I'm from Italy, and just wanted to point out a couple things: 1) As Ted was saying, in Italy these are simple cars to work on because we have a lot of spare parts, we just replace them. Also, italian cars are full of "tricks" that make them challenging to fix if you don't know them and really simple if it's the tenth time you are fixing it 2) If is not sold at a high price, an Italian car that comes to America is not in a pristine state. Cars to export at a reasonable price are often ok aesthetically and they run, but a lot of things are worn out and need a fix/replacement For us, this kind of car is like your average 'poor man choice' truck: they do their work and we fix them as cheap as possible, if they are still running At last, consider that all the italian cars from the 60s (evan Lancia and Maserati) and FIATs from 70s and early 80s are not built for staying at 80/90 mph for hours like 60s and 70s american cars: try to not stress them during long trips, treat them like nowadays electric cars and you'll be just fine Love your channel from Italy 🟢⚪🔴
i relate to what you are saying. i have owned three fiat 600s and one fiat 1600 spyder. all were fun and i loved em. i blew the engine in one 600 totally just with casual driving, and the head gasket in one 600 going up a small drive way incline. and the third i never did learn what was wrong with it. the spyder was super cool. however my girlfriend drove it over a curb and whatever hit the bottom of the engine ended up killing it later. they fixed by pulling the pan and then it was good again. so i know what you mean. i always carried a wrench on a chain around my neck just in case. the term fiat, fix it again tony, was well ingrained in me during my fiat ownership over the years. they taught me to learn. i owned the original mini's also during the same period, and they were similar. fix'em fast. i owned one citroen 2cv, and expected the same, but, it refused to break down, as did the vw bug and kubelwagen. go figure. some cars are an experience to be lived and fun if you have patience.
Everyone knows Italy makes the best sports cars in the world. These jokers in the video ( who surely didn't buy their clothes at Versace!) buy the most economical old FIAT and damn a whole country. It is like buying a bookcase at Walmart and putting down America's furniture. Sad to be so jealous of Italians. But Italy has the BEST food. the BEST art, Opera. Architecture, Cinema, etc. And not to mention the most sexy people. When your girlfriend looks like Angela Merkel, it is understandable to be jealous!
I'll never forget the time 4 of us were 'blasting' down a local freeway here in SoCal in a 2-year-old 1960 Fiat Bianchina (500) and were instantaneously almost thrown through the windshield by 'some' loss of power. A quick check on the side of the road showed that one of the spark plug wires had fallen off. It's amazing what happens when you loose half of your power at once. GOOD TIMES!
Had one as a student car to commute and it was great. I learnt to fix it after a poor repair by a shop. The head gasket needed repair which they repaired. The exhaust fell off 2 days later and they claimed it was because the car vibrates so much. Rather than argue I figured how hard can it be? The rear cover easily lifts off so you don't need to reach over it when servicing.... One trolley jack. Disconnecting stuff and unbolt rear panel below the hatch, then just roll the complete engine transmission out the rear. Took 1/2 hour and it was my first car repair attempt. Found shop had stripped the exhaust bolts so removed head for repair. Also found shop had put head gasket on wrong way. Fixed anything that needed it and it did great service. It was durable and reliable. I found also it had later engine big bore fitted (700cc) so had no trouble on the motorway at 65mph. My current FIAT has several computers and got it cheap due to having 89 error codes up. I figured voltage issue and sure enough worn battery clamp. $5 later down to 8 error codes. I noticed previous owner had fitted small cheap battery. Put in correct one and all codes cleared. Have picked up several cheap FIATs over the years and invariably the faults have been down to poor & incorrect maintenance. Once fixed properly I have found them reliable cars. I miss my 500...
Having owned a couple of Fiats back in the early 70’s I can verify the moniker of “Fiat, fix it again Tony”. I believe Italians invented the job of riding mechanic.
I fixed my father's 500 giardinetta with the flat engine. We had a grocery shop and that little car has been of great help for the shop for about 25 years. It was always used for deliverys with weights of abt 150/250 kgs. At the end it was really falling apart but the engine was still running very well.
The tether on the engine cover just turns and comes out, then there’s just one nut holding it on and it slides to left and comes off, takes about 20 seconds makes it a lot easier to work on. I can relate to the frustration of the positive cable being so close to the lever for the solenoid though, burnt a brand new cable in half because it arced right after I installed it lol. On a side note a lot of people move the coils to the drivers side because the heat from the exhaust is known to cook them, I haven’t had any issues but I know a lot of people do it as a preventive measure. I love mine and use it as a daily driver when it’s not raining or snowing (no wipers), then I daily my crew cab f350 dually. Also just fyi a set of sturdy fourwheeler ramps is enough to load one of these in the back of a long bed pickup, it helps if you can get the truck in a ditch or something though but I have hauled mine all over the USA in my dually.
@@paulbonatti2128 The 126p engine/trans. will also bolt directly into the 500 by changing just the rear motor mount, I believe...126p engines also have electronic ignition as well.
I don’t think it even requires changing the mount. I swapped from a 126 drivetrain back to an original 500 one in my car and everything seemed the same (besides the starter cables due to the 126 being off to the side). The only thing I remember was that axles seemed just a fraction longer on the 126 stuff, they were harder to pull out than the 500 ones were to put in. I even swapped several parts between them due to leaks. I will swap the 126 stuff back in once I rebuild it all.
Back in my teen years, a fellow student at Grammar School (in England) during my "Prefect" days, BLOCKED my 'FIAT 127 1050CL' IN with his FIAT 500 at the Grammar School parking lot one afternoon ...... and I was in a hurry to collect my dear Dad from work, a good few miles away. With 2 other fellow school-buddies from our year, we just simply ......... LIFTED his '500 and CARRIED it a couple o'feet away, enabling me to make a quick getaway. Meanwhile, he'd been hiding and watching this whole feat. He went totally BALLISTIC and dashed outside, clambered into his '500 (he was real 'PODGY') and chased me the couple o'miles to my Dad's factory, thinking he'd overtake me and prevent me from completing my mission! 😂 , BUT ......... he stood absolutely NO CHANCE! By the time Dad emerged from the works, the villain drove away, with his tail between his legs.
Fiat cars act as their own kind of "Sorting Hat". When they get the right kind of owner (keeps up on maintenance, doesn't drive them abusively) they really respond to care. When Fiats fall into the wrong hands, the owners quickly become pedestrians again. It is a self-correcting cycle.
