Fiat Spiders are simply "Right". The Spider was the peak of development for inexpensive sports cars in the late 1960s. No other car near its price had a dual overhead cam engine, cross flow aluminum head, four wheel disk brakes, rear brake compensator, much less power brakes, and five speed transmission. In comfort features, it rivaled cars costing over three times as much.

      Quality? Well a lot has been made of Fiat quality, but if the truth be known, it was no worse than other cars of the period I had a Sunbeam and an Olds Cutlass before the Spider and the Fiat was way better than the Sunbeam (my dad's) and no worse than the Cutlass. Performance? Now we are getting into Fiat country. Talk was that the engine size was held to around 1400ccs because the little car's performance was getting close to the much more expensive Fiat Dino. The pretty little spider was just enough to tempt a significant portion of the population to try something different. Those of us who did, were rewarded with much more than we expected.

     Creature comforts like roll up windows, excellent ventilation, and a really weatherproof top that could be easily raised with one hand from the drivers seat were just a couple things that were just not available on most sports cars of the day. For a convertible, it had decent weather sealing and enough insulation that your feet wouldn't fry in the summer (MG anyone?). This made the car suitable for long comfortable cross country trips (if you could hold out your arms that long).

     Good wipers, a heater that would run you out of the car, and good overall reliability meant that this car could be and was used as a daily driver for thousands of owners. I drove Blue every day for two years in college and made two trips a year from Orlando Florida to Wichita Kansas where I did my undergraduate work and never had a mechanical problem.

     Service? What a word! Trying to get any Italian car worked on in America has always been an interesting experience. Anyone who has owned a Fiat has spent many hours burning the lines looking for someone or somewhere to go for service and parts. I can only imagine what trying to get parts out of Italy is like. Oddly enough, I've had more luck with private mechanics than with "Dealers" even when there were some. Back in the 70's my local foreign car mechanic was an oasis in a desert of dealers. I don't really know why dealers had so many problems with servicing the cars but they did. High prices and bad service forced me away and I've never looked back.

    I've lived with spiders since 1968, both as daily drivers and as weekend warriors. I've found them to be better than average when pressed into primary duty, as a car for a couple, or as a pleasure car.  I've put many miles on these cars over the years. With over 120,000 miles on the 1968's original engine (including four valve jobs) when I finally sold it to enter the army in 1971, the car never left me stranded.   All of the cars have returned excellent service with only normal maintenance

     These are really nice looking cars at any price. I've found that the reason most are attracted to the 124 is because of its beautiful body. Designed and built by the Italian design firm of Pinninfarina. Very much a baby Ferrari, the 124 Spider was beautiful to look at, fun to drive, and something you could rely on for day to day transportation. Here's what Car and Driver had to say about the car back in August 1968.

      Many cars have been the benchmark car for their era. Like the Model A Ford. It may not have been the most expensive car, it was just the car that put together everything that people wanted in a pleasing, affordable package available to everyone. The 124 Spider was just that sports car in the late 1960s.