Lancia Beta Forum

As a summer fun car. Anyone had one?

Should I / shouldn't I?

No, you should focus on the Spider…….. or else you will end up with 11+ years like me before it is done!

Peter

My friend Mark Lima had one. I think he sold it because it was getting past it's use by date as modern cars do. If you get one be prepared for work on it I would suggest.....

My dad has one that's seen very little use and spent almost all its time garaged for the last 25 years. As a result it is tidy and every thing works. Find one like that, garage it and it's pennies to run. Lots of (service/wear) parts are Fiat Punto and easy to get hold of. There are some more unique parts that can be hard to get hold of.

I have a 1990 MX5 and have driven several, and as a standard car, the Barchetta is better in almost every way. The MX5 on the other hand has such great aftermarket support that anything can be done to your taste for reasonable money. The Barchetta is more limited in this aspect. If you want a RWD hooligan the Barchetta can't touch it, but anything less and the Barchetta is dynamically more competent with a better engine. My mX5 is lightly modified, tidy, but used in all weathers, sometimes does Autosolos and lives outside, so finding a Barchetta for this sort of scenario leaves a very limited market and will probably be more expensive. That said, the Fiat seems to rust less, in fewer places, than an MX5, but they are now 16-27 years old cheap cars and corrosion has to be expected.

There are some familiar features to Beta owners (and some parts like inner CVs are even interchangeable as far as I can see), but in reality they are 2-3 generations apart in technology. That said it's all relatively straightforward and I'm more comfortable doing stuff on the Barchetta than a Beta.