This month, I have been mostly buying under-rated Italian sports cars….. I picked up a lairy yellow Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo for a fair price on account of the fact that it needed a cam belt change and a little bit of minor body work. Given that I knew very little about these cars and am really flying blind, I thought it might be worth documenting my progress with the car to help any other Fiat Coupe newbies.

I always loved the look of the Fiat Coupe, which sports a Pininfarina badge, though in actual fact they only designed the inside of the car. No matter - it’s beautiful inside and out. In my opinion, one of the best looking cars on the road, and it still stands proud beside more modern offerings. It’s a crying shame that Fiat stopped making it in 2000. The car is available in various engine types, but the 20v Turbo is the one to go for. The 5 cylinder 2 litre engine delivers 220BHP and the car achieves 60 in just 6.3 seconds, rolling on to a top speed of 155mph. That may seem like a lot of power for a front wheel drive car, but the usual torque steer is barely present due to a sophisticated limited slip diff that Fiat put on this model.

Driving it is sheer pleasure. The cabin is roomy and the leather seats are comfortable, if a little unsupportive laterally. Driving position is a little different to what I am used to, but it only took a couple of days to get comfortable with it. The rear seats are big enough to fit 2 small adults, or children in comfort, and our baby seat goes in quite happily. The Fiat Coupe is really easy to drive at low speeds - until you put your foot down it is a pussy cat. Boot the throttle and it turns into a slathering beast as you are rewarded with outrageous acceleration couple with a satisfying throaty engine roar. There’s not much that on the roads that will keep up with the Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo, and certainly nothing that looks as good or is as nice to drive for the low prices you now need to pay.

Insurance is group 20, so unless you have a load of no claims, prepare yourself for a steep bill. Personally, I insured with Direct Line for £480 per year fully comp. I have 7 years no claims, and am age 28. In fact that’s only £20 more than I was paying for the Vectra 1.8 that this car replaces.

Fuel economy is good. I’ve been taking it fairly easy and I’m getting 30MPG out of it. Nothing wrong with that!

The problem with these cars is the expensive maintenance. I phoned a few garages about the cambelt change and got quoted some ludicrous prices - one of them was over a grand. This is because the engine generally has to come out in order to change it. After some shopping around, I booked it in with Lui’s L. B. Autos in Somerton. They are Fiat specialists and will do the job for less than £500. That seems reasonable to me, so I’ll let you know how that goes.

The bodywork is basically a dink in the bonnet (about the size of a 10p) and some creases in both the doors. I’ve decided to try out some paintless dent repair, and I have a guy coming to the office in a few weeks to do it for me. Whether or not he will be able to fix them all, I don’t know. I will post some before and after shots. Also some wart on the anus of humanity has keyed it, so it will need to go to a bodyshop at some point anyway. I don’t mind spending the money to get it looking right.

Incidently, the audio speaker system in the car is excellent. I bought a basic Sony head unit with an aux-in for my iPod and it kicks ass. No need for any additional sounds in my opinion.

The only problem I’ve had so far is that the car was misfiring a little. It was fairly minor, just a bit of shuddering and hesitancy at low revs in higher gears. It was also shaky from about 4500rpm to 6000rpm, which of course is where peak power is. Turns out the spark plugs had got wet. My mechanic (Chris Jones, Taunton 07989 745067) took the plugs out, cleaned them and re-gapped them as they were quite worn. Now it goes like a rocket and is very smooth. I’ve got some new Bosch plugs which will go in when it gets serviced, but in the meantime it fires just fine. Water + spark plugs don’t mix. The garage I bought it from had steam cleaned the engine - very bad for engines.

More as and when.