Spotting this X1/9 at a Walmart parking lot took me by surprise, especially when I took a closer look. It’s a genuine beater, which is not how one typically sees X1/9s these days. They’re usually in the hands of devoted owners who pamper them, and appreciate their qualities. Well, that’s not to say this ones owner doesn’t appreciate its qualities, but it’s certainly not pampered.
Let’s dive right in, as into the interior, to show you what I mean. Um, no; that is not the original dash nacelle. The whole dash upper assembly has gone bye-bye, leaving only the instruments in their sheet-metal enclosure. Makes the interior airier. And provides more flat storage room.
Surprisingly, the door inner panel/card is still there. I’m disappointed.
Ok; no more of that. Props to the owner for keeping this on the road, as that can take a bit of commitment these days. Although it’s not really all that hard; contrary to popular myth, the basic primary components of these Fiats are quite robust. It’s just all the peripherals, like the dashboard, that created all the problems. Get rid of them, and you’ve got yourself a runner.
A mighty compact one too, in this day and age.
Here’s a proper CC on the X1/9.
Keep ‘em on the road! Here’s my ‘81…
The last X1/9 I saw was being driven as if it were a 10-year-old Altima. Surprised to see someone who would presumably have to put a lot of effort into a car to keep it running just to drive so carelessly.
I know it’s probably done for all kinds of valuable assembly-line reasons, but I often look at the dashboards of modern cars and wonder if I could just strip it all away and retool everything to be manual.
The idea that a car can be totaled because an HVAC system went on the fritz is insane.
I have never, ever, understood the X-19, at least in America. In Europe, its proper environment, it would be a ball, and I could see it being popular in Jolly Old England®️, and even Japan. However, in the U.S., the X-19 fits into only two niches:
In the backyard, under a tarp, or serving as a wheel chock for some guy cluelessly backing up a big pickup truck at a stop light, while wondering who is honking so furiously.
Still, I concede that everyone that I have ever met who owned one remembers it fondly, and that there is one locally with an F1 style engine scoop atop a transplanted engine that is the terror of its class in auto cross.
So, I guess I feel bad for this one which has so clearly fallen into ‘flog-‘er-till-she-dies’ status. Please, someone take this poor thing away from this bad man and give him the old Pontiac Sunbird he both wants and deserves. They’re soulless anyhow, so no damage would be done. Somebody, please?
You really are in a bad mood today. 🙁
And you’re indulging in the usual Fiat stereotypes.
There’s couple of these still around, in great shape. They’re not that hard to keep going, actually. And of course they’re a ball to drive.
“Soulless”? They’e the polar opposite of soulless. And anybody that keeps theirs going like this guy obviously has a lot of soul to match. My hat’s off to him.
Uh, Paul…. it’s the Pontiac Sunbirds that are soulless… not the x-19’s
Ok. I still don’t get why you say the X1/9 should be taken away from him and be given a soulless Sunbird “he deserves”. Who’s to say what “he deserves”. He gets props from me for keeping this alive and driving it. He obviously has gobs of soul.
If it was Japanese would that be OK, or is it the whole X1/9 concept? My impression (colored by the fact I live in the Midwest) is that there must be very few Americans for whom a sports car isn’t a white elephant. It’s beyond me why I see Minnesotans in Miatas.
I just bought a Crown Vic. Horses for courses.
Paul, my reading is he’s saying this neglectful motorist ought to have a soulless Sunbird, so an upright citizen can baby the X1/9.
The Toyota MR2 was the Japanese sorted out rendition of the X1/9. Both were superb for autocrossing, but the MR2 was preferable as a DD. I had friends that owned each enabling me to do the comparison, but understand both were a hoot to drive.
Greeting from Adelaide.
You’re assuming the current owner let the car get to this state from mint condition. It’s very possible and likely he or she is making lemonade from lemons and enjoying their cheap X1/9 day to day like any true car enthusiast should.
Or would you prefer this car be bought by a collector, put on a rotisserie for 3 years and driven only on sundays and/or become a football at collector car auctions once fully restored?
Saw one of the Washington DC Beltway two weekends ago on a Saturday, as I was heading up to the Annapolis area for the late 17th century reenactment at the Londontowne historical site.
Still love those cars. And if you thought they were small back in the Seventies . . . . .
That’s way too luxurious, it still has door cards!
I drove around like this for two weeks in July while I was converting my Cougar’s interior over to black. Pure motoring extacy during this phase, not a distracting squeak or rattle to speak of! 🙂
So the caption would read: “How to keep your Ford interior from squeaking and rattling”? 🙂
It works to eliminate rattles on Chrysler’s, too. (Stupid actuators)
I haven’t seen one of these in the wild, since nearly forever. They were never all that common in this part of the U.S. to start with and I’m sure that most of them that got purchased in this part of the country have long since suffered terminal mechanical breakdown, terminal oxidation, or some combination of the two. It was a different story in California; I knew several people who purchased an X1/9, new and used. As others have said these were a hoot to drive; you could drive it like you stole it and the rest of the world wouldn’t have a clue. Sustained freeway driving was not its forte but for driving at 8/10ths on a winding road the X1/9 made a good, four wheeled substitute for a motorcycle.
