Cars

Fiat 124 Spider

A coworker has had this Fiata for a few months now, but over this last weekend she did a little customization, this cool retro side stripe. They sell several versions of something like this for Miatas, but I think they only look really good on the first generation cars because of its flat sides, but no so much on my generation.

Believe it or not this is not a grayscale image. Her car is a dark gray, the stripe light gray, with the tires, wheels and pavement in various monochromatic shades…

Retro Car Design

I’m really kind of too lazy to actually pin down the real facts on the wild and woolly interwebs, so I’m just going to rely on my somewhat reliable memory and say the VW did it first with the New Beetle in 1998. They sold a bunch of them, so a trend was born. Car makers looked back 40-50 years and redesigned their old icons into something that looked like it had a linear progression of incremental design changes to get to the present.

1974-2014 VW Beetle

The Beetle really never changed much from its original design in its first 40 years, then it went away for a couple decades before the new one reappeared. The Mustang on the other hand went all over the place design-wise for its first 40 years, but when Ford redesigned it in the mid 2000’s they re-imagined it like it had stayed close to the original design over the years. The results, in my eyes, were perfect. I was not the only one either, sales jumped.

1968-2007 Ford Mustang

After the retro/new Mustang was a hit, the other two remaining muscle car rivals dot the treatment as well. Both the Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro nameplates were revived and they too became sales successes. Didn’t hurt that along with the modernization of the exteriors they now had roughly twice the horsepower of the earlier incarnations, but the drove and handled like a modern car should.

The Fiat 124 has followed the Beetle/Challenger/Camaro route in that after its original run from the 60’s to the 80’s it went the way of the Dodo, like pretty much all the other 2-door convertible sports cars. Well, this year the Fiat 124 spider was re-born and it is only fitting that the car that brought the 2-seat convertible sports car back to life in the 90’s, the Miata, became the basis for this new Italian roadster.

1966-2017 Fiat 124 Spider

I think the designers succeeded nicely in creating a car that looks as if it has continuously updated and modernized in increments over the past 40 years, especially considering they were locked into using the same uni-body underpinnings of the current brand new generation of the Miata.

Brian Sees A Fiata1

It has been a few months since we’ve been to Brueggers Bagels for breakfast. The main reason for this is no matter what we tried, those bagels we brought home never tasted as good as they did on the day we bought them. We froze them, we froze them in the store’s special freezer bags, we kept them in plain paper bags (both in the fridge and on the counter) and by Friday they tasted just like the “bagel” we could get at Dunkin Donuts.

Ever since Donna had declared the new Miata ugly, I have been waiting for the new Fiat 124 to arrive because it is basically a Miata in an Italian designed body hoping that she just might find it handsome. Of the two, I prefer the Miata, but the Fiat was very nice looking in pictures, so I kind of wanted to see one up close for my self as well. The 124 Spiders just started arriving at dealers in early July. Right now they are all automatics for whatever reason, but that was OK, I just wanted to look.

A couple of weeks ago some of the Fiats began showing up “close” to us like Charlotte and Atlanta which were way too far away to just pop over and take a peek. JTs Fiat in Lexington is the closest one to us in Aiken at 40 miles and they received their first 124 Spider, in black, last weekend. JTs was literally right next to the Brueggers, so when Donna suggested that maybe we should get a bagel for breakfast on Saturday, I readily agreed.

When I pulled into the bagel place I noticed that the building was still there, but there were zero cars in the lot. They had pulled up stakes and moved somewhere else. It had to have been extremely recent though as the dealer’s website still has that next door address on it and the map still shows that spot as the destination on their contact page. Donna asked, “Do you want to try and find the new place?” “I have no idea where to start looking,” I replied, “but we could head a little further east to get on I-20 to go home and maybe we’d stumble on it.”

A mile and a half later we passed a brand new car dealership on the left that had popped up in the last 3 months. It was a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealer and it said JTs on the building. Maybe I was imagining it, but I could have sworn I saw a Fiat 500 parked amongst the SUVs. Then the proverbial light bulb illuminated and I put Fiat owning Chrysler together and said, “I’m making a U-turn.” It was early enough still that the dealership was not open for business yet, but there were a few cars already lining up at the service department. I cruised past them and made my way over towards where I thought I saw the 500. They had some of the gates still closed, so we parked the Miata and started wandering through the huge side lot (I’m betting salesmen will have to drive you out to look at cars on golf carts.)

There, way in the back, were the Fiats, a few regular 500s, lots of insect looking 500x Trekkings and the lone black 124 Spider. It hadn’t been fully prepped yet, there was still plastic wrapping on the interior bits and it was dirty, but I liked the looks. It could definitely be my fall-back car. I asked Donna, what she thought, she said, “Not impressed.”

Thinking it had to do with that color and my plans for a black Miata, then spending more to wrap it a different color, I thought if I offered up a different color… “How about in red?” I asked. (Donna had once suggested the new Miata in red) There was just the one black Spider on the lot, so I pointed at a red 500 nearby, “Like that.” She glanced where I was pointing and said, “No way.” Feeling slightly frustrated by this whole process, I blurted out, “Now you are just making shit up to not let me buy a new car.” And maybe because I had a smile in my voice when I said it, it fortunately cracked her up with laughter.

