1997 Fiat Coupe 20 Valve Turbo review from UK and Ireland

Has the usual ticking from a cracked manifold. Was like this when I bought the car, and I will get around to fixing it soon.

Accelerator cable snapped.

Some slack in the steering straight ahead position. Possibly inner track rods.

Needed front suspension overhaul at 73,000 miles, wishbones drop links, strut top mounts.

Screeching front brakes.

I bought this car in February as a replacement for my Alfa Romeo 156 2 litre TS, which had been 100% reliable in my ownership.

I bought the car knowing that the cambelt needed changing, this was budgeted for in my purchase price as cost me £600 at a specialist with all the other belts and tensioners changed.

I have since added a GTEC 1 tuning chip, stainless exhaust, boost gauge and manual boost controller. The car has been rolling roaded at 260bhp and goes like a rocket, and the 5 cylinder engine sounds very nice.

Fuel consumption works out at around 28mpg, in general driving, but will rise to around 35mpg on a run or drop to around 18mpg when thrashed, which is very good considering the performance.

0-60 has been measured at 5.8 seconds, 0-100 in 13.5 seconds and top speed (on a private road) at 162 mph.

The car is not the cheapest to maintain however, and insurance is expensive but there are few cars around that offer such performance for so little outlay. All the latest hot hatches including ST Focuses, Astra VXR's cannot touch it in a straight line, although they probably corner better due to the Coupe's aging suspension design.

I would recommend one as long as you buy a good one, and don't expect it to be cheap to run, but for thrills for your cash, these cars are hard to beat.