You can literally take out the engine of that car with 4 bolts. Try to get off the starting engine from a merceded class A, for example. On all that, there is this retoric that the "italian" car will break whatever what. Beside the broken rocker, that can be an insufficient oil pressure problem or someone just torqued it at 200, the rest is all wear parts. The distributor? the starting engine? the carburator, those components wear on everycar in existent. The rocker probably broke because the engine wasn't checked before. The only thing i agree on, is the wire that's connect the starter, beside the fact that can short, if it rust, it can remain inserted, and that's where you can catch fire. Especially if it's an old car, the cable can get stuck.
have owned 4 Five Hundreds and I have broken down with each at least once. It was also once on the starter, several times on the ignition and carburetor, but never really on the inside of the engine. So don't be afraid ;-) And in Germany we say: FIAT means: Fehler In Allen Teilen = (Error in all parts) Für Italiener ausreichende Technik = (For Italians sufficient technology)
I used to work on these when they were new (yes I'm that old). Bad starting from hot or cold was a major problem for various reasons such as the resin spacer block between the carb and head used to warp and let in air (simple fix just take it off and abrade flat using 220 grit and a surface plate), the head gaskets used to blow on a regular basis (easy to check for as there are two hollow bolts at the front and rear of the engine, if you can feel pulsing air coming out of the holes the gasket has blown) and of course as you have already found out, starter motor faults. Bushes, pinion (and sometimes , ring gear) and the failure of the manually operated solenoid caused by the cable operated lever pushing the operating plunger at a far from optimum angle making the bakerlite insulation crack and restrict movement. This is often felt at the starter control lever needing several tugs before moving full stroke. I think you'll find ownership of this challenging. FIAT. Fix It Again Tomorrow. 😄
This is Tony speaking. Cinque Centos in post-war Italy were often driven and maintained by the same person. While the maintenance was probably more than anyone would reasonably do today, I suspect that these were probably way more reliable (when properly maintained) than their rep in this country would suggest. I think that was probably true for all Fiats. It’s kind of like a Jeep today. Lots of people love to hate on Jeeps for being unreliable, but we’ve never had an issue with any of ours.
Brand new "TO US". This little bugger was old before most of you were a gleam in your daddy's eye. Who knows what abuse it has endured over it's extended lifetime before it was restored with duct tape, Bondo, coat hangers, and a brand new coat of red paint before you got stars in your eyes. Admittedly, they were less than reliable out of the box back in the 60s but, I bought mine for under $100 way back then. I would still have it but for my ex wrapping it around a telephone pole shortly after blowing off a VW. That thing was more fun than anyone should have for $100 and it still ran when I gave it away.
Pro tip: One small nut on the left hand side and undo the tether cable and the engine hatch comes off. My immediate guess when you mentioned the problem was a valve clearance issue. Car power will slowly die when getting warm. I was kind of close. I also noticed that the rubber boots on your plug wires are not secured properly. They are to help seal off air leaks as the fan, attached to the dynamo, turns and blows air across the cylinder heads. The boot on the back plug wire is not seated in the hole and the boot for the front plug wire is upside down. Also looks like a Panda coil has been put in place of the normal coil (right side wheel well)? Best parts places: Mr. Fiat in Georgia and Fiat van der Laan in the Netherlands.
as has no doubt been mentioned, the engine lid tether twists and unhooks so it can open right up. The lid is held on by one nut. These 500s can be frustrating as they've got old and had loads of bodged repairs over the years. I recommend fitting a 123 electronic distributor and ditching the points and condenser. That and worn fuel pumps seem to cause a lot of issues. The good thing is nearly every part is available new and really quite cheaply. Enjoy it. Oh, and shall we have a sweepstake on how people make the "fix it again Tony" "joke"?😄
Glad you pointed out how easy it is to remove the lid, I was about to do the same. I've had three of these over the years, across the pond in the UK. I bought the first one as a non-runner. The timing gear on the crank, had lost all it's teeth. Cheap quick fix. Fascinating tensioner on the timing chain. Little 'flails' on the chain (looks like a chainsaw) Cenrtigually flain out and take up the tension. I found the achilles heel on these cars, are the king pin bushes. manually geased and no one does, so they seize and turn on the wrong bit and wear.
Thanks, Tommy and Brendon. Ted was fantastic. My father used to say of my car purchases, make sure you have good shoes and money for the bus. FIAT = found in a trashcan, fixed it again today. I bought an '84 4000 from a clock repair professional - detail-oriented, every nut and bolt clean and in place.
Step 1 while working on 500 or 126 fiats - remove that damn bonnet.That's one nut only and it doesn't require adjusting afterwards. Its also very easy to drop the whole engine and trans. That's a 10 minutes job if bolts aren't rusted
Back in 76 I went to Germany 🇩🇪 with my sister. My Aunt had one of these. No synchros so double clutch. My Uncle was Italian called it the Mini Maserati. I was always a big guy...so my sister sat in the rear single seat and I was in the front passenger. My Aunt drove. Top speed was about 100 kph
During the1960s we'd often go to Italy from Britain. No matter how fast we were belting along we were often passed by these little Fiat 500s or so it seemed.
"...and then within 20miles of buying it, the engine cuts out. So classic and so iconic to the italian reputation". Whoa, definitely no clichès here... First of all, this not a "brand new car": it's almost 70years old. Its bodywork may be very well polished, but who knows what kind of idiotic mess has been done to its engine when it was rebuilt. Secondly, Italian cars (of the 70's and 80's mostly, not always) have been the butt of the joke for realiability but for rust & electric appliances problems, not for the engines. Those engines, the mighty 479 cm³ air cooled, were so simple, solid, durable and easily fixable that that was the reason why it became "the people's car" here in Italy. In 2005 a "500 R" of 1973 went 10.000 miles from Bari (Italy) to Beijing, and in 2007 it did another 6400 miles aroud the Mediterranian arriving to the Sahara. Back in 1964 a 500D was used to travel around the Antarctica by the Departement of Industrial and Scientific Research of New Zealand. You can do better if you really have to say this kind of bs. Over 4 millions of these care were sold, if they were so unreliable, Fiat (and the whole slice of the Italian lower-middle class) would have gone bankrupt. God I hate this channel.
In heaven: The police are English, the cooks are French, the engineers are German and your girlfriend is Italian. In hell: The police are German, the cooks are English, the engineers are French and your girlfriend is Italian.
Another variation I've heard: In heaven: The police are English, the cooks are French, your lover is Italian and the Germans run things. In hell: The police are French, the cooks are English, your lover is German and the Italians run things.
Another variation: In heaven the police are English, the cooks French, the Italians the lovers, the Swiss the administrators and the Germans the mechanics. In hell, the English are the cooks, the French the administrators, the Italians the mechanics, the Swiss the lovers and the Germans the police.
I already wanted to write you this comment in the previous video. From the audio there was a rattling noise in the low angle shot of the oil pan while you were pulling those 4 or 5 accelerations. I was somewhat surprised when one of you while walking, claimed that the sound reminded him of a lawn mower. I haven't seen this video yet but from the sound in my opinion that 500 ate the piston rings. Your luck is that such a simple engine can be repaired with little money but I have no idea if you have mechanics with the right expertise in the USA.
