[Denzel]

Launch dates for the Fiat 124 Spider was from 10th-11th of this month. Went into my dealership today, and they've told me that almost all dealerships have only received between 3-4 of these spiders, and if you want to pre-order one it will be a 7 month wait.. Pretty ridiculous, by the time I got to my local dealer, they had already sold 3 spiders, and somebody put a deposit down on their "test-driven" demo car.

However if I wanted the Abarth version which is being released in the UK next month (October), they would have loads in stock. Well it looks like I'll be purchasing the Abarth rather than the lusso plus that I originally wanted.

I've phoned around other dealers, and it's the same with them, limited to no stock, dealerships are also trying to sell test driven cars that have 250miles on the clock already.. No local dealer has the trim/colour that I want. Looks like ill be buying the Abarth version :laugh:.

 

[Newod]

Hi Denzil, looks like I did the right thing last Monday when I bought an anniversary model without a test drive and just a quick look at it on the transporter. It was a cancelled order which I had first refusal on. I took it out today for my second drive and I have to say it is better than I expected. My local dealer wasn't making a big thing of the launch on Saturday. When I collected my car on Wednesday he had a white Lusso and a red demonstrator for sale. Contact me if you want more info.

 

[Denzel]

Hi Denzil, looks like I did the right thing last Monday when I bought an anniversary model without a test drive and just a quick look at it on the transporter. It was a cancelled order which I had first refusal on. I took it out today for my second drive and I have to say it is better than I expected. My local dealer wasn't making a big thing of the launch on Saturday. When I collected my car on Wednesday he had a white Lusso and a red demonstrator for sale. Contact me if you want more info.

Hey Newod, after second looks on the Abarth models, I opted to just go for the Abarth, in metallic blue (non-heritage) so without the matte black hood and boot. As it seems finding a black lusso plus with tobacco leather seats will be a mission.

Bring on October !!

 

[azzura]

My understanding is that all UK dealers (167 of them according to https://www.fiat.co.uk/Fiat-dealers) received 2 cars, 1 a demonstrator that could not be test driven or sold before 10th September, and 1 a showroom car that cannot be sold for another 3 months. Showrooms could also order cars for customers who had paid a deposit, starting with the Anniversary model initially, and then the regular models. So around 500 cars (maybe?) were imported during August, ready to be transported to dealers in time for the launch on 10th September, or in the case of the Anniversary, released before that to customers who had paid.

It seems like the dealers could only choose the pastel colours (Ice white or Passione red) with black interiors for their dealer cars, and from the initial batch of maybe 500 cars, only a few will become available from cancelled orders, such as the one that Newod was extremely lucky to have bought. Otherwise it's a minimum 3 month wait (that's what I was told, perhaps it is 7 now?) which will not help FIAT UK to make a success of the car. But I do remember in 1997, the Fiat Coupe 20v turbo had at least a 3 month waiting list (which I conveniently side-stepped by buying an ex-FIAT UK press fleet car at auction, and still have it today) and proved to be quite successful.

In my case I have an Anniversary which I collected last week, but it has not all been plain sailing. Once the initial hassles are fixed and forgotten about, I will enjoy driving it for sure, and hope to get my old 1985[FONT=&quot]½[/FONT] Pininfarina SpiderEuropa going again to be able to compare the very last of the old with the very first of the new

PS: The Abarth 124 Spider UK dealer launch is in 2 weeks time on 24th-25th September

 

[Stewie]

Welcome to the forums and that is quite disappointing. Hopefully they do in fact have tons of Abarths next month, hopefully they don't get shorted

 

[Newod]

Hi Azzura, good to hear from another UK owner. I have only done 45 miles in mine so far. You say it hasn't been "plain sailing" - wondered what this is? My only problem was ( is) getting insurance quotes - car not on the insurance databases in the UK. Much better over the weekend.

 

[Millibar58]

Hi Azzura, congrats on the spider, did you go to bishops in Guildford?

I missed the launch weekend as I'm currently in Spain but am looking forward to a test drive soon. Looking forward to glimpsing your spider on the road as I'm in Woking

 

[azzura]

Thanks for the welcome. I bought from WLMG in Reading which is close to where I work, Bishops in Aldershot is closest to home, and I've been there a few times too, partly to discuss the "issues" which are basically these:

1. Anniversary was sold to me as a Lusso Plus with extras. The extras are trivial IMHO (124 badge, silver mirrors and a plaque), but the Anniversary is missing the reversing camera and keyless entry. Someone in Fiat must have thought that the cost of Passione Red (£350 above base white model) and the "extras" balanced the loss of camera/keyless entry. Since the 124 badge and silver mirrors can be bought as extras, and the Passione Red is not an exclusive colour, the only "exclusive" item is the plaque, hardly enough to justify higher resale prices in the future for this "LE" (limited edition). However, not having the camera means I don't have the black bulge above the number plate, which looks neater, and the lack of keyless entry means no little black button on the door handles, also neater, so perhaps not such a great loss.

