Matt R sent us this lead on two X1/9’s for sale in a package deal. The red car is a 1979 Fiat X1/9 and the white car is a 1983 Bertone X1-9. Fiat produced the X1/9 from 1972 to 1982 and Bertone, who designed the car for Fiat, built cars the X1/9 from 1982 to 1989. These cars are located just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the cars are listed for sale here on craigslist. If purchased as a pair, the seller’s asking price is $9,999.
Both cars appear to be in excellent shape and are said to have won multiple awards. No details of what shows they were in is provided but there are two pictures of trophies. The ad says they are in “concourse condition” but I think the seller means “concours condition.” Fiat produced approximately 140,000 examples during its 11 year production run while Bertone only built 19,500 during their shorter production run of 8 years.
Exports of the Fiat X1/9 were sold in the U.S. from 1974 to 1989 by Fiat. I have never driven one of these cars but the transverse mounted engine is said to help the car with handling. The red 1979 Fiat X1/9 appears to have aluminum wheels while the white Bertone X1/9 has stamped steel wheels.
The 1.5 liter (1,498 cc) inline 4 cylinder engine is mated to a 5 speed manual transmission. The US version of this engine was fed through a carburetor and was rated at 67 horsepower from the factory. Later examples beginning in 1980 were fuel injected which increased the power rating to 75 horsepower.As you can see from the pictures, the cars look well maintained and the seller says that neither car has rust. The white Bertone has a trunk mounted luggage rack.
Bertone built Fiats were imported and sold through specific dealers. The largest Bertone dealer was MIK Automotive in Southern California. So, if you need two X1/9’s for a good deal, here is your chance.
If that’s not 10K each than I’m calling scam.
With my love for Italian cars I can jokingly say the owner bought two X/19’s because he believed the name Fiat meant fix it again Tony and wanted to have a spare when the other one was in the shop! All kidding aside these are nice affordable mid-engine cars with great handling. A good friend who worked at the Alfa dealer had one he drove regularly. BTW the car never left him sit.
I see a few issues w both I owned a fiat business and have owned an 86 and 88. The 79 has 75 seats and some assorted mismatched parts, the 89 paint is incorrect as they were solid color or tri color as I’m the top panels would be for example black w red side panels and same color as for the lower panels and no tri color stripe to break up the panels, the wheels are for a 78/79. There for NOT concours restoration. As the cars are not period correct. They are nice looking regardless and thus the cheaper price.
Hi. There is no 89, the white one I bought was listed as an 83, and it is an 83.
Smoking deal if you have the cash. These are fun cars and handle well. Probably spend a lot of time finding better examples!
I had a 1980 that I got from my sister. It was a lot of fun, even if underpowered. I was 18. I waxed at least once a month!
Nice examples. But, the white one is sitting on 5.5 inch wide alloy wheels, not stamped steel ones.
Correct. And this is the deal of the month if that price is for both. These are so much fun to drive!
I’ll have to do a little more research on this, but I do recall a dealer in Cherry Hill, NJ that was bringing in various cars in from Europe, giving them a quick flip resto and trying to sell them on E-Bay. They would be “sold”, but they kept getting reposted later only to be “sold” again. Years ago, the dealer tried to sell an import Vanagon on BaT and refused to sell it to the high bidder because he didn’t get his price on a no reserve. This rings a bell only because of the location and the seller name. On the other hand, it might not be him, since he was mostly an E-Bay seller.
If this is legit, that is one hell of a deal. Not often you see X-1/9s in this condition, let alone two of them.
GuysWithRides has been watching these cars since August. They were originally $13,999 each, and I believe the current price is per car.
Yeah, that ain’t gonna happen.
Without further details, the 79 is a $4-6k car, and the 83 is a $5-6.5k car, tops.
I guess you haven’t been paying attention to the price of these cars. Friend just sold his car in not quite as good of condition for $7,500.
Feeble Italian Attempt at Transportation. On a quiet night, you can actually hear it rust.
On a serious note, these are a blast to drive. Having owned a couple throughout the years, be sure you change the timing belt every 25,000 mi or less! Ask me how I know. It is an interference engine.
Both of these are 1500cc engines. They are not interference engines.
That being said, the service interval is 30k to 35k on timing belts.
Perhaps so for the 1.5L, but my 1975 1.3L X1/9 had 27,000 miles on the odometer when the belt broke in 1977. No abuse, simply driving along at 55-60 mph. I was the second owner and never received the notification of replacing the timing belt at 25K miles instead of the owner’s manual note of 30K mile interval. This is what the Chicago dealer told me.
Got lucky and only scratched the piston tops, but bent every valve. Now I have an X1/9 on steriods (1988.5 Ferrari 328GTS) and am about to perform my first timing belts change. Paid a pro last time but after talking to fellow club members, I understand it is a relatively straightforward job. Did purchase the cam locking tool but due to my FIAT experience, I’m a bit nervous.
Cobra Steve, yes the 1300cc version from ’74-’78 is an interference engine. That changed with the 1500cc in ’79
The Craigslist add is littered with grammatical errors and is intentionally misleading with its 9999 price. There is no indication that dollar amount is for the pair.
Sorry kids, id bet the farm its 10k a piece.
And since the ad is already 25 days old, the seller has no intention on correcting the confusion.
They probably like the attention.
I checked with the seller and they are $9,999.00 each. In this condition they would go for that on bring a traler.
I had a 1977 light blue X 1/9 cornered good, high revving little engine. Fairly safe car too, I rolled mine down a ravine, dropped a wheel off the pavement over corrected and went down the ravine. I landed upright, its roll bar did its job. I ended up with a lacerated upper leg, I was very lucky considering what happened, it has been almost 40 years ago.
Point of clarification.
Bertone had always manufactured the bodies. Fiat added the interiors and running gear until they backed out of the US market after the 1982 model year. Bertone, then assumed the process of finishing the cars until 1989 thanks to a marketing arrangement with Malcolm Bricklin.
The Fiat 124 Spider/Spider 2000 had a similar arrangement with Pininfarina.
These are nice examples, though
To clarify, Bertone always built the X1/9 at their own factory from year one, under contract to Fiat. When Fiat pulled out of the US market in ’82 and canceled that contract with Bertone (along with their contract to Pininfarina for producing the 124/2000 Spider), Malcolm Bricklin saw enough residual demand in the US market for the X1/9 and Spider to revive those contracts and start importing them himself, allowing production to continue with numerous improvements and upgrades along the way.
I have had/have 14 of these X1/9’s…needless to say I like the cars quite a bit lol. These days that is a good price for two of these with no rust on them. Personally I like the 83 Bertone one’s better than the 79 Fiat ones … but this particular 79 has quite a few goodies on it that make it quite desirable. If I had the money I would snap these up in a heartbeat. I have sort of put my X1/9 stuff away for a while as now I have had a Lotus Elise for 3 or 4 years…which is basically just a grown up X1/9 lol. The X1/9’s are great fun to drive though – not much horsepower, but with enough practice you can go faster around the corners that most cars….takes some learning but once you’ve mastered it it’s great.
I owned a ’70. Most fun car I ever had. Met babe; had white Samoyed; had child. Exit Fiat.
Well, not quite… Babe is still with me, child is 44-y.o. scratch golfer who manages sales of golf apparel and his 42-y.o. superior elite athlete sister with two masters’; three grandkids. Looking forward to touring the Appalachian chain in my 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid doing photo safaris.
Are these still for sale?
Interested if these are still around.
I bought the white one. Someone else bought the red one.