I hope you guys end up with more reasons to use Ted as your mechanic, I needed a good laugh and this was GREAT! Just a genuine, experienced but fun mechanic. Great video as usual guys!
That Fiat 500 is cute as a button. My doctor Dad had a lab worker who had a Fiat 500. She was very short and the Fiat fit her perfectly. I was just a kid so I fit in there too. My sisters and I loved to ride in that Fiat 500.
The biggest issue with the 500 and the 126 is the two bearing crankshaft. They can snap if frequently over revved, or the bearings break up. Lots of oil leaks from the oil tubes around the pushrods.
Similar to the 850: I had a '72 850 Sport Coupe in Germany (new), and went thru two engines due to the oil pump being at the end of the crankshaft (there might have been some high rev's for one of them)
I remember my mom used to have a similar car to this, a fiat 126. It had the same engine but upgraded a bit. I remember when the car didn't wanna start my mom would take a wrench and smack the hell out of the starter, and the car would come back alive! Worked every time.
Just 1 nut on the rear will remove the engine cover. And no that didn't run perfectly... should do > 100kmh!! I'd say $16k should have done better.... Since it BROKE a push-rod rocker, check if somebody has not SQUASHED the rocker cover... which happens when you severely overtighten the bolts. You will notice, because then it usually also leaks oil. But at least you found a good mechanic. 🤗
@@autouniontypeA Mine is a 500R from 1976, when still original 600cc it did 80km/h (50mph) in 3rd gear easily. After the tuneup which I regularly did it would even do 90km/h in 3rd gear. 115kmh top. And that's standard. 😁
My first car was a Fiat 126, that was standard and 9 years old. I did 70mph on that car on the motorway. Ok it was a 650cc car but heavier than the 500. My tuned 595cc will do 80mph but aerodynamics make the front lift and the steering goes very light, so it stops me from finding the true top speed.
@@autouniontypeA I shoved one of those 650 engines in my 500 and then tuned it... added 5th gear... actually it is pretty scary... I think it will do 100mph but I will never ever try it.
Had a Fiat 500 that I purchased new while stationed in Naples, Italy. It was a fun car to drive until my wife decided to park it outside on the street rather than in the garage under our apartment building. It was stolen. When every you parked it while shopping you had to pay someone to watch it to make sure that it was still there when you came back to get it.
I have only owned one FIAT in my car owning lifetime. I bought a brand new 1977 131 wagon in 1980! It had been on the lot unsold for 3 years and only had 107 miles on it when I bought it and I got it for 50% off list price. It was a five speed with optional A/C and rear wiper. Other then the air conditioning being woefully inadequate and having to put up with a buzzy engine spinning along at 4,000 RPM at 70mph I enjoyed owning the car. It never failed to start or left me stranded. The dealership was pathetic but I found a competent import garage to maintain and repair it. It lasted 12 years and 130k before rust in the floorboards did it in.
Its 50yrs old and 500cc . I have had hundreds of fiats and if you take car of them you can get thousands of Ks trouble free. PS They are not part of the same coumpany FIAT actually purchased CHRYSLER.
In most cases it's not the starter cable itself that snaps, but rather a little plastic clamp fastened to the heating tube, which keeps the cable tube from moving.
I BELIEVE IT BREAKS! 😡 I don't think you know what you're dealing with. It is a car with a half liter engine. If you keep stressing her like this I don't think it will last much longer. In Italy, 47 years after the last Fiat 500 produced, there are still thousands of 500s circulating IN DAILY USE! The fiat 500 constitutes 1% of the Italian car parc! Not bad for a 1950s car. Nothing to do with your boilers on wheels!
I now have trailer envy. That thing is sick. What a piece of kit. On the other hand you also have a Fiat 500 which, while cool, sounded very unhappy to start. When it started slowing you should have backed off because that sounded ominously like my mates old one which he seized. It ran again once cooled but it was never right until he did a rebore kit with oversized pistons. That starting on one cylinder first then picking up is exactly what his did. Then after a couple thousand more miles is started burning oil. On the good side now Ted has fixed all the bodges at least it should run something like correctly for the time being. He's not going to liek you when he's got to pull the top ends off though.
Around 1960 my mum had a brand new Fiat 500 Giardineira. Three weeks old it caught fire taking me and my sister to school. Two doors of course and us with the engine on fire in the back! Good times.
Love Ted. If he has qualms about a 2 cylinder air cooled engine tell him it is an AC Invacar, but with a real transmission rather than a CVT with a centrifugal clutch. Check out Hubnut and the series about TWK , pronounced "Tuck" because Welsh and because Hubnut.
you should put those rubber pieces on the ignition wires nicely in to place they are kinda vital for the aircooling system. there for a reason. hot air shouldn’t come out around the spark plugs. regards from a cinquecentisto from germany. owning a 68 500F 🇮🇹👍😉
Electrification or an engine swap would be kind of tempting as most problems aren't with the rest of the car...of course it's not easy to make adapter plates or whatever else you need to connect things to the drivetrain... People do attempt such things though as you will find on RUclips... It would probably be harder on these rear engine cars though with small engine bays... My Fiat exposure is one 850, X1/9, 124's so I can't really say... I had the "big" cars. The last two were quite a bit better cars than an 850 even...but the small ones are cute as can be... An engine swap is intriguing, I wonder if anyone ever did one successfully...
