times.


Phill

Even if you buy an "Un-modded" car, how would you know it wasn't previously modified and then put back to standard before being sold?

I agree with those saying buy on condition, and evidence of the car being looked after over whether the car is standard or not.

Dust the ecu with talc for prints !!!

Seriously though, buying any car you do your homework, start looking and when you find a good one buy at the price you know its worth...... I dont think the coupe is any different be it modded or whatever except it s easy to forget the above faced with a "nice looking" coupe in the flesh.....

Oh really, I hadn't thought about that

Well nevermind - just try and remember for next time......

LOL

Thanks a million for all the responses. The modding issue isn't something I'm going to overly fret about at this stage. It's good to hear peoples opinions on it but my own is that custom paint jobs, body work and engine tweaks are all very personal, I'd like the car to reflect my personality rather than someone elses. That said, many modders have some serious love for their vehicles and you could do alot worse than benefit from a few years of someone's TLC into their coop, so I won't let modding get in the way if I like what's been done, even if it is alot.

It's hard to really get a sense of colour quality from online shots. One of the things that gets me about the coop are the beautiful lines, to me the less matt colours seem to accentuate them a little more, or is that a trick from only looking at pics and not in the flesh? Either way, I REALLY need to see some of these babies in the real world to decide.

The tan leather interior looks very nice. It has a touch of Simon Templar about it. Anyone got any experiences with it?

In relation to being fully loaded with all the extras (AC etc), is there much value here? I'd really like as many of the bells and whistles as I can get but without compromising my budget on the meat and veg or doubling my annual service bills on fancy toys that might need alot of attention. Decisions, decisions....

I'd also like to buy from an enthusiast, both for getting to know other coop owners and sharing in the enthusiasm. Is this forum the place or should I also be looking elsewhere?