After having done over a year of research on the barchetta and realizing the barchetta was by no means as perfect as it first seemed, that didn’t deter me from still wanting it.
For example, the barchetta had severe rust problems and it was advised to have it treated against rust while it was still in good shape.
I got familiar with the things to look out for when buying one, and I accepted the idea that it wouldn’t just be a whole lot of fun, but that it would also come with a lot of responsibility and cost a lot of time and money. It’s a classical car after all.
After watching the different marketplaces for cars here in The Netherlands for several months my eyes fell on a model that caught my interest.
I called and asked a bit about the Fiat Barchetta that was for sale, and made an appointment and drove 110 km to Nijkerk to take a look at it and go for a test drive.
A photo of the new Fiat Barchetta just after I drove it home.
A photo of the new Fiat Barchetta just after I drove it home.
The Fiat Barchetta that caught my interest came from it’s first owner. It was always maintained at the same official Fiat garage. The kilometrage was on the higher side (165.604) but I don’t view that as a problem on itself.
Upon arrival I started inspecting the car and my first impression was satisfactory. I couldn’t find any to very little rust on the known spots and the panels seemed hard.
The electronics in the interior were fully functional and pretty much everything seemed original, apart from the radio, but I planned to replace it anyway.
The former owner also put Abarth stickers underneath the side blinkers, but I wanted to remove those as well.
This one was also including the original hard top, the fabric was completely ripped apart, but this was a known problem with the original hard top.
I chose to trade in my Seat Arosa and to buy the Fiat Barchetta using pretty much all of the savings that I had at the time.
One known symptom of the barchetta virus is that many of their owners fall in love at first sight, and buy with their heart rather than with their minds, but it really did seem like it was in good shape!
I was so happy that I could’ve jumped a hole in the hardtop at the time (even though the hardtop fabric already had holes and was loose). My adventure with the barchetta had only just started.
Huge thanks to the Dutch Fiat Barchetta Forum for coming up with a lot of publically accessible information about the Fiat Barchetta.