When she stopped laughing, Donna asked me, “Well what do you want?” So I said, “A range from at the top of a black Miata wrapped in bright blue… she said, “No way.” before I could go any further… to a white Miata, to at the bottom, a Fiata in any color you’d find acceptable.” She laughed again and nothing further was discussed on the new car, the rest of the way home.

1. As long as I’m a Miata owner this car will always be referred to as a Fiata, but if I ever end up with one, I will try and make sure I call it by its proper name, 124 (Spider.)

Car Shopping

No, not me.

A woman from the Miata Club has a silver 1991 with 218,000 miles on it and it is no longer quiet (as she put it) and no longer trusts it to take long trips. She asked me and a couple of other long term Club members what her options might be. My response:

Anita,

You’ve certainly had a long run and maybe it is time to get something a little newer.

And while I like the looks of the new one, Donna does not, but neither one of us want to buy a new one and incur a $30k new car loan. The new model is supposed to be more back to the Miata’s roots, it still looks like a smaller sized person might be swallowed by the slightly higher sides and rear end.

Even if you liked the look of the 3rd generation (2006-2015), I’m sure you would get the sitting in a bath tub feel because even I did a little when we test drove one back when they first came out.

I have no idea what your criteria might be for a newer car, so I’m just guessing here by sort of imagining what I’d do if someone stole our car or it was totaled. Here we go…

Buy a 2nd generation car, I know, I know, I’m biased but hear me out. Most of the 1st gen cars like yours are getting a little long in the tooth, so unless you get lucky and find a low mileage one (under 80k miles) you might as well kick it up a notch. Skip the 1999 to 2000 ones, look for something from the 2001-2005 range because the seats are more comfortable, the center console is more usable and the headlights are a tremendous improvement. A quick search of Cars.com within 150 miles turns up 8 cars between $6,500 to 10,500. http://tinyurl.com/my7xm7h The bottom three in price are probably of the most interest to you, I don’t see you in red or yellow or a real dark color. The one you’d probably like best, the silver, is actually an automatic once you look at the pictures.

You know, now that I’ve actually shopped around a little, I think for $6,000 I would get a rebuilt motor put in, some new shocks and springs, a new top, maybe recover the seats with leather and buy some new floor mats.

Good luck,
Brian

Right after I sent that, I thought what if I went out 200 miles? I found nothing different for her, but if I was looking to replace The Emperor for some reason:

Never mind what I just said, I bumped the mileage to 200 from my house and found a car just like my current car for sale in Myrtle Beach.

http://tinyurl.com/q86wmf4

Even if the 41k miles is correct, $9,300 is still too much, I’d pay maybe 8,500…

Happy shopping,
Brian

Wait a minute, I really only checked Cars.com, there are a couple more resources I should try:

Damn it Anita, now see what you got me doing. 😉

Here is a silver 2001 with 75k miles in Claxton for a paltry $5,300 from a private seller on Autotrader.com.

There were only a couple on ebay within 200 miles, but both are automatics.

I will not check Craigslist. I will not check Craigslist. I will not check Craigslist. OK, just a peek…

Oooh, a silver 2003 with 100k in Spartanburg for $5,500.

Alright, I’m finished – Brian

Mad for MG

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie6J77X0prE

I always wanted a new MG from like high school on. But I didn’t want the newer ones with the rubber bumpers. This was a moot point anyway because I couldn’t afford one. By the time I reached the stage in my life where I could get a small toy convertible, any MG I might want was over 30-years old. No way with my limited mechanical ability could I deal with what was an unreliable British car when new, that would now be doubly iffy. So I bought a brand new Japanese version of the car.

Now if I wanted, I could buy what I desired back in the day, a new reliable MG. This one has modern running gear tucked under that classic body. It is something called a MG Abingdon Edition from Frontline Developements in Oxfordshire, England. Oh, all I need is about $123,000.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1507

I’ll Get The Paperwork Started

I like cars and I like Jerry Seinfeld and I like coffee (as long as it is from DD), so I love Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. Thursday was the Season 5 finale, a 2-parter with Jimmy Fallon.

Ever since Season 2 the show has been sponsored by Acura. Season 2 & 3 featured really off beat commercials for the MDX. Season 4 & 5 have featured a rotation of two different spots for the TLX. One has a female buyer and the other has a male buyer talking and riding with the same fast talking salesman. For the longest time I could have sworn the male and female were the same person, they have a certain look, just dressed up as the opposite sex with an appropriate wig. But upon further study it turns out they are more than likely different people.

A Step Back IMHO

Sonatas

The Purple Whale is at a sleepover in Augusta so he can have his 45K service done at the dealer. We drove over after dinner and used the key drop and we’ll go back over tomorrow right after work to pick him back up. Donna found a spot only three away from the Service Department door to park and 2 spots away, right next to the door was a brand new 2015 Sonata.

I knew that they had redesigned it, and from the photos I’ve seen on the net it seemed to me that it lost a little of what made it special. You know what, in person inspection proved that correct, it went way conservative. Looks kind of like a Ford Taurus. If I was car shopping today, it wouldn’t even make the list.