Old Fiat parts at new Fiat dealer?

With Chrysler now owned by Fiat, and Fiat having dealerships in the US again. I have to wonder if Chrysler parts counters, or at least the Fiat ones, have access to Fiat's full parts network. Has anybody investigated this?

That's a really interesting thought, but I doubt it.

I can't fathom that it would be worth the effort to do that.

That being said I really hope they do.

Ill email the local FLU chapter president who happens to work at one and see what he thinks

I seriously doubt it. Fiat Italy has never been one to help owners of vintage cars with parts. Once they sell out of something, they have no desire to make more of it. The only reason we saw sheet metal parts for Spiders long after the fact was because Pinin Farina elected to stamp them out.

I kinda doubt it too, still almost worth calling my local Chrysler dealer with a list of old fiat part numbers. All I know is the vast majority of the parts I have been getting for my Yugo have been made in Italy, going a more direct route might save some money.

Damn. Was hoping I could buy a X1/9 and drop it off for service and grab some parts

nope.. not going to happen. Fiat got burned BADLY by the rust bug in the 70s.. they want all those cars to go away forever and never be remembered

I am not so sure that Chrysler even supports all the "Chrysler" cars much less the Fiat cars.

What do you think they might have in stock for a Dodge Colt Turbo?

jrw1621 wrote: I am not so sure that Chrysler even supports all the "Chrysler" cars much less the Fiat cars. What do you think they might have in stock for a Dodge Colt Turbo?

Okay, now I'm wondering if I could somebody could find Colt Turbo parts at a Mitsu dealer.

Sounds like no the new fiats won't be stocking old parts

I'f you know how to work on cars just buy an X1/9 and call Vick autosports for the new parts you will need or want jump onto Xweb for any and all questions.what do you plan on doing with an X1/9 Street drive only,Autox, road race, a combo of these?I autox my car and it has a stock motor with bad ass suspension. and I can lay down faster times than a turbo Miata supercharged MiIata varies Comoros and mustang I'v bet up lots of vets in my time to .

aye.. a lot of the fiat specialists can get you anything you need. The beauty of old fiats.. they are like new subarus.. legos

I was going to say, between Vicks, IAP, AutoRicambi, Allison Automotive, Midwest Bayless, Mr Fiat, prolly a few others I can't think of right now, you can more or less get NOS, new aftermarket, new imported, rebuilt, custom, and everything else in between, why bother with the dealers?

do not forget Bruce's parts bin... he took over lafferty years ago and cut the prices and made the stock better. No real performance stuff.. but good repair parts.. does not help he is only an hour away

friedgreencorrado wrote:

jrw1621 wrote: I am not so sure that Chrysler even supports all the "Chrysler" cars much less the Fiat cars. What do you think they might have in stock for a Dodge Colt Turbo?

Okay, now I'm wondering if I could somebody could find Colt Turbo parts at a Mitsu dealer.

Probably not. My friend had a 1st. gen. Plymouth Laser (non-turbo FWD) and the Chrysler stealership told him to go to the Mitsu stealership for service. The Mitsu shop then told him he was SOL because many 1st. gen. DSM parts were NLA, and that was 8 years ago!

mad_machine wrote: nope.. not going to happen. Fiat got burned BADLY by the rust bug in the 70s.. they want all those cars to go away forever and never be remembered

Isn't that self-correcting?

I remember a USENET post where an engineer lamented aircooled VWs and Fiats. A/C VW, he said, were horriblly engineered cars that had the benefit of scheduled maintenance (catches problems in the bud) and a phenomenally good parts warehousing system, whereas Fiats were beautifully engineered cars with indifferent maintenance and no parts network.

Interesting to think about. They couldn't have been THAT bad, engineering-wise, if they were able to become the darlings behind the Iron Curtain. From watching eastern European rally videos, old Ladas are the staple car to use.

Oddly enough, like W/C VW was in the US...

The maintance thing was a killer. Anybody can tell you that Fiat was originally an "add on" brand to any dealership. Imagine some mechanic used to working on a 60s or 70s buick being asked to work on the little jewel that is the Fiat Twin Cam.

Add to the fact that many people thought they were being ripped off by having to replace the "Fan belt" every 25,000 miles and that Fiat Steel tended to made with rust already trapped in it (Some 850 spiders developed rust spots in the showroom) and you had a recipe on how not to build, sell, and maintain a car for longterm use.

The 124 and Exxe are wonderfully engineered cars.. as you said, let down by their dealer network

mad_machine wrote: The maintance thing was a killer. Anybody can tell you that Fiat was originally an "add on" brand to any dealership. Imagine some mechanic used to working on a 60s or 70s buick being asked to work on the little jewel that is the Fiat Twin Cam. Add to the fact that many people thought they were being ripped off by having to replace the "Fan belt" every 25,000 miles and that Fiat Steel tended to made with rust already trapped in it (Some 850 spiders developed rust spots in the showroom) and you had a recipe on how not to build, sell, and maintain a car for longterm use. The 124 and Exxe are wonderfully engineered cars.. as you said, let down by their dealer network

Selling cars with engines developed by a Ferrari racing engine engineer. Great for the enthusiast, not for the aveage joe, who at the time probably didn't know it was normal to rev some cars above 2000 rpm cruising around, or that there was more to maintenance than oil changes.

Selling said engine in the cheapest car on the market? The Yugo would be remembered a whole lot more fondly if it had included free timing belt changes, or at least mentioned the timing belt in the owners manual. The manual for my 88 GV says nothing about the timing belt in the service schedules.

!!!

A reference I had said that the Yugo timing belt was a 12k/12-month item.

I've only ever seen one, and I noticed that the timing belt had laughably bad covers. Might prevent a boulder or small moose from getting stuck in the belt, but any water or dust would go right in there.

Knurled wrote: Interesting to think about. They couldn't have been THAT bad, engineering-wise, if they were able to become the darlings behind the Iron Curtain. From watching eastern European rally videos, old Ladas are the staple car to use.

Couple problems with that idea...

While the Russkies did buy the tooling to build the 124 sedan and wagon, they did not elect to use the Fiat engine. The Lada uses it's own proprietary Russian drivetrain. Additionally, the suspensions and construction of the car were heavily modified to tolerate the tragically awful roads the Soviet Union had at the time (and some may argue, still do). Ladas are tough cars, but not really Fiats.

I worked at a "former" Fiat dealer... Meaning the dealer I worked at had been Fiat at one time. At the time I worked there Fiat still had a warehouse in the US in the southeast. When you ordered a part, if it wasn't available NIB in the warehouse it would be taken off of one of the leftover new stockunits (cars) in the warehouse parking lot that were not sold when Fiat left the USA.... I am serious...

Well, you're half right.

Fiat's warehouse was in NJ, first of all. They also had one in California but closed that one before the NJ one. Second, the used parts were only off X1/9s. I can't recall WHY a number of X1/9s were port scrapped; there was some reason they were damaged or otherwise unfit for consumption. You could buy various sheet metal bits, engines, suspension parts, etc up until the end of FMNA's existence. I remember when I worked at the dealer I ordered a rear trunk lid for someone off that program and it was a perfect, painted part from a new car. By that time (1986 or so) only a small portion of that stuff was still left.