Seriously?

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by loki_the_glt

I had a Portsmouth-registered FIAT Mirafiori that I bought in Paisley; the car was a fleet vehicle (Wadham Stringer) that was used by a Glasgow businessman and sold on to me by WAdham Stringer's Scottish Area Manager at the end of the lease period so it's possible this Volvo was similar.

I'd agree that there are many alarm bells ringing: the vendor wanted an estate but bought a saloon - did he not look at the back end of the car?; several thousand pounds-worth of refurb/recommissioning work before he acquired it and a further large amount during his tenure; a new cross-member on a car that was "very good" and is now "near concours".

I bet your Fiat had more than 38k miles on it as well! That thought had crossed my mind that it was a company car of some sort and bought on a lease or possibly the original purchaser from somewhere near Harpenden/London retired to Scotland and sold the car there - many scenarios fulfill the movement but not in combination with such a low mileage car.

I have to admit i missed the bit him wanting an estate, they are generally more plentiful than the saloon - also missed the new crossmember, had the old one corroded, was it bent due to accident damage or what?

As for the Fiat Mirafiori, a car i always wanted and never managed to own. Closest was a Lancia Beta 2000 Coupe, when presented for MoT the tester said "Congratulations, your battery needs a new car!" Apparently there were seives with fewer holes!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I bet your Fiat had more than 38k miles on it as well! That thought had crossed my mind that it was a company car of some sort and bought on a lease or possibly the original purchaser from somewhere near Harpenden/London retired to Scotland and sold the car there - many scenarios fulfill the movement but not in combination with such a low mileage car.

I have to admit i missed the bit him wanting an estate, they are generally more plentiful than the saloon - also missed the new crossmember, had the old one corroded, was it bent due to accident damage or what?

As for the Fiat Mirafiori, a car i always wanted and never managed to own. Closest was a Lancia Beta 2000 Coupe, when presented for MoT the tester said "Congratulations, your battery needs a new car!" Apparently there were seives with fewer holes!

I think you are both right about that orange car Dave and Loki, there is something not quite right somewhere. I rather suspect the seller is some sort of dealer - because he is offering a PX option - he also has a few other car bits for sale. I do recall seeing the car on eBay last year, but I can't remember the price. The excerpt from the previous owner says he bought it for £8,000 and spent another £4,000 on it, he may well not have recouped his investment but I just can't remember what was the asking price last time round. My guess is the current owner is a dealer, bought it for considerably less than £11,000 and now is trying to make a good mark up (maybe he needs the money due to the lock down?).

I recall having a Fiat 128 estate that was rather like your Lancia Beta back in the early 80s Dave - the engine and gearbox were fantastic (compared with British cars of the day) but the body just dissolved :-(

PS. Ebay tells me the orange 244 has 140 people watching it - although I suspect they are all just curious like me.

[Laird Scooby]

I think the 128 was Fiats version of what later became the Lada/Polski-Fiat Alan?

The Lancia Beta was more the size of the 131/132 Fiats and shared the engine and gearbox with them, although the heads were modified on the Lancia for more power (122bhp Vs 112bhp, both 2L engines) although the Beta Coupe was smaller than its saloon/fastback counterpart.
Either way it went like stink (probably faster than standard due to weight loss from rust!) and handled extremely well, a real point and squirt machine!

As for that Volvo, just too much that smells wrong.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I think the 128 was Fiats version of what later became the Lada/Polski-Fiat Alan?

The Lancia Beta was more the size of the 131/132 Fiats and shared the engine and gearbox with them, although the heads were modified on the Lancia for more power (122bhp Vs 112bhp, both 2L engines) although the Beta Coupe was smaller than its saloon/fastback counterpart.
Either way it went like stink (probably faster than standard due to weight loss from rust!) and handled extremely well, a real point and squirt machine!

As for that Volvo, just too much that smells wrong.