2. The early pictures of the interior led me to believe that the Anniversary had the Tobacco Leather (tan) seats, door panels and dash panels, and I only found out quite late that it was black. This almost made me cancel my order, but the lack of a matching tan dash piece on the driver's side by the door is odd and makes it looks unbalanced. Also the fact that most of the dash and centre console is still black makes it less of an issue.

3. By the time my car was released, the 1st September date for new registrations had passed, and was only just before the dealer launch. So the period of several weeks that I thought I would have driving an exclusive car before it being on general sale turned out to be just a couple of days.

4. But the main issue is the paintwork, which is covered in loads of swirl marks, some very small, some very large, and particularly bad on the boot lid. I collected the car in bright sunlight, and the reflection picked out all these swirl marks, making it look like it was a 3 year old car, not a 3 day old car. To add insult to injury, I foolishly paid the dealer over the odds for Williams F1 paint/interior protection, and poor preparation means that the swirls are now "locked in" under the ceramic coat. The problem is common to all the red cars, and may be down to bad cleaning at FIAT UK's central import/storage pound even before the cars were transported to the dealers. It's much harder to see on the white cars, and these are the only colours I have seen in the UK. I don't expect the metallic colours or pearl white to show the swirls due to the metallic finish and coats of lacquer. If the issue is not solved satisfactorily then I may have to return the car.

 

[Millibar58]

Wow! That's not what you want to hear without seeing the colours in the flesh red was my first choice with either the pearlescent white or metallic blue as back ups. Also I prefer the tan interior. The lusso plus trim is a must for me for the preferred lights etc without going for the abarth version which for me is a tad too in your face for my tastes. (I'm in my 50's after all)

 

[JFernald]

Thanks for the welcome. I bought from WLMG in Reading which is close to where I work, Bishops in Aldershot is closest to home, and I've been there a few times too, partly to discuss the "issues" which are basically these:

1. Anniversary was sold to me as a Lusso Plus with extras. The extras are trivial IMHO (124 badge, silver mirrors and a plaque), but the Anniversary is missing the reversing camera and keyless entry. Someone in Fiat must have thought that the cost of Passione Red (£350 above base white model) and the "extras" balanced the loss of camera/keyless entry. Since the 124 badge and silver mirrors can be bought as extras, and the Passione Red is not an exclusive colour, the only "exclusive" item is the plaque, hardly enough to justify higher resale prices in the future for this "LE" (limited edition). However, not having the camera means I don't have the black bulge above the number plate, which looks neater, and the lack of keyless entry means no little black button on the door handles, also neater, so perhaps not such a great loss.

2. The early pictures of the interior led me to believe that the Anniversary had the Tobacco Leather (tan) seats, door panels and dash panels, and I only found out quite late that it was black. This almost made me cancel my order, but the lack of a matching tan dash piece on the driver's side by the door is odd and makes it looks unbalanced. Also the fact that most of the dash and centre console is still black makes it less of an issue.

3. By the time my car was released, the 1st September date for new registrations had passed, and was only just before the dealer launch. So the period of several weeks that I thought I would have driving an exclusive car before it being on general sale turned out to be just a couple of days.

4. But the main issue is the paintwork, which is covered in loads of swirl marks, some very small, some very large, and particularly bad on the boot lid. I collected the car in bright sunlight, and the reflection picked out all these swirl marks, making it look like it was a 3 year old car, not a 3 day old car. To add insult to injury, I foolishly paid the dealer over the odds for Williams F1 paint/interior protection, and poor preparation means that the swirls are now "locked in" under the ceramic coat. The problem is common to all the red cars, and may be down to bad cleaning at FIAT UK's central import/storage pound even before the cars were transported to the dealers. It's much harder to see on the white cars, and these are the only colours I have seen in the UK. I don't expect the metallic colours or pearl white to show the swirls due to the metallic finish and coats of lacquer. If the issue is not solved satisfactorily then I may have to return the car.

Your car sounds as if it had been built by a certain Doctor Frankenstein. The door cards don't match? It is an Anniversary car without the tan interior and it is something other than electric blue? I don't think there is anything like that in the U.S.

