Fiat Barchetta road tests and consumer car reviews

Fiat Barchetta Riviera 2000

Blue with black leather and Aircon. Used as an everyday car its a bit small, boot will only take 2 sports bags and not child friendly. We have 2 cars as herself is a sales rep and takes a warehouse on the road in the Passat diesel. Having said that it€™s amazing the number of sales calls that ’require’ a smart lady rep in a dinky drop top. Don’t even mention the joys of topless motoring... No problems so far with reliability apart from having the roof slashed when parked which wasn’t the car’s fault. Fiat however made a full opera about replacing the roof and apparently hired Sydney Opera House to fit the replacement in.... Adequate performance from the 1747 4 pot motor. 130Hp and 0-100 kmh in 9 seconds so it won’t win any races. Handling is very good and will out turn much faster cars. Good buy. The early (pre 2003) version actually have a higher spec than the later ones which were heavily discounted by Fiat after the independent builder maker (Maggiora) went bust... later ones don’t Aircon or the higher trim spec of the originals.