RobiNZ Personal Blog

Fiat 132: rare then, rarer now

Seeing a green Fiat 132 in this Telegraph article reminded me of the first Fiat I drove. Although a slightly earlier model (and GL not GLS) our ‘family car’ was similarly rare, but not exotic, car in New Zealand. Although cheap to medium priced mass market cars in Europe Fiat in NZ were comparatively rare and even a bit ‘premium’. UK’s rarest cars: 1976 Fiat 132, one of only two left - www.telegraph.co.uk 1973 Fiat 132 1600 GL. It had a both unfortunate demise as it was parked when a ‘stolen’ bus totalled it. I say ‘stolen’ because it was... Read more →

Vintage X1/9 road test

It’s not quite Top Gear… Read more →

Vale Sergio

Sad to see this news tonight about Sergio Marchionne: Sergio Marchionne, who engineered the merger of Fiat and Chrysler and revived their fortunes, died at the age of 66 https://t.co/94sQvzlLgt— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) July 25, 2018 Starting with an almost broke Fiat he engineered deals which saved the ailing Fiat and Chrysler companies, albeit at some cost to their namesake brands. His financial achievements were well summarised in this Seeking Alpa story, written after his illness, but before his death: Remembering Sergio : Sergio Marchionne outshone nearly all public CEO's since taking over at Fiat in 2004 -... Read more →

A cheap easy Fiat fix!

The interior ventilation fan on the mighty Bravo started making an annoying noise - tick, tick, tick – then stopped entirely. Given it runs almost all the time, not much airflow without it, I guess 16 years spinning had taken its toll. I imagined you’d need to pull the dashboard out or something horrific to replace but not at all. It is easily accessed from the passenger foot-well, literally one screw and a very affordable new replacement from fiatparts.co.nz installed in minutes. Who said European cars are expensive and difficult to work on… Read more →

Traffic Light Thought–240k OK!

The Flying Spaghetti Machine clicked up its 240,000th kilometre on the way to work this morning. Is that a milestone? Read more →

One of these cars is a work of art

Guess which.. The Fiat 500 acquired by The Museum of Modern Art in New York - www.fiatpress.com Read more →

Traffic Light Thought–A kilometre too far, nearly

According to the owners manual a Fiat Bravo HGT has a 60 litre fuel tank. Today I proved after 638.8 kilometres commuting you can put 59.53 litres in so that capacity must be about right. I know you shouldn’t run it that close, my usual fill is about 550km/50 litres, but—after putting it off on the way home—was glad I decided to fill up at the first opportunity on the way to work. (Photo of not so nearly empty Bravo fuel gauge) Read more →

Traffic Light Thought–Darwin Fish and Traffic Theory

Nice to see science based car badging on the morning commute. My FSM Fiat was following a Honda Jazz with a Darwin Fish badge down Rosebank Rd. It helped provide a data point for my hypothesis that light controlled motorway on ramps are the only time you should choose to follow trucks. The lights release one vehicle per green but a truck represents 2-5 cars depending on size and trailer. That’s how the FSM Fiat beat the Darwin Fish Jazz… to the queue on the motorway itself. Read more →

East Cape by HGT, next time GTC?

The Fiat Bravo HGT was great fun on my recent East Cape road trip but there’s another Italian three door hatch which would be even better. In fact a V12 4WD Ferrari GTC4 Lusso would be just about perfect! In a way they are even distantly related*, can you see it in the lines…? Step One: buy the right Lotto ticket… * Until 2014, the FCA group, resulting from the merger between manufacturers Fiat and Chrysler owned Ferrari. Read more →

Bravo, East Cape!

I had hoped to have a look around the Hicks Bay Motel grounds before I left but the weather was still lousy. It is on a point overlooking the bay, has a bush walk down to a small beach, apparently! I headed for the East Cape Lighthouse, about a 22km diversion from the main highway along a coastal road from Te Araroa. It was very exposed with gale force winds (90km/h ~50 knots according to weather forecast) battering the car all the way there. The slowly clearing overnight storm weather made for a dramatic, almost spooky, scene. It is a... Read more →