@michaelkulman7095 it might be an ideal project for @robotcantina8957 to try, since they've put a Harbor Freight Predator engine into a rear engine Renault R10
Dear TFLclassics staff, this is the first comment I write on RUclips, and it will probably also be the last. First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your reviews, which are cultured, elegant and, above all, intelligent. Humbly, since no one has done so, I would like to point out to you that you have taken a 17 (not 18) bhp car, manufactured 51 years ago, and thrown it at 100 km/h on a motorway. I would also point out that you are complaining that you broke it. Production of the 500 was stopped in 1975, production of the Giardiniera was stopped in 1977, I was born in 1976 and I don't remember ever seeing a 500 on a motorway. I would also point out that you are complaining that you broke it. Production of the 500 was stopped in 1975, production of the Giardiniera was stopped in 1977, I was born in 1976 and I don't remember ever seeing a 500 on a motorway. In another RUclips clip, another gentleman tried to drive a 500 on the motorway and, of course, he broke it; he was a German gentleman. Equipping a car with a lawnmower engine is an idea that you may or may not like; I, modestly, like it. I won't mention all cases, just a few: in 1957 (500, 13 hp), in 1936 (Topolino, 13 hp), in 1932 (Balilla, 20 hp) and up to 1927 (T, 20 hp). Speaking of motorways, when my father was doing his military service, he was stationed in Tarcento (UD). He would travel there from my region (Abruzzo) and return home driving a 500 on the motorway. When he had already left the motorway tollgate at Pescara, he would take the road home and, when he reached the top of a steep hill, he would say to himself 'I have arrived'. Now I have something to say, but I have to specify that it is said 'in spite of everything' (I cannot be more specific, because I do not want to offend anyone, neither people nor industry). The 500 has been the most reliable car in the history of industry, this is because it has very few parts and 'what isn't there can't break', as an American industrialist, whom I won't mention by name, taught us. Many years ago an expedition to the North Pole was organised and a 500 was chosen as the car, the 500 went and came back. I could cite a thousand other examples of the 500's reliability, but I'll stop here. In the past, I drove a 1972 500. What I liked about that car was that I could squeeze into any narrow one-way city street, which is one of the reasons why so many rich people fell in love with the 500. I stopped driving that 500 because, when I was 19, I had an accident in that car. Since 'those who go slowly stay healthy and go far', I didn't even break my little toe. That car had covered 150000 km without ever having broken down seriously. I got myself another 500, the fate of which I will discuss later. I see many commentators here who refer to the FIAT acronym by talking about Tony, Tom and Tomorrow, and they are all right, because poor Engineer Giacosa was not worth a shoe of any of them. I saw, in your channel, a respectful review of the 2CV. In 1948, the 2CV had a 375 cc engine, with an output of 9 hp. That engine was designed by Becchia and the bodywork of that car was designed by Bertoni (with an i), who managed to prevent it from being produced with a body of truly French ugliness. This means that the 2CV is no more French than the Monna Lisa: if some reviewer knew this, he would enjoy mocking the 2CV as he would the 500. Today, no one ever drives my 500 and I still pay tax, not a lot, just a little tax. I was thinking of selling it to some foreigner who would pay ten times its value, but instead you have helped me to make the right decision and for that I thank you wholeheartedly: on Wednesday I will drive it for the last time to the junkyard workshop and then return by bus: the appointment is already made. They don't need me and I don't need them. An humble advice: be careful with the 500, because FIAT also means 'Fermati, Imbecille, Abbiamo Tamponato'. You do a lot of nice reviews, but to all the other would-be reviews I would like to give another humble piece of advice: often devoting yourself to a healthy solitary activity is more satisfying than doing reviews. Thank you for your patience, I salute you.
Being the owner of both the original 500 and another Fiat (Punto first series with FIRE engine), I can certainly confirm the reliability. Suffice it to mention the legendary FIRE, one of the most reliable and repairable engines ever (perhaps the only one that has not had consequences in the event of a timing belt failure!). Among other things, an extraordinarily simple engine since it was designed with aeronautical approaches! More than anything they recall the legendary and indestructible diesel engines of Fiat, which also invented the "Common Rail" technology (selling the project to Mercedes-Benz)! Fiat, with the 128 (which they had in the family!), the first front-wheel drive medium-compact model (winner of the "car of the year" award in 1970 «if I remember correctly»), gave birth to an undisputed "queen" of the European and world market, or rather the "mythical" Volkswagen Golf since Volkswagen at the time was in industrial and economic difficulties...
I was right in my comment of the previous video about this 500. The engine did not sound right at all. It sounded like a bag of nails and a good Fiat 500 engine should sound quite muffled. Besides that, 60 Mph should not be an issue for a Fiat 500.
Fiat 500 vehicles of the L, R etc have a manufacturer listed top speed of 65 mph. You should be able to drive it at or close to that speed if it is working well.
Is Ted the same guy you bought that old white station wagon from on the video you had bought that blue jeep to compete with the brown Mazda pickup and the red Chevy Blazer?
We need more of Ted, he is a treasure.
You gotta be cool when your name is Ax.
Nah, fuck ted who wets the bed
I wonder if they have a RUclips channel?
You must have DEEP pockets and a SHALLOW "brain-pan" to keep "investing" in these PIECES OF S&IT, Ted!
Came here to say the same, I could listen to him go on and on all day.
I'm from Italy, and just wanted to point out a couple things:
1) As Ted was saying, in Italy these are simple cars to work on because we have a lot of spare parts, we just replace them. Also, italian cars are full of "tricks" that make them challenging to fix if you don't know them and really simple if it's the tenth time you are fixing it
2) If is not sold at a high price, an Italian car that comes to America is not in a pristine state. Cars to export at a reasonable price are often ok aesthetically and they run, but a lot of things are worn out and need a fix/replacement
For us, this kind of car is like your average 'poor man choice' truck: they do their work and we fix them as cheap as possible, if they are still running
At last, consider that all the italian cars from the 60s (evan Lancia and Maserati) and FIATs from 70s and early 80s are not built for staying at 80/90 mph for hours like 60s and 70s american cars: try to not stress them during long trips, treat them like nowadays electric cars and you'll be just fine
Love your channel from Italy 🟢⚪🔴
I love that the old Fiats are literal city cars, cars that are just for driving within the city, economically as well.
imagine an electric Fiat
i relate to what you are saying. i have owned three fiat 600s and one fiat 1600 spyder. all were fun and i loved em. i blew the engine in one 600 totally just with casual driving, and the head gasket in one 600 going up a small drive way incline. and the third i never did learn what was wrong with it. the spyder was super cool. however my girlfriend drove it over a curb and whatever hit the bottom of the engine ended up killing it later. they fixed by pulling the pan and then it was good again. so i know what you mean. i always carried a wrench on a chain around my neck just in case. the term fiat, fix it again tony, was well ingrained in me during my fiat ownership over the years. they taught me to learn. i owned the original mini's also during the same period, and they were similar. fix'em fast. i owned one citroen 2cv, and expected the same, but, it refused to break down, as did the vw bug and kubelwagen. go figure. some cars are an experience to be lived and fun if you have patience.
Non so perchè perdono ol tempo con la 500. La 600 fu la migliore auto della Fiat
Everyone knows Italy makes the best sports cars in the world. These jokers in the video ( who surely didn't buy their clothes at Versace!) buy the most economical old FIAT and damn a whole country. It is like buying a bookcase at Walmart and putting down America's furniture. Sad to be so jealous of Italians. But Italy has the BEST food. the BEST art, Opera. Architecture, Cinema, etc. And not to mention the most sexy people. When your girlfriend looks like Angela Merkel, it is understandable to be jealous!
Love Ted's knowledge and sarcasm. Need to have him on more episodes. Great job.
Nice Ted.....I see you're using fake YT accounts again.... 🤣
I think he was raging and now he's trying not to sound angry
I agree with you. Mr. AX should be a recurring guest.
Ted’s an ace mechanic and great on camera so we’d all like to see more of him and the Fiat too 👍
I'll never forget the time 4 of us were 'blasting' down a local freeway here in SoCal in a 2-year-old 1960 Fiat Bianchina (500) and were instantaneously almost thrown through the windshield by 'some' loss of power. A quick check on the side of the road showed that one of the spark plug wires had fallen off. It's amazing what happens when you loose half of your power at once. GOOD TIMES!
