Junkyard Find: 1980 Fiat 124 Sport Spider

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Will the steady procession of Fiat 124 Spiders into America’s self-service wrecking yards never cease? So far in this series, we’ve seen this ’71, this ’73, this ’75, this ’76, this ’78, this ’80, this ’80, and now yet another sporty little Fiat from the Malaisiest year of them all. Here’s a beat-up but not hopeless example I spotted in Northern California.

Unlike its MGB competitor (then on its last year of production), you could get the 1980 124 Sport Spider with factory fuel injection. 80 horsepower, which today’s American car buyers would consider unacceptable in a lawn tractor.

The interior yielded some good stuff to a lucky Fiat owner, looks like.

These cars rusted even in California, but this one looks solid.




Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Nooly Nooly on Feb 18, 2015

    These are great cars if you can find one without rust. Upgrade to electronic ignition on the older models, add a header and a Weber carb, and the car is a blast to drive. You have a little bit of a back seat, a very user-friendly top mechanism (literally takes a few seconds to put it up or down), coil springs and discs all the way around, and a 5 speed transmission versus the 4 speeds of the competitors of the day. If you're mechanical at all, then the car is very easy to maintain. Great cars, but beware of the rust!

  • MRF 95 T-Bird MRF 95 T-Bird on Feb 19, 2015

    The post 1980 models seemed to be of better quality and more reliable with fuel injection. After Fiat ditched the U.S market in 1982 Malcolm Bricklin sold these as the Pinafarina until around 1985. Those cars seemed to be better made, I doubt many around are rusty and had a more modern dashboard.

  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
  • Tassos Jong-iL Communist America Rises!
  • Merc190 A CB7 Accord with the 5 cylinder
  • MRF 95 T-Bird Daihatsu Copen- A fun Kei sized roadster. Equipped with a 660cc three, a five speed manual and a retractable roof it’s all you need. Subaru Levorg wagon-because not everyone needs a lifted Outback.
  • Merc190 I test drive one of these back in the day with an automatic, just to drive an Alfa, with a Busso no less. Didn't care for the dash design, would be a fun adventure to find some scrapped Lancia Themas or Saab 900's and do some swapping to make car even sweeter. But definitely lose the ground effects.
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