Yahoo Autos At $24,700, Is This 1975 Fiat X1/9 A Targa-Topped Treat?
Today’s Nice Price or No Dice X1/9 is the epitome of a slow car that’s a barrel of inebriated monkeys to drive fast. Let’s see if this seemingly well-sorted example is priced to sell just as fast.
We all know that Mustangs offer some of the best bang for your buck of any car out there. But that begs the question of which version is the most banging. Well, based on yesterday’s comments, it isn’t the mid-’70s Mustang II. We were considering a restomodded 1978 Mustang II Fastback, and while it did look well put together, few of you were interested in it at all. That aversion extended to its $9,500 asking price, which ended up with a 54 percent No Dice loss and provided further proof that the Mustang II continues to be the marque’s least favorite model.
Read more
Joe Alwyn’s Uncharacteristic Photo Dump Has Us Asking: Is He OK?
Feast Your Eyes on a Selection of the Year’s Most Breathtaking Wildlife Photos
Fire festival: 15 times big actors got booted from big movies
Kari Lake and Marjorie Taylor Greene Are Reportedly in a Desperate 'Death Race' to Be Trump's VP
Balancing all that out were reliability issues, an interior seemingly made from tissue paper and good intentions, and Fiat’s faustian pact with the rust gods that tended to turn X1/9s into powder if so much as a sweaty guy walks within ten feet of them.
This 1975 Fiat X1/9 seems to be the exception to the rule. Not to being sassily styled and efficiently packaged, mind you, but to being poorly built and corroded beyond belief. Amazingly, this 40K Fiat is claimed to be mostly original. And all of the parts that aren’t have been either updated or improved in one way or another.
The car wears California Yellow paint over a chocolate vinyl interior. The paint appears to either be a respray or to have had some touching up done, at least based on the slight overspray evident on the windscreen trim. Regardless, it looks to be in great condition. Adding to the good looks, the car’s original U.S. spec battering ram bumpers have been removed and replaced by the smaller bumperettes from an earlier model. Extremely handsome and period-correct Chromodora mag wheels underpin and look to be wearing reasonably new Nexen rubber.
According to the ad, the cabin is almost as new, which is amazing considering that the quality of the materials on these cars was never the best, and on these models, they suffer the added onus of sitting out in the sun when the Targa is off. This one looks amazing, right down to the odd inverted shift boot. The carpet does appear to have suffered some fading, but considering the age, we can give it that. Another issue; Does it look odd to anyone else that the Fiat logo on the steering wheel is not sitting in the middle of the hub? Weird.
While the interior might be all original, the car’s mechanicals are not. The 1290cc SOHC four has apparently had a lot of work done, including pistons, a new ported head, and the replacement of the original 2-barrel carburetor with a pair of 36mm twin-choke Webers. On the other side of the house, the exhaust has been upgraded to an aftermarket header, muffler, and pipes. Stock this engine made 61 horsepower and 67 lb-ft of torque, giving the car a somewhat lackadaisical 15-second zero to sixty time. These updates should help it break that 12-second barrier.
Other maintenance items of note include various hydraulics, the clutch, and timing belt. All in all, this seems to be a sorted and tidy turn-key car. It also comes with a clean turn-key title.
Before we get into the discussion of the car’s price, I need to give notice that I will be sitting this one out. You see before I discovered girls, the Fiat X1/9 was my first love. I got to ride in one when I was 11 or 12 years old, which was around the time I was just getting really rabidly into cars. That experience sealed the deal for me. Your mileage may vary.
Ok, with that out of the way, let’s take a look at this Fiat’s $24,700 asking price. Yikes! That is a lot of cabbage for an old X1/9. But is it a bad deal for a mostly original (where it counts) edition with some smart mods (also where it counts) already undertaken? Or is that a good deal considering the car’s condition and the current market?
You decide!
Monterey, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at remslie@kinja.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.
More from Jalopnik
GoPro Wants the Hero12 Black to Be the Sports Camera for the TikTok Generation
Oliver Anthony reportedly stranded with the Rich Men of Burning Man
Sign up for Jalopnik's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
