Rusty But Trusty

In a search that ended up with me buying my Beta, I seriously considered buying a 124 coupe. It’s a great un-2002 that has many of the good qualities of that car, with a more elegant design and competitive performance from that great twincam engine and 5-speed transmission. I’m a big fan of the early single headlight AC coupes, find the twin-headlight BC coupes reasonably attractive, and am not at all a fan of the later CC coupes with their weird grill and either clunky chrome bumpers or seventies-safety-era rubber units, although their rear-end treatment is cleaner. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any affordable 124 coupes in my area that were clean enough to be usable without serious clean-up inside and out.

That brings us to the subject of today’s writing – a 1973 one-family coupe with 240,000 miles listed in Cupertino, CA for $2600.

The pictures certainly are flattering, and the period Momo rims are pretty cool. Don’t let the high miles scare you off – it’s had major engine, transmission and other driveline work in the last 60K miles, and a suspension rebuild about 8 years ago. It also had its paint redone in the eighties, and has recent upholstery. Tires are also only a couple of years old.

Here you can see what I mean by the, um, unusual grill design. To me, it looks like it was cribbed from something American like a Ford Torino. However, every other angle on this car is still very attractive. In terms of needs, this car looks like it would be a great fit in my collection – a driver needing some attention, but all things that can be sorted while enjoying it. The list would start with the cracks in the paint on the roof, sunburnt upholstery that “needs help”, and maybe cleaning up the existing patches of rust. I’ve also heard reference to the possibility of retrofitting a CC with a BC grill, so that could help the front while you still get the cleaner rear.

Finally, if this is reaching too far for your car purchase budget, or you want a bigger challenge, there is a 1972 BC coupe here in Walnut Creek, CA for the low, low price of $500. It had an engine rebuild in 1979 and sat ever since, but no pictures are provided to give an idea of the condition. Owner says tires and interior are “toast”.

Tags: 124, coupe, Feature, Fiat, italian

This entry was posted on June 8, 2009 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.