Known by many as the Fiat 131, Fiat renamed what was arguably one of their better cars the Brava and Super Brava in 1978 for the U.S. market, but settled back down to just the Brava moniker from 1979 through 1981. This 1979 Fiat Brava is posted here on craigslist in beautiful Oceanside, California and they’re asking $7,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Pat L. for sending in this tip!
A classic three-box design, the Fiat 131, or Brava, almost made it acceptable for Americans to comfortably drive an Italian car. Japanese and German cars had been on the market for years by the 1970s but Italian cars had never had the best reputation for reliability, but the company’s new 2.0-liter engine with Bosch fuel injection (in 1980/’81) made quite a difference. Although in January of 1991, Popular Mechanics listed the 1979 Fiat 131/Brava as the most troublesome car in its history, according to owner reports, so there’s that. You can see that this car appears to be in good condition other than a ding on the top of the left front fender.
My first car was almost a Fiat 128 four-door sedan and I’ve had a thing for these cars ever since. My three choices were a 1978 Fiat 128, a 1978 VW van, and a 1971 Toyota Corolla two-door wagon. All were used, all were imports, and a couple of decades earlier, all of them may have been deemed unacceptable due to the WWII factor. Sadly, we don’t see the passenger side of this car at all, who knows what it looks like. And, there appears to be a rust repair behind the left rear wheel.
The headliner needs help as do the seats, I’m guessing since they aren’t shown other than with covers. We don’t see the back seat, the trunk, or the underside, unfortunately. The seller gives limited information other than that this was a one-owner car, so it’s now not a one-owner car, is it? It’s a two-owner car. This is a Series 2 131/Brava, made from mid-1978 until into 1981 and then there were no more Fiats in the U.S. for a few decades. This one has a five-speed manual.
Sadly, the seller didn’t bother to pop the hood and show us the non-running Fiat 2.0-liter twin-cam inline-four, which would have been rated at 86 horsepower and 104 lb-ft of torque from the factory for North America. They received Bosch fuel injection in 1980 and ’81, which added much-needed horsepower and more reliability. The seller says that they don’t know what’s wrong with it, but a mechanic said it may be a carburetor or fuel pump issue, and it started when the mechanic “sprayed something into the carburetor”, but then the engine quit running again. I would love to have a fuel-injected model someday. Have any of you owned a Fiat 131/Brava, or would you ever own one?
To quote Dale G.
“Fix It Again Tony”
Pure Italian garbage cans.
Now just wait a minute here. This is a very common comment about Fiats. I owned 5 over the years and NONE of them ever gave me any trouble. I had two 131 coupes. A’75 and a ’76, but only after some old geezer plowed into the back of my ’75 when parked in front of my house. Both, in fact ALL, were great cars! Ran them all to nearly redline before shifting, (I was in my late teens and early twenties). They seemed to have thrived on that, rather than the quick 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th shifting. Wish I had the 131 today. Only reason I got rid of it was the local SAAB salesman begged me for it for his wife, so I sold it to him and bought a ’79 99GL……which I also wish I still had.
Tales perpetuated by those that never actually owned one…
Thank you.
I bought one not running & it just needed a fuel pump. I changed the fuel filter anyway just in case. Car ran smooth but wasn’t a powerhouse. Previous owner said he got 40 mpg, it was a 5 speed.
7k for a 4 door is going to be a hard sell.
Why? I’d rather have a 4 door any day. My favorite car is a 4 door…
For this particular model, the 2-door sedans are rarer and more sought-after, tho’ IMO the C-pillar styling is tidier on the 4-door, which was evidently the primary design that the 2-doors and wagon were derived from.
Simple if you can swear in Italian…
Probably just needs a fuel pump. This seems more like a $3000 car. For 7 grand it should be near perfect.
There is nothing super about a Fiat..
SuperBrava was the top-spec 131 model for the US market in ’78, which became the standard, and only, Brava spec for ’79.
I worked at a Fiat dealership when these were new Not so much troublesome but a bad dealer network was to blame for alot if the headaches these cars gave Rust was a huge problem also
I married a girl who owned one back in ‘82. It was surprisingly perky and handled well for a grocery getter. Maintenance wasn’t horrible, though I probably changed the rubber band cam belt a little more often than necessary. My only complaint was that they refused to fire the guy at the end of the assembly line that sharpened all the edges under the hood.
I drove one of these for a while back in the 80’s…Two door version in this exact same color! It was a nice car… handled great, got great gas mileage… Not overly powerful, but sporty and fun to drive. Never had any trouble from it… What I would really, REALLY like to know is, what makes this guy think THIS, rather beat down, non-running! example is worth $7,000!!?
My first new car purchase was a 78 Super Brava 2 door. Loved that car, very comfortable on the highway. I owned it for about 1 month and I was rear ended on a on-ramp and pushed into the car in front of me. It was so close to being a total loss but the insurance company decided to repair it. Car was never the same. These are becoming pretty rare and have a very large following overseas.
In my day, Fiat was an acronym for Fix It Again Tony!
Where have I heard that before?
My folks had one just like this when I was a lad, same year and color but a wagon. I don’t recall that it was particularly troublesome, took us on many cross-country summer vacation trips without incident, so maybe we got one of the better mid-week factory builds?
Also the first car I ever drove, but only once or twice before Dad sold it to a work buddy who already had a blue ’78 SuperBrava wagon (with a weird Citroen-esque single-spoke steering wheel). By then ours was several years old with the bottom edges of the doors starting to rot away, no thanks to heavily-salted winter roads in Nebraska, but still running just fine.
Dad haggled a great deal on buying it too, as it was languishing on the dealer’s lot far too long, so he knew they wanted it Gone and stuck to his guns declining every counter-offer, even started walking out the door until they relented and called him back to accept his rock-bottom offer.
Yes the 78 had the single spoke wheel. Was odd at first but it grew on me.
Fast forward to today. They haven’t improved a bit. The models they just sent over here are some of the most unreliable new cars on the road. The Fiat 500L ???? The club?? Can you say Trasherroni? I think that they are so bad they stopped selling them new. Fuhgetaboutit!! 😊
this 131 mirafiori is not worth the money. they tend to rust a lot and this one is in a horrible condition.you most likely put anothe 7-10 k into it and then you overpaid. they were mass produced. make a vaccation in europe and bring a good one home for less
Tough crowd ! Love those sheepskin seat covers, I still got a set in the basement !
First car I ever rode in, if I’m not mistaken. ‘79 131 was one of only three cars my parents bought new (the third of which was a 2015 Fiat, interestingly). The only unscheduled maintenance in ~130k mi was a water pump at 75k, like every other car ever. ‘70s Italian quality control practices made themselves known only by the presence of a half-eaten pepperoncini between the paint and the steel under the back seat (no joke).
My first car, was a ’78 SuperBrava foor door 5 spd manual. Despite some radiator issues, and a bad cam seal that blew the timing belt, bad rear sway bars, and rear ends that would go while you were driving….they were moderately fun to drive. A friend of mine had a white ’79 Brava 5 spd as well….and that thing used to “haul ass”. My ’78 was the 1.8 so the 2 litre Brava was faster. If i were to find one in good to great condition….i would go back down memory lane. It was just fun to drive… although they had electrical and some mechanical issues.