Had one as a student car to commute and it was great. I learnt to fix it after a poor repair by a shop.
The head gasket needed repair which they repaired. The exhaust fell off 2 days later and they claimed it was because the car vibrates so much.
Rather than argue I figured how hard can it be?
The rear cover easily lifts off so you don't need to reach over it when servicing....
One trolley jack. Disconnecting stuff and unbolt rear panel below the hatch, then just roll the complete engine transmission out the rear.
Took 1/2 hour and it was my first car repair attempt.
Found shop had stripped the exhaust bolts so removed head for repair.
Also found shop had put head gasket on wrong way.
Fixed anything that needed it and it did great service. It was durable and reliable.
I found also it had later engine big bore fitted (700cc) so had no trouble on the motorway at 65mph.
My current FIAT has several computers and got it cheap due to having 89 error codes up.
I figured voltage issue and sure enough worn battery clamp. $5 later down to 8 error codes.
I noticed previous owner had fitted small cheap battery. Put in correct one and all codes cleared.
Have picked up several cheap FIATs over the years and invariably the faults have been down to poor & incorrect maintenance.
Once fixed properly I have found them reliable cars. I miss my 500...
Having owned a couple of Fiats back in the early 70’s I can verify the moniker of “Fiat, fix it again Tony”. I believe Italians invented the job of riding mechanic.
The music on this episode is perfect !! Ted is also a natural on camera. He's better than actual RUclipsrs with massive subscriber tallies.
I fixed my father's 500 giardinetta with the flat engine. We had a grocery shop and that little car has been of great help for the shop for about 25 years. It was always used for deliverys with weights of abt 150/250 kgs. At the end it was really falling apart but the engine was still running very well.
The fact that you spent 16 grand on a 500 is amazing
The tether on the engine cover just turns and comes out, then there’s just one nut holding it on and it slides to left and comes off, takes about 20 seconds makes it a lot easier to work on. I can relate to the frustration of the positive cable being so close to the lever for the solenoid though, burnt a brand new cable in half because it arced right after I installed it lol. On a side note a lot of people move the coils to the drivers side because the heat from the exhaust is known to cook them, I haven’t had any issues but I know a lot of people do it as a preventive measure.
I love mine and use it as a daily driver when it’s not raining or snowing (no wipers), then I daily my crew cab f350 dually. Also just fyi a set of sturdy fourwheeler ramps is enough to load one of these in the back of a long bed pickup, it helps if you can get the truck in a ditch or something though but I have hauled mine all over the USA in my dually.
Came here to say this...the engine lid comes off with just one bolt and tether!
Buy a 126 fiat with a 650 engine and synchro gearbox. Enjoy 65-70 mph on the freeway also do some research before buying any classic.
@@paulbonatti2128 The 126p engine/trans. will also bolt directly into the 500 by changing just the rear motor mount, I believe...126p engines also have electronic ignition as well.
I don’t think it even requires changing the mount. I swapped from a 126 drivetrain back to an original 500 one in my car and everything seemed the same (besides the starter cables due to the 126 being off to the side). The only thing I remember was that axles seemed just a fraction longer on the 126 stuff, they were harder to pull out than the 500 ones were to put in. I even swapped several parts between them due to leaks. I will swap the 126 stuff back in once I rebuild it all.
Back in my teen years, a fellow student at Grammar School (in England) during my "Prefect" days, BLOCKED my 'FIAT 127 1050CL' IN with his FIAT 500 at the Grammar School parking lot one afternoon ...... and I was in a hurry to collect my dear Dad from work, a good few miles away. With 2 other fellow school-buddies from our year, we just simply ......... LIFTED his '500 and CARRIED it a couple o'feet away, enabling me to make a quick getaway. Meanwhile, he'd been hiding and watching this whole feat. He went totally BALLISTIC and dashed outside, clambered into his '500 (he was real 'PODGY') and chased me the couple o'miles to my Dad's factory, thinking he'd overtake me and prevent me from completing my mission! 😂 , BUT ......... he stood absolutely NO CHANCE! By the time Dad emerged from the works, the villain drove away, with his tail between his legs.
Fiat cars act as their own kind of "Sorting Hat". When they get the right kind of owner (keeps up on maintenance, doesn't drive them abusively) they really respond to care. When Fiats fall into the wrong hands, the owners quickly become pedestrians again. It is a self-correcting cycle.
You can literally take out the engine of that car with 4 bolts. Try to get off the starting engine from a merceded class A, for example.
On all that, there is this retoric that the "italian" car will break whatever what. Beside the broken rocker, that can be an insufficient oil pressure problem or someone just torqued it at 200, the rest is all wear parts. The distributor? the starting engine? the carburator, those components wear on everycar in existent. The rocker probably broke because the engine wasn't checked before.
The only thing i agree on, is the wire that's connect the starter, beside the fact that can short, if it rust, it can remain inserted, and that's where you can catch fire. Especially if it's an old car, the cable can get stuck.
have owned 4 Five Hundreds and I have broken down with each at least once. It was also once on the starter, several times on the ignition and carburetor, but never really on the inside of the engine. So don't be afraid ;-)
And in Germany we say: FIAT means:
Fehler In Allen Teilen = (Error in all parts)
Für Italiener ausreichende Technik = (For Italians sufficient technology)
But also Fire In All Tins!
Another FIAT........Fix It Again Tony
I used to work on these when they were new (yes I'm that old). Bad starting from hot or cold was a major problem for various reasons such as the resin spacer block between the carb and head used to warp and let in air (simple fix just take it off and abrade flat using 220 grit and a surface plate), the head gaskets used to blow on a regular basis (easy to check for as there are two hollow bolts at the front and rear of the engine, if you can feel pulsing air coming out of the holes the gasket has blown) and of course as you have already found out, starter motor faults. Bushes, pinion (and sometimes , ring gear) and the failure of the manually operated solenoid caused by the cable operated lever pushing the operating plunger at a far from optimum angle making the bakerlite insulation crack and restrict movement. This is often felt at the starter control lever needing several tugs before moving full stroke. I think you'll find ownership of this challenging. FIAT. Fix It Again Tomorrow. 😄
This is Tony speaking. Cinque Centos in post-war Italy were often driven and maintained by the same person. While the maintenance was probably more than anyone would reasonably do today, I suspect that these were probably way more reliable (when properly maintained) than their rep in this country would suggest. I think that was probably true for all Fiats. It’s kind of like a Jeep today. Lots of people love to hate on Jeeps for being unreliable, but we’ve never had an issue with any of ours.
