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Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:32 am
by davomoto
When I was last in Italy, my cousin had an origional cinquecento, Fiat 500. It was so cool. I told him I was going to bring one home in my suitcase, only a slight exageration!

Davo

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 11:33 am
by Vince Lupo
Yeah I see the new ones everywhere when I do come to Europe, and I think it was European car of the year in 2008. The nice thing about the car is that it's proven itself in Europe for 3 years, so hopefully they've ironed out whatever kinks there were.

I don't know whether we'd go for the 'Pop' or 'Lounge' model, but we'll figure it out when it in fact arrives here (supposed to be sometime in March), and I believe they're talking about the Abarth model coming out in 2012. I think the regular 500 is already in California?

The original ones are neat, but they'd probably get swallowed up here on the highways.

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 11:48 am
by cyclon36
Vince Lupo wrote: The nice thing about the car is that it's proven itself in Europe for 3 years, so hopefully they've ironed out whatever kinks there were.
I wouldn't count on that. The 500 we're getting is only closely related to the one that's sold in Europe. The chassis design had to be scrapped and replaced with something that would pass US crash testing. Probably and improvement but it's a new platform. It suppose to be slightly larger as well. Also, the 500 we're getting is not being made in Italy, but in Mexico. Hopefully not anywhere near the VW plant as the stuff that rolls out of there is only good for a trip to the service shop from the sales floor.

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 1:39 pm
by Vince Lupo
You might be right on that point, so perhaps it might be an idea to wait a year or so to see how it does. Having said that, my 2006 Jetta TDI has been doing great (I think it was made in Mexico), so maybe I got a good one.

Shot from the Canada excursion at my old stomping grounds -- holding a copy of the Maryland Gazette (take a photo with it while you're on vacation, and they'll run the photo in the paper!).

Image

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:45 pm
by Superchicken
My very first car was a Fiat 500. It was a 12 HP air cooled twin. The thing had backwards doors, and a slide back cloth roof. One day while leaving school, I power-shifted from first to second, Kaboom went the tranny! Not to worry, as I knew where one with a bad motor, sat parked.. We bought it and switched trans-axeles , by laying the cars on their sides on mattresses in my Dads garage.

Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2011 11:59 am
by davomoto
Great story! The cars are so small, I can easily see how you guys were able to do that!

Davo

Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:55 pm
by Glenardo
Nice Falcon, I have a '61 Ranchero that was my moneypit before I got the CB77. I'll post a pic later. Check out this site.
http://www.fordsix.com/ The forum is is great resource. ( almost as good as this one) Also for parts try http://falconparts.com/