Somewhere down deep in my photo archives I have shots of one of the late-model Bertone X1/9s.
A friend bought a used one shortly before we graduated high school in the spring of 1978. It was not my cuppa tea then but he said it was a lot of fun to drive. Up to that point he had been a Ford fan and had done a lot of work on a 71 2.0L Pinto. I have no idea how long he kept it. I wonder which one rusted worse. Wait, I think I know.
I know I should be focusing on the Fiat, but that Ram has “patina” I have never seen on a vehicle newer than the 80s!
My mom’s ’91 Voyager developed that same “patina”. First the clear coat started to flake off the hood and roof. Then the paint deteriorated. Then the rust came. And that was around 10 years ago. It must be something about the paint Chrysler used in the 1990s that doesn’t hold up well in direct sunlight.
Now that you mention it I think I have seen it on Chrysler minivans too. Something must have been different in the basecoat they used, I’ve seen countless Ford’s and GMs from the 90s with clearcoat failure and faded oxidized color coats, but never burned through so completely to the point of uniform wide surface rust like that
That Dodge Ram probably lived in Eastern Oregon since there is not enough sunshine in Western Oregon to bake paint like that.
My 1993 Camry has lived in Washington County, Oregon its whole life and the Black paint still shines, even reflects all these years later.
Maybe he is just putting what money he can into what’s most important and still having fun in it. Better to drive it than let it sit and rot. It is a car after all.
I did a double take a couple months ago when I saw this ’74 X1/9 driving next to me in traffic. It’s the only one I’ve seen in the US in at least the last ten years; as with most ’70s Fiats (save the Spider, which is still around in decent numbers), it seems that the supply dried up almost as quickly as it arrived.
Hi, if you live in SoCal, I think I saw the same X on the transition from the 210 to the 57 around 3 or 4 years ago. I was driving down from NorCal with my family to visit family in OC. Pristine!
On the general subject, X1/9s don’t have much power, but they have a ton of personality and soul. Re: the ’81 I posted the pic of up top, I was fortunate to buy that off a friend – now deceased – back in October of 2006. The man – an engineer – knew the X (and Fiats, in general) better than anyone I’ve ever come across. He fabricated different parts for the suspension (e.g., Plaia Pivots) that braced the shock towers and improved handling. He also built the motor into what has been described as the best it could be and still be streetable. I bought the car with 124k miles on it and I’ve added around 82k in the 12 years I’ve owned it. Just needs a little rust repair around the windshield and it will be close to perfection. I absolutely love driving the car. You have to drive a well-sorted X to really appreciate them.
Could be the very same one. This picture was taken in Santa Monica, about 40 miles away from the place you spotted it.
The rear license plate bracket (FIAT Enthusiast NW) explains why this 1/9 is still in reasonable working order for its age. I’m sure someone maintained the car to a high standard, but was eventually handed off to a nephew or other “young” person based on the graduation tassel hanging from the rear view mirror.
Based on the hair braid at the bottom of the gear shift and the Tinkerbell seat cover, it could easily be a young female.
What’s more likely, the Fiat enthusiast replaced the driver side door and removed the dashboard, or the young person the car was purportedly handed down to did it?
Maybe this indeed has a young female owner, but that neither implies she doesn’t care about the car, or that the car was any better before her ownership.
Although a Fiat was my first car, I never cared for the X19, as in my opinion a real Fiat should have a DOHC engine.
But especially in this day and age, such a car is the ultimate AntiSuv FU to the evil omnipresent tentacles of the SUV octopus.
I can’t look at one of these and not think of Richard Pryor saying to Gene Wilder “stay cool Killer” as he drives away in the Chicago train station in “Silver Streak”. Apparently U.S. X19 sales did not get the same bump from a car appearing in a movie that the Trans Am did from “Smoky and the Bandit”.
The car belongs to a friend of mine; it’s his wife’s daily driver, and one of 3 (or is it 4 now?) they have and use; it’s a reclaimed race car, a previous owner stripped the dash out. The cars are being improved slowly, and replacing things like doors happen along the way when rust gets overwhelming.
I have one too, an 86; it’s not perfect either, but I drive it almost every day.
Thanks for chiming in and identifying it. It’s always nice to hear the facts about a car I find and shoot, so that we don’t have to go on blind assumptions.
It’s great to see these still on the streets.
Toyota wheels?
X1-9 was used by DeLorean as a powerplant development mule, with Ford V6 and a chain drive. I understand it exploded on a freeway.
KJ in Oz