Having just written this piece about a 1979 Fiat Brava 2-door, I won’t belabor my thoughts about the car. It’s still a great sport sedan, though, and this particular car benefits from the practicality of 4 doors. Combined with the 2-liter double overhead cam, aluminum head engine, and rear-wheel drive there should be some fun to be had.
This particular car, despite being of east coast origin, seems to be in excellent condition. It was driven by an obviously fastidious woman through the late 1990s, then purchased (after donation) by a Fiat enthusiast. He later sold it to another enthusiast, and between the two of them, they repainted, installed an NOS velour interior, and essentially completed a full restoration on the car. With 75,000 miles, it’s currently listed on your favorite auction site, with no reserve and bidding at $3050. The seller’s detailed story of his history pursuing the car is also there for your reading pleasure.
Look at how clean that is… and if there was rust, the white paint job would make it abundantly visible in most places. The wheels from a Fiat spider look good on the car, but at this point it’s really more unusual to see one of these with steel wheels, especially as a wagon. It’s not like it’s pretty or anything, but it’s how most of them were back then.
Just as good from this side… curiously, there are no pictures of the nose of the car. Judging by the seller’s description, I’m guessing it’s just an accidental omission, but you’d want to ask for it nonetheless. Even the trim appears to have a nice original luster, I wonder if the original owner (from Maryland) garaged it in winter. Pictures of the floors show them to be completely rust-free, and the seller says he believes the car has no rust.
Wow, look at that interior. This may well be the closest you can get to a new Fiat Brava. You can be sure the 1980s dashboard, made of a fine selection of artificial plastics, is rattle free. Check out the drawer-style glove box on the top of the passenger side of the dash – odd just for the sake of being odd, I suppose.
The engine is your standard Fiat twincam. Looking clean but driver-quality, giving it a good detailing would bring this car up a level – you could probably win some local shows with it at that point. But why would you want to do that, when you’ve got open roads and a sport sedan?
Rusty But Trusty 
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