Brand new "TO US". This little bugger was old before most of you were a gleam in your daddy's eye. Who knows what abuse it has endured over it's extended lifetime before it was restored with duct tape, Bondo, coat hangers, and a brand new coat of red paint before you got stars in your eyes. Admittedly, they were less than reliable out of the box back in the 60s but, I bought mine for under $100 way back then. I would still have it but for my ex wrapping it around a telephone pole shortly after blowing off a VW. That thing was more fun than anyone should have for $100 and it still ran when I gave it away.
Pro tip: One small nut on the left hand side and undo the tether cable and the engine hatch comes off.
My immediate guess when you mentioned the problem was a valve clearance issue. Car power will slowly die when getting warm. I was kind of close.
I also noticed that the rubber boots on your plug wires are not secured properly. They are to help seal off air leaks as the fan, attached to the dynamo, turns and blows air across the cylinder heads. The boot on the back plug wire is not seated in the hole and the boot for the front plug wire is upside down.
Also looks like a Panda coil has been put in place of the normal coil (right side wheel well)?
Best parts places: Mr. Fiat in Georgia and Fiat van der Laan in the Netherlands.
Good points ,I see you are a REAL Fiat man
as has no doubt been mentioned, the engine lid tether twists and unhooks so it can open right up. The lid is held on by one nut. These 500s can be frustrating as they've got old and had loads of bodged repairs over the years. I recommend fitting a 123 electronic distributor and ditching the points and condenser. That and worn fuel pumps seem to cause a lot of issues. The good thing is nearly every part is available new and really quite cheaply. Enjoy it. Oh, and shall we have a sweepstake on how people make the "fix it again Tony" "joke"?😄
Glad you pointed out how easy it is to remove the lid, I was about to do the same. I've had three of these over the years, across the pond in the UK. I bought the first one as a non-runner. The timing gear on the crank, had lost all it's teeth. Cheap quick fix. Fascinating tensioner on the timing chain. Little 'flails' on the chain (looks like a chainsaw) Cenrtigually flain out and take up the tension. I found the achilles heel on these cars, are the king pin bushes. manually geased and no one does, so they seize and turn on the wrong bit and wear.
Thanks, Tommy and Brendon. Ted was fantastic. My father used to say of my car purchases, make sure you have good shoes and money for the bus.
FIAT = found in a trashcan, fixed it again today. I bought an '84 4000 from a clock repair professional - detail-oriented, every nut and bolt clean and in place.
This person needs to be in every single video forever.
Fiat stands for "Fix It Again, Tony".
Step 1 while working on 500 or 126 fiats - remove that damn bonnet.That's one nut only and it doesn't require adjusting afterwards. Its also very easy to drop the whole engine and trans. That's a 10 minutes job if bolts aren't rusted
More Ted, love his wit and honesty.
Back in 76 I went to Germany 🇩🇪 with my sister. My Aunt had one of these. No synchros so double clutch. My Uncle was Italian called it the Mini Maserati. I was always a big guy...so my sister sat in the rear single seat and I was in the front passenger. My Aunt drove. Top speed was about 100 kph
During the1960s we'd often go to Italy from Britain. No matter how fast we were belting along we were often passed by these little Fiat 500s or so it seemed.
"...and then within 20miles of buying it, the engine cuts out. So classic and so iconic to the italian reputation". Whoa, definitely no clichès here... First of all, this not a "brand new car": it's almost 70years old. Its bodywork may be very well polished, but who knows what kind of idiotic mess has been done to its engine when it was rebuilt. Secondly, Italian cars (of the 70's and 80's mostly, not always) have been the butt of the joke for realiability but for rust & electric appliances problems, not for the engines. Those engines, the mighty 479 cm³ air cooled, were so simple, solid, durable and easily fixable that that was the reason why it became "the people's car" here in Italy. In 2005 a "500 R" of 1973 went 10.000 miles from Bari (Italy) to Beijing, and in 2007 it did another 6400 miles aroud the Mediterranian arriving to the Sahara. Back in 1964 a 500D was used to travel around the Antarctica by the Departement of Industrial and Scientific Research of New Zealand. You can do better if you really have to say this kind of bs. Over 4 millions of these care were sold, if they were so unreliable, Fiat (and the whole slice of the Italian lower-middle class) would have gone bankrupt. God I hate this channel.
In heaven: The police are English, the cooks are French, the engineers are German and your girlfriend is Italian.
In hell: The police are German, the cooks are English, the engineers are French and your girlfriend is Italian.
No in hell the police is soviet, the cooks are soviet and the engineers are soviets and the girlfriend is soviet.
My girlfriend is Italian and I approve this message.
Another variation I've heard:
In heaven: The police are English, the cooks are French, your lover is Italian and the Germans run things.
In hell: The police are French, the cooks are English, your lover is German and the Italians run things.
@@michaelmclachlan1650 In hell the police is German. Keep no doubts about that.
Another variation: In heaven the police are English, the cooks French, the Italians the lovers, the Swiss the administrators and the Germans the mechanics. In hell, the English are the cooks, the French the administrators, the Italians the mechanics, the Swiss the lovers and the Germans the police.
I already wanted to write you this comment in the previous video. From the audio there was a rattling noise in the low angle shot of the oil pan while you were pulling those 4 or 5 accelerations. I was somewhat surprised when one of you while walking, claimed that the sound reminded him of a lawn mower. I haven't seen this video yet but from the sound in my opinion that 500 ate the piston rings. Your luck is that such a simple engine can be repaired with little money but I have no idea if you have mechanics with the right expertise in the USA.
I hope you guys end up with more reasons to use Ted as your mechanic, I needed a good laugh and this was GREAT! Just a genuine, experienced but fun mechanic. Great video as usual guys!
Chris Obert is a legend. Glad you found him.
OMG, Ted is a hoot. I think he has a crush on your Fiat and will probably be its next owner. ❤ Happy for you that it’s fixed.
That Fiat 500 is cute as a button. My doctor Dad had a lab worker who had a Fiat 500. She was very short and the Fiat fit her perfectly. I was just a kid so I fit in there too. My sisters and I loved to ride in that Fiat 500.
The biggest issue with the 500 and the 126 is the two bearing crankshaft. They can snap if frequently over revved, or the bearings break up. Lots of oil leaks from the oil tubes around the pushrods.
Similar to the 850: I had a '72 850 Sport Coupe in Germany (new), and went thru two engines due to the oil pump being at the end of the crankshaft (there might have been some high rev's for one of them)
Fix IT Again Ted😂😅
Fix It Again Tony, (Ted).😁
The Fiat 500 and 650 are really good reliable little motors, you just had bad luck with that one.
Definitely agree 👍
i love this mechanic Ted he needs a channel of his own
I remember my mom used to have a similar car to this, a fiat 126. It had the same engine but upgraded a bit. I remember when the car didn't wanna start my mom would take a wrench and smack the hell out of the starter, and the car would come back alive! Worked every time.
