Mint 131S 1300 but look at the price!!!

[Blue850]

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[Thotos]

The price is high but the car looks lovely  Looks very much like my first 131 (although mine was a 1600). I want it!

[simon131]

Sourced in Italy by the looks of the car in the background - so probably not as good in the metal as it looks in the photos!

I love series 1 cars - but two things (other than the price of course ) put me off. Firstly it's only a 1300, 4-speed and so would be extremely underpowered and secondly the 'tears' in the passenger seat cloth.

I have two series 1 Specials, both with lower mileage than this car (one of mine has 19k miles, the other only 17k miles). The seats on the higher mileage car have started to rot and they look just like those on the blue car. I don't think that these seats are torn - my experience would say that they are rotten and therefore would be fairly costly to repair.

All that said though - the car looks stunning in metallic blue (paint code 400) with the blue interior, and I would certainly be interested if it were for sale with a (much) smaller price tag!

[Thotos]

The clear indicator/sidelight lenses at the front and the non-standard air filter makes me think this car has been played with and not as "original condition" as the seller claims it to be. And Simon is right about the seat "tears". The synthetic material used by Fiat on the series 1 cars was only slightly stronger than paper and with age it would dry-up and start to disintegrate with the slightest touch. That's certainly what seems to have happened to the passenger seat and I can see it starting on the driver's seat as well.  But the car in its Blue 400 colour still looks gorgeous... 

[131panorama]

Hey, that's not more than 25 km from my home.
I think I'm going to look for the car for myself, See of the car is indeed in a good state.

[Thotos]

Please take lots of photos and report back. Even better, buy the car and bring it to the 3MA so we can all have a good look. I for sure will be very jealous....

[PaulK_Cci]

Sorry to barge in here? , but my name is Paul Kanters, and I run Classic Cars Ireland. I just noticed with interest that you spotted the Fiat 131S I recently put up on the website.

I just feel the need to clarify slightly how I work and why the price is as it is. I run a 'brokerage' service and have cars on the website that are sold by specialists here in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, that I have checked out and that have an excellent reputation. The website is exclusively catering for IRISH customers, and therefore the prices quoted INCLUDE transport, registration, delivery, plates, the works into Ireland! That's what makes it seem the prices are exceedingly high, but ofcourse if the car was to go to the UK, or one was to come over and collect the car themselves, there's ofcourse a considerable difference in the price tag, depending on how much is taken care of by the customer? .

Naturally, you guys are doing most of the groundwork yourselves, and you know where to look, do all the work yourself and obviously are able to pick up great bargain. That would seem the price for this example is disproportionate, but it would be targeted at people who do not want the hassle, to go trawling the internet, finding out where there's a potentially good car to be found, and then go over to see, and most likely be disappointed a couple of times. I pride myself on offering good to very good condition cars only, and take the hassle out of sourcing a good/very good classic car.

Now this 131S is a lot, but it ain't a bargain ofcourse, but it is in a superb condition for its age. By the way, Thotos, the car has most definitely not been tampered with, as ALL originally italian cars have clear indicator lenses and side markers ! And for anyone interested, mail me as I have loads more pictures of the car to show it truly is in the condition as it is in...

[Thotos]

Hello Paul and welcome to our website forum.

Thank you for the explanations regarding the 1300 131S and your business in general. I wish you great success in your business and I for one am glad you are doing something to preserve the use of at least one 131. So is the car in Ireland or Holland or Italy? If you and the car are in Ireland anywhere near Killarney on Sunday 20th May then please come along for our 3MA static display and show off the car.

But I have to disagree with you on the clear lens issue. As can be seen from the Fiat advertising photo below they were not clear so the ones on your car are not original and certainly the air filter is  not. That's a small issue though and shouldn't stop anyone buying what otherwise seems like a very nice car.

[PaulK_Cci]

Cheers Thotos, thanks for the warm welcome.

The car is in Holland at my Italian car specialists place in the North.? So 131Panorama, you're more than welcome to come over for a cup of coffee? but the car is not with me at the moment.

Re. the lens issue: I have imported dozens of car from Italy, and they all had clear indicator lenses and side markers. I think it's a law issue, just a the American cars MUST have side indicators and all red rear indicators in some states. There might even be a few differences as to from what part of Italy the car comes from. To me it helps me to spot at first glance if a car is originally italian, altough it's ofcourse easy to change them. The Press photographs you are showing were made by Fiat, but were ofcourse generated for the European market where orange indicators are a legal requirement, so that would explain the orange indicators in their press documentation. If you trawl the internet and look for cars with Italian registrations, I'm sure you will be able to see that almost all would have had clear indicators at the front.?

You're absolutely right about the Air filter well spotted, but all that's happened there is that it just hasn't been put back on again. It's with the car, but it was taken off to clean the carb...

[david131]

Hello Paul and welcome to our website forum.

Thank you for the explanations regarding the 1300 131S and your business in general. I wish you great success in your business and I for one am glad you are doing something to preserve the use of at least one 131. So is the car in Ireland or Holland or Italy? If you and the car are in Ireland anywhere near Killarney on Sunday 20th May then please come along for our 3MA static display and show off the car.

But I have to disagree with you on the clear lens issue. As can be seen from the Fiat advertising photo below they were not clear so the ones on your car are not original and certainly the air filter is? not. That's a small issue though and shouldn't stop anyone buying what otherwise seems like a very nice car.

I dont suppose anyone has the add from the observor dated around 82 which stated a wildly optomistic mpg for the 131 diesel which would have been lucky to return 30 if you were a saint. My dad bought the 2000 diesel and I believe the Observor add was for the 2500.Months after he bought the car from Western Motors in Galway he was very angry that this great car had the fuel consumption of a tank.I believe the add stated that the 2500 would return an average mpg in the early to mid forties.My dad was annoyed that I couldnt give him the info he wanted but as he bought the paper anyway he should have spotted it himself.My brother had the 131 1600 twin cam which was one hairy ride.