 

[andyj007]

i have that williams ceramic coating, on our new mini..... not by choice... says in my info pack to not even apply polish, but after washing the car (even with softened water) the black gloss needed a polish to get rid of water marks..
perhaps im missing something, but it seems like a gimmick to me?
i thought the coating only lasted a year or so, if it did then any detail company would be able to button up your paintwork on behalf of the dealer?

 

[azzura]

@Millibar58, I'm just up the road from you, and also in my 50's, we seem to be the target market for the Fiat 124 Spider, I agree that the Abarth is trying just too hard, the exhaust sound seems contrived to me, and it's a big hike in price for a different ECU tune, uprated suspension, brembo calipers and various red bits, it's all for show really, but having said that, I will still go for a test drive in one next weekend 24-25 September.
@JFernald, in Europe we have the "Anniversary" model in Passione Red with black interior, as far as I can tell limited to 124 models in mainland Europe (the majority for Germany I would imagine) and 124 in the UK, each with a numbered plaque. The numbers on the plaque probably bear only a random association with the chassis number, and it will be interesting to see if the UK and Europe models both use numbers in the range 1-124. In the US you have the "Prima" model in blue with tan interior, also with a numbered plaque 1-124, is that right?
@andyj007, my dealer met with a guy from FIAT UK yesterday, they didn't even need to look at my car, they just looked at the other 2-3 red ones that have the same problem. They propose to get a "Williams removal kit" and then polish the scratches out before re-applying the coating. I went for the coating due to it being non-metallic (so no multiple coats of lacquer) and it being red (the worst colour of all for fading), but as I said, I paid at least double what I needed to pay. I'm not sure I have the confidence in the dealer, or their "valeter" to do the job, so more discussion is needed...

 

[kpoling]

Hi, all. I've had my Lusso version for two weeks - love this car. Traded my BMW 1 series for it and haven't looked back. Just saying hello to the group from Louisiana.

 

[kpoling]

It's interesting to me that the European "Prima" cars are in red while they are blue over here. I wasn't crazy about the blue so I decided to go with a fully optioned Lusso instead of the Prima mostly because of the color. I would have jumped for it in red, though. Maybe red doesn't sell so well in the U.S.

 

[JFernald]

@JFernald, in Europe we have the "Anniversary" model in Passione Red with black interior, as far as I can tell limited to 124 models in mainland Europe (the majority for Germany I would imagine) and 124 in the UK, each with a numbered plaque. The numbers on the plaque probably bear only a random association with the chassis number, and it will be interesting to see if the UK and Europe models both use numbers in the range 1-124. In the US you have the "Prima" model in blue with tan interior, also with a numbered plaque 1-124, is that right?

That's what I have been told by my local dealer. While in Austin, I found that the Prima's are not all equipped the same. The one is Albuquerque was loaded and priced at $39k. The one is Austin was $33k.

 

[Millibar58]

We do have a metallic blue as an option colour which you don't appear to have in North America?

Would that be the same blue do you think? I notice your red is Rosso but ours is Passione surely they are the same??

 

[RBH58]

Meh. The Abarth version is the one to have anyway. They've done you a favour.

 

[drbjaz]

Difference in Primas?

That's what I have been told by my local dealer. While in Austin, I found that the Prima's are not all equipped the same. The one is Albuquerque was loaded and priced at $39k. The one is Austin was $33k.

I thought the Prima package was the same on all 124 of them with an MSRP of $35,995. (I have #12 bought in Phoenix, AZ). Any idea of the difference between the one in Albuquerque and the one in Austin other than dealer premium or discount? Any add-ons? My dealer tried to sell me a security system, which I declined.

 

[spilner]

Meh. The Abarth version is the one to have anyway. They've done you a favour.

For me the ultimate would be some brand that can further build on the Abarth or just Abarth coming out with a higher end version. But of course concerns for if they will even sell will come in at this point due to price.

 

[phillawson]

I thought the Prima package was the same on all 124 of them with an MSRP of $35,995. (I have #12 bought in Phoenix, AZ). Any idea of the difference between the one in Albuquerque and the one in Austin other than dealer premium or discount? Any add-ons? My dealer tried to sell me a security system, which I declined.

I've got #43, I think the odd one may have been a mistake at the end of the run or something like that. There were a batch of a few prima cars that seemed to arrive late, with higher vin's than the rest. I'm not sure all of them are at dealers yet either, I have not seen a US Prima over #109 yet.