FIAT = Fix It Again Tomorrow.
In Germany we say Fehler In Allen Teilen, in English it means Faults in all parts 😉
Feeble Italian Automotive Trash
Just 1 nut on the rear will remove the engine cover. And no that didn't run perfectly... should do > 100kmh!! I'd say $16k should have done better....
Since it BROKE a push-rod rocker, check if somebody has not SQUASHED the rocker cover... which happens when you severely overtighten the bolts.
You will notice, because then it usually also leaks oil. But at least you found a good mechanic. 🤗
Absolutely they do 100kmh all day long, I was surprised that it only did 52mph, I thought something is definitely wrong.
@@autouniontypeA Mine is a 500R from 1976, when still original 600cc it did 80km/h (50mph) in 3rd gear easily. After the tuneup which I regularly did it would even do 90km/h in 3rd gear. 115kmh top. And that's standard. 😁
My first car was a Fiat 126, that was standard and 9 years old. I did 70mph on that car on the motorway. Ok it was a 650cc car but heavier than the 500. My tuned 595cc will do 80mph but aerodynamics make the front lift and the steering goes very light, so it stops me from finding the true top speed.
@@autouniontypeA I shoved one of those 650 engines in my 500 and then tuned it... added 5th gear... actually it is pretty scary... I think it will do 100mph but I will never ever try it.
@@mariopizzamanmario8563 Brilliant! :)
Had a Fiat 500 that I purchased new while stationed in Naples, Italy. It was a fun car to drive until my wife decided to park it outside on the street rather than in the garage under our apartment building. It was stolen. When every you parked it while shopping you had to pay someone to watch it to make sure that it was still there when you came back to get it.
I purchased while in Naples and it was stolen. Imagine my shock.
I have only owned one FIAT in my car owning lifetime.
I bought a brand new 1977 131 wagon in 1980!
It had been on the lot unsold for 3 years and only had 107 miles on it when I bought it and I got it for 50% off list price.
It was a five speed with optional A/C and rear wiper.
Other then the air conditioning being woefully inadequate and having to put up with a buzzy engine spinning along at 4,000 RPM at 70mph I enjoyed owning the car.
It never failed to start or left me stranded.
The dealership was pathetic but I found a competent import garage to maintain and repair it.
It lasted 12 years and 130k before rust in the floorboards did it in.
Cars of the 1970s were notorious for dissolving into a pile of rust.
In Italy spares were sold in local shops for the 500. If you had to do any work in ghe engine bay you just removed the door.
Ted's comment about having only our expertise and our time to sell is brilliant!
Well, there you go. Fix It Again Tony.
I owned 5 1968 850 SC, 1972 124 SC, 1972 124 Spider, 1974 128 4 door sedan, 1976 128 2 door sedan. None of them stranded me.
This is why I avoid any video where you have American driving a Fiat saying stupid jokes that are not even funny.
I had the same thing happen too me with a 1972 Ford Pinto
Ted and Hayden really are absolutely wizards, best mechanics ever.
$16,000 for that? Dear God Why?
The "drawer full of $hit that I use to make things" is the most important drawer in any shop.
Its 50yrs old and 500cc .
I have had hundreds of fiats and if you take car of them you can get thousands of Ks trouble free.
PS They are not part of the same coumpany FIAT actually purchased CHRYSLER.
In most cases it's not the starter cable itself that snaps, but rather a little plastic clamp fastened to the heating tube, which keeps the cable tube from moving.
I BELIEVE IT BREAKS! 😡 I don't think you know what you're dealing with. It is a car with a half liter engine. If you keep stressing her like this I don't think it will last much longer. In Italy, 47 years after the last Fiat 500 produced, there are still thousands of 500s circulating IN DAILY USE! The fiat 500 constitutes 1% of the Italian car parc! Not bad for a 1950s car. Nothing to do with your boilers on wheels!
FIAT : Fix It Again Tomorrow.
Ted to the rescue again!❤️
Replace the engine with a Hyper 7 and a small battery pack.
You spent HOW MUCH ON THAT PUDDLE JUMPER ???!!! 😯
Ted reminds me of my long time mechanic and friend, Rick Brac down here at German Motorwerke in Albuquerque. Fun stuff.
I had one with engine and trans blown.Found both used and fixed it on the kitchen table,Wife wasn't happy but it ended up hers,so happy ending !
I now have trailer envy. That thing is sick. What a piece of kit.
On the other hand you also have a Fiat 500 which, while cool, sounded very unhappy to start. When it started slowing you should have backed off because that sounded ominously like my mates old one which he seized. It ran again once cooled but it was never right until he did a rebore kit with oversized pistons. That starting on one cylinder first then picking up is exactly what his did. Then after a couple thousand more miles is started burning oil.
On the good side now Ted has fixed all the bodges at least it should run something like correctly for the time being. He's not going to liek you when he's got to pull the top ends off though.
I remember Ted from the diamond in the rough series and he’s awesome. More Ted content!
when you go to get your Fiat, you should bring a truck that is not made by fiat. you dodged (pun intended) a bullet with it not breaking down as well.
Around 1960 my mum had a brand new Fiat 500 Giardineira. Three weeks old it caught fire taking me and my sister to school.
Two doors of course and us with the engine on fire in the back! Good times.
Such a fun and adorable little car 🥰
I never met Ted in person, but I spoke with him a few times years ago over the phone while trouble shooting my Citroën DS
Why the trailer? It would have fit fine in the truck bed.
But it would have taken a couple of beefy guys to lift it up into there.
Love Ted. If he has qualms about a 2 cylinder air cooled engine tell him it is an AC Invacar, but with a real transmission rather than a CVT with a centrifugal clutch. Check out Hubnut and the series about TWK , pronounced "Tuck" because Welsh and because Hubnut.
That guy is hilarious..hope to see him again
A LEMON FIAT...WOW!
you should put those rubber pieces on the ignition wires nicely in to place
they are kinda vital for the aircooling system. there for a reason. hot air shouldn’t come out around the spark plugs.
regards from a cinquecentisto from germany. owning a 68 500F 🇮🇹👍😉
Fiat: Fix It Again Tony or for the Mexican made ones: Fix It Again Tomas.
or Fix It Again Tomorrow
Ted's awesome and that bill was really fair considering he went into it blind and did a ton of work.
the trailer weighs more than the car
XD
You should get a fiat 126p and drag race them. It’ll take around 60-70 seconds but it’ll be a nail biter
I'm shocked! Ted's a hoot!
I wonder how hard it would be to retrofit a 2 cylinder Honda lawnmower engine to it. More power and reliability.
Electrification or an engine swap would be kind of tempting as most problems aren't with the rest of the car...of course it's not easy to make adapter plates or whatever else you need to connect things to the drivetrain...