The Lada/Polski was the Fiat 124 - sort of Cortina size car. The 128 was a lit smaller - Escort size. I think mine had a 1300cc engine, but it was aluminium (head at least) and OHC at a time when most brits were iron and OHV.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

The Lada/Polski was the Fiat 124 - sort of Cortina size car. The 128 was a lit smaller - Escort size. I think mine had a 1300cc engine, but it was aluminium (head at least) and OHV at a time when most brits were iron and OHV.

That's right Alan, thanks! I thought my memory was a bit foggy when i typed that and couldn't remember.

Something in the back of my mind says the Fiat engines were all-aluminium but i might be wrong.
Either way the Italians were doing things with OHC engines that took us a long time to catch up on!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

That's right Alan, thanks! I thought my memory was a bit foggy when i typed that and couldn't remember.

Something in the back of my mind says the Fiat engines were all-aluminium but i might be wrong.
Either way the Italians were doing things with OHC engines that took us a long time to catch up on!

I meant OHC when I wrote OHV!

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

I meant OHC when I wrote OHV!

I guessed that so didn't mention it, some British cars had only just moved from side-valve to OHV while the Italians were playing with OHC - that said Vauxhall had the slant-four with its belt-driven OHC in the mid-late 60s, a few years before Ford introduced the Pinto engine, thought by many to be the first belt-driven, mass-produced OHC engine.

There were a few before but they were low production numbers and generally pretty obscure.
Fairly sure Fiat/Lancia used chain-driven OHC which is obviously a sturdier design.

[loki_the_glt]

Lada's saloon and estate were based on the 124, but with rear drums and a Soviet-era SOHC engine; the "cooking" 124 had an iron-block, alloy head OHV unit while the Twin cam had, as you might expect, a twin-cam alloy head.

Polski's were based on the 125, which had leaf springs at the back; the 124 had a four-link and Panhard rod set-up.

The FIAT 128 was FWD, with a clever, space-saving MacPherson Strut and transverse leaf rear suspension.

The 131 superseded both the 124 and 125; Lancia's Beta was FWD with the twin-cam lump and, in HPE form an optional Volumex supercharger. The original had an OHV unit, but it was face-lifted and given an SOHC conversion. Again, the twin-cam in 1.6 and 2-litre form were available.

As for the orange/russet 244DL, I must have a look at its MoT history...

[loki_the_glt]

The MoT info is interesting -the car is RED according to the Tax Status screen, and "BROWN" on the MoT Status screen.

It passed an Mot in August of 2019 and another in May of 2020 - odd.

Definitely one to watch (out for).

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by loki_the_glt

The MoT info is interesting -the car is RED according to the Tax Status screen, and "BROWN" on the MoT Status screen.

It passed an Mot in August of 2019 and another in May of 2020 - odd.

Definitely one to watch (out for).

Very interesting MoT history!

Check mileage recorded at test, MOT expiry date, defects and advisories, and view test certificate
Date tested 11 May 2020
Pass
View test certificate
Mileage 38,426 miles
MOT test number 3835 4235 9307
Test location
View test location
Expiry date 10 May 2021
Date tested 15 August 2019
Pass
View test certificate
Mileage 37,480 miles
MOT test number 1180 4275 7609

Two Mots in the past 18 months (ish) but none before that!

That means one of two things, first it didn't have an MoT for many years (at least as far back as 2006) or it wasn't in the country during that time.

As for the colour, i wouldn't take too much notice. I've had many cars over the eyars that have been registered as one colour and the MoT has said something different because they've been tricky to categorise. A Daewoo Leganza officially called Moss Grey by Daewoo and registered as grey was more of a Korean Racing Green metallic.
My first 740 was officially Blue-Green Metallic and i think the V5 said blue, the Honda that replaced it was officially Malachite Green but almost exactly the same colour as the Volvo and registered as Green.

My current 760 is Silver-Green according to Volvo, the DVLA says it's green and so does the MoT.



That photo says it's silver, this one more blue :



Make your own mind up!