Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo Limited Edition Review

Good Points
The most style, speed and practicality you can get in a FWD car. Very quick in a straight line, handling excellent for FWD, lots of room and stylish cabin.

Bad Points
Turning circle is about as good as a nuclear submarine, bodywork expensive, ground clearance too low at the front, paint gloss varnish finish can flake off under high pressure water spray - for example, in a carwash.

General Comments
This is another tale of a basically great car, but an owenership experience which is spoiled by niggling, expensive minor faults.



The Fiat 20v Turbo Coupe Limited Edition (mine was number 0053) was a triumph of engineering and style for Fiat, the most expensive and fastest car they have every produced. Designed by BMW design boss Chris Bangle, and with a lovely retro Ferrari-style interior by Pininfarina, it's a very tempting package. The cabin is roomy - much better ergonomics than the cousin Alfa Romeo GTV, and much bigger boot space and rear seats. Less plasticky too. So far so good.



The engine is fabulous - loads of grunt and a punchy, responsive turbo with relatively little lag. 220 bhp sees 60 pass by in about 6.5 seconds, and there's relatively little torque steer - in fact, provided you're speeding down sweeping bends and shallow corners, you'd think it was RWD. It's certainly quick enough to give a few red faces to the BMW 3 series crowd (unless it's an M3) - in fact, compared with Golf GTI's and the like, it's much quicker. The 6 speed Alfa box was a bit notchy but better spaced ratio-wise than my old Porsche 6 speeder - and generally I'd have to say for a FWD car, it was very surprising, and great fun to drive.



But then you try parking it and the whole picture changes. You see, it's all engine under the bonnet and the wheels don't have a great lock - so if you're trying to get in a narrow space, or a tight gap, the chances of you getting away without scraping the alloys or shaving the corners off the bumper are pretty slim. In fact, next time you see one, look at the front and back and see what shape it's in - I've noticed that at least 3 out of 5 have got scrapes. At first, I thought it was just a question of getting used to it. Crunch. I've got bigger cars into smaller spaces no problem, and frankly it got to a point where I was slowly destroying the bodywork.



Then in the pressure-powered hand carwash, a big lump of gloss varnish lifted off the bonnet. The bonnet is a single piece, double skinned design and expensive to replace if damaged, and about £800 to repaint. By this point, I was feeling ambivelent about the car - loved the performance, hated the low speed handling and soft paint finish. Then the aircon compressor broke. Another £800. For those of you who have never been to a Fiat main dealer, all I can say is how strange it is to pay Audi money for staff who seem almost comically disinterested in serving you. Except Continental Cars, who are certainly the best Fiat specialists in London and really helpful. The rest are idiots.



The excellent Brembo 4-pot brakes are great, the disks rust and squeak pretty much regardless of how long the car is exposed to the elements - which leads to shuddering under heavy breaking, and a loss of steering accuracy, but that's an occaisonal gripe. The lovely low-profile tyres lose pressure and pick up punctures more than others I've experienced.



I took it down to the South of France and back, and it did well (with no aircon). Lots of luggage space, very comfortable, and fun to drive on all but the most twisty mountain roads. Not as much fun as a good old fashioned RWD design, but as FWD goes, excellent. Then I got home and scraped-off a wheelarch trying to navigate a narrow car park entrance. And the front spolier (unique to later turbos) scrapes on everything. especially supermarket car ramps, the Eurostar train, Cross Channel Ferries, speed humps, stones, roadkill and roads that aren't completely flat and made of smooth tarmac. It had to go.



The insurance is high, the performance is great, but if you're thinking of buying one of these flawed gems, measure your garage and consider your parking space at work. If it's too small for a BMW 7 series, you ain't got room for a Fiat Coupe. If you still want one, check the paint for chips and cracks, test the airon for a prolonged period, and test drive it round your local ASDA car park on a busy Saturday afternoon. If you can live with the niggles, it's about as good a FWD cars go - and for that Fiat should be congratulated.