> The original base car, the 124, was available as a sedan and even a wagon.
>Though towards the end of production I >don't know if those still were in
>production.
And a little 2 door coupe. I had a sedan and then a coupe when I lived in
Italy. I'm not sure about the wagon, in fact, I don't recall seeing many of
those, but the sedan and the coupe were still in production-the insurance was
cheaper on them!
> I'm not even sure the Spider was considered a 124 at the end, since it no
>longer carried that number designation. >Darned confusing to a Fiat novice
>like myself.
In America it became the 2000. But in Italy, it pretty much stayed the 124. In
Italy, part of the insurance price used to be based on the size of the
engine-the bigger the engine, the more you paid in insurance and "bollo" (sort
of a road tax.) So, by the early 90s, you could pick up the bigger engined Alfa
Spider for next to nothing-but the smaller one cost a fortune because no one
wanted to have to pay all that insurance! So, the Fiat 124 Spider remained
mostly without the 2000 in Italy. (Though I did run into one or two-but was
told that they weren't cars that were originally sold in Italy but were brought
back into the country.)
Hope this helps.
By the same token-the engine sizes in cars were preferred smaller for
insurance-the motorcycles had big engines! A group of friends of mine had Moto
Guzzis-gorgeous bikes with an 1100 and 1200 engines! No one really wanted the
smaller engines-a reverse!
Laura G.
Vita brevis est: rapide agite, vigore strigate!
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