People do attempt such things though as you will find on RUclips...
It would probably be harder on these rear engine cars though with small engine bays...
My Fiat exposure is one 850, X1/9, 124's
so I can't really say...
I had the "big" cars.
The last two were quite a bit better cars than an 850 even...but the small ones are cute as can be...
An engine swap is intriguing, I wonder if anyone ever did one successfully...
@michaelkulman7095 it might be an ideal project for @robotcantina8957 to try, since they've put a Harbor Freight Predator engine into a rear engine Renault R10
0:31 - Air doesn't heat.... you know that, right?
Dear TFLclassics staff, this is the first comment I write on RUclips, and it will probably also be the last.
First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your reviews, which are cultured, elegant and, above all, intelligent.
Humbly, since no one has done so, I would like to point out to you that you have taken a 17 (not 18) bhp car, manufactured 51 years ago, and thrown it at 100 km/h on a motorway.
I would also point out that you are complaining that you broke it.
Production of the 500 was stopped in 1975, production of the Giardiniera was stopped in 1977, I was born in 1976 and I don't remember ever seeing a 500 on a motorway.
I would also point out that you are complaining that you broke it.
Production of the 500 was stopped in 1975, production of the Giardiniera was stopped in 1977, I was born in 1976 and I don't remember ever seeing a 500 on a motorway.
In another RUclips clip, another gentleman tried to drive a 500 on the motorway and, of course, he broke it; he was a German gentleman.
Equipping a car with a lawnmower engine is an idea that you may or may not like; I, modestly, like it.
I won't mention all cases, just a few: in 1957 (500, 13 hp), in 1936 (Topolino, 13 hp), in 1932 (Balilla, 20 hp) and up to 1927 (T, 20 hp).
Speaking of motorways, when my father was doing his military service, he was stationed in Tarcento (UD).
He would travel there from my region (Abruzzo) and return home driving a 500 on the motorway.
When he had already left the motorway tollgate at Pescara, he would take the road home and, when he reached the top of a steep hill, he would say to himself 'I have arrived'.
Now I have something to say, but I have to specify that it is said 'in spite of everything' (I cannot be more specific, because I do not want to offend anyone, neither people nor industry).
The 500 has been the most reliable car in the history of industry, this is because it has very few parts and 'what isn't there can't break', as an American industrialist, whom I won't mention by name, taught us.
Many years ago an expedition to the North Pole was organised and a 500 was chosen as the car, the 500 went and came back.
I could cite a thousand other examples of the 500's reliability, but I'll stop here.
In the past, I drove a 1972 500.
What I liked about that car was that I could squeeze into any narrow one-way city street, which is one of the reasons why so many rich people fell in love with the 500.
I stopped driving that 500 because, when I was 19, I had an accident in that car.
Since 'those who go slowly stay healthy and go far', I didn't even break my little toe.
That car had covered 150000 km without ever having broken down seriously.
I got myself another 500, the fate of which I will discuss later.
I see many commentators here who refer to the FIAT acronym by talking about Tony, Tom and Tomorrow, and they are all right, because poor Engineer Giacosa was not worth a shoe of any of them.
I saw, in your channel, a respectful review of the 2CV.
In 1948, the 2CV had a 375 cc engine, with an output of 9 hp.
That engine was designed by Becchia and the bodywork of that car was designed by Bertoni (with an i), who managed to prevent it from being produced with a body of truly French ugliness.
This means that the 2CV is no more French than the Monna Lisa: if some reviewer knew this, he would enjoy mocking the 2CV as he would the 500.
Today, no one ever drives my 500 and I still pay tax, not a lot, just a little tax.
I was thinking of selling it to some foreigner who would pay ten times its value, but instead you have helped me to make the right decision and for that I thank you wholeheartedly: on Wednesday I will drive it for the last time to the junkyard workshop and then return by bus: the appointment is already made.
They don't need me and I don't need them.
An humble advice: be careful with the 500, because FIAT also means 'Fermati, Imbecille, Abbiamo Tamponato'.
You do a lot of nice reviews, but to all the other would-be reviews I would like to give another humble piece of advice: often devoting yourself to a healthy solitary activity is more satisfying than doing reviews.
Thank you for your patience, I salute you.
Being the owner of both the original 500 and another Fiat (Punto first series with FIRE engine), I can certainly confirm the reliability.
Suffice it to mention the legendary FIRE, one of the most reliable and repairable engines ever (perhaps the only one that has not had consequences in the event of a timing belt failure!).
Among other things, an extraordinarily simple engine since it was designed with aeronautical approaches!
More than anything they recall the legendary and indestructible diesel engines of Fiat, which also invented the "Common Rail" technology (selling the project to Mercedes-Benz)!
Fiat, with the 128 (which they had in the family!), the first front-wheel drive medium-compact model (winner of the "car of the year" award in 1970 «if I remember correctly»), gave birth to an undisputed "queen" of the European and world market, or rather the "mythical" Volkswagen Golf since Volkswagen at the time was in industrial and economic difficulties...
The big small ram taking his grand daddy home.
The rocker pedestal broke on my Dad's VW Thing! I'd never heard of that happening on another car until now
Ted was fantastic, and he needs his own channel
Ted is tremendously funny. Give him more work.
I think this 500 fits onto the flatbed of the RAM. Does it?
In Brazil there is a acronym on FIAT: "Familia Italiana Atrapalhando o Trânsito" (Italian Family Disturbing Transit)
I have a garden of parts available including 3 rolling chassis that I inherited. Will be on market for sale in CA. Very soon. Keep your eyes on market
500 is perhaps the worst car made by Fiat and the cheapest. I begun living happy when I stopped buying Fiat cars. I'm from Italy.
So how does it drive now? Especially with all the timing corrected.
Question for the mechanic should be "are you going to work on Andre's Russian cars?"
I was right in my comment of the previous video about this 500. The engine did not sound right at all. It sounded like a bag of nails and a good Fiat 500 engine should sound quite muffled. Besides that, 60 Mph should not be an issue for a Fiat 500.
What? You paid 16 dollars for this thing? Why would you overpay so much for it?
HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE.....HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY ✌️....
"It runs but it's a fiat, so I don't know how much longer it'll run..."
My uncle had one of these. It had "Genuine Plastic" floor mats
FIAT = Fine Italian Automotive Tradition ‼
Fiat 500 vehicles of the L, R etc have a manufacturer listed top speed of 65 mph. You should be able to drive it at or close to that speed if it is working well.
Mine loved being driven foot to floor! No chance of overheating 😃
This thing is sooo cool but it just makes me smile and laugh I love these videos Tommy so keep them coming. Hello from Thornton CO
Is Ted the same guy you bought that old white station wagon from on the video you had bought that blue jeep to compete with the brown Mazda pickup and the red Chevy Blazer?