Sometimes, an affordable price makes us think a car isn’t worth owning, or that the enthusiast community doesn’t love it. However, the opposite can also be true: a high-priced car isn’t nearly as special as we are led to believe by the typical numbers associated with its sale price. The Fiat X1/9 is a genuinely entertaining car with great styling, but it never seems to catch on as a true collector car, so it has stayed affordable while other makes and models have skyrocketed. Find this clean 1979 example listed here on craigslist for $8,200.
I recently spoke with a friend about the rise in prices for various Porsche models, and we both came to the same conclusion: the 964 and 993 cars, while entertaining, are also quite overpriced for what you get for $100,000. These days, the enthusiast community often builds up so much excitement around a certain car, and then new owners double down on how wonderful the experience is because they just laid out so much cash! What if the driving enjoyment isn’t as good as they hoped, would they admit it? Probably not. Meanwhile, for under $10,000, you get a mid-engined Italian sports coupe with a removable roof and Bertone styling.
Sure, build quality is suspect and the engine is far from exotic, but keep in mind what Fiat was gunning for: a more affordable sports-car experience than the pricey Ferraris and Lamborghinis of the time. If nothing else, they set a high bar for this Fiat, and they seem to have added the right ingredients to get there. A low center of gravity, ideal weight balance, and independent suspension all helped create the sensation of speed and agility even while putzing around town. The interior has held up surprisingly well despite its age and 116,000 miles, a healthy number for a vintage Italian car. The seller notes the carpet is new.
The mechanical bits are relatively inexpensive, especially for a car designed by someone who worked on the Lancia Stratos and Lamborghini Countach. It didn’t have much power in any year, making around 67 b.h.p. and 76 lb.-ft. of torque. But apparently, the ’79 model year engines had some tunability and could get bumped to 100 b.h.p. or so with the right tweaks. You have to live with the ugly safety bumpers, but that was a problem with almost any European car at the time. For the money, it seems like a great way to have fun on any backroad you can get yourself to on a Saturday morning. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Curvette for the tip.
Nice car. The Fiats and Porsche 914s were the handling fun cars of the era, not too expensive to buy, and loads of fun. Fun factor on this car should be high.
Aside from being slightly undersize for me to comfortably sit in — that goes for entry and exit, too — there’s a lot to like here. I only wish Al Cosentino and his famous catalog of Fiat and Abarth parts were still around to help spice things up a bit.
One caveat: there’s a suspicious area at the back of the left rear fender that looks like painted-over rust. I’d investigate carefully; Fiats are known for corroding, and I believe British Columbia still salts its roads in winter. Other than that, doesn’t look as if much more than repositioning the seat tracks would be needed to pique my interest.
These were built for 17 years — marketed during the last years as “Bertone X1/9” — so parts should be plentiful.