I had lot's of experience, as a mechanic, working on FIATs(probably 100's of them), so I know firsthand about all the reliability issues. I'll admit, the 850's may have been the best of the bunch, but they, like their other FIAT brethren, suffered from wiring issues. The FIAT X1/9's(later Bertone as imported by Malcolm Bricklin) were notorious for having the timing belts go bad, prematurely. The first time around, some were still under warranty.
Then, there were the 124 Spiders and later Pininfarina(also continued by Malcolm Bricklin). These liked dropping timing belts and smashing valves The only improvement was switching to Bosch fuel injection during the 1980 model year. Maybe yours had this? It improved the reliability noticeably.
Malcom Bricklin had dabbled in the automotive business for years. He was the automotive industry's version of P.T. Barnum, relying on suckers to make him rich, although I think he took a hit on most every car he was behind. He brought us the Subaru Star, introducing Subaru to the U.S. He bailed before Subaru earned a good reputation in the U.S. He bailed on his his own Canadian-built U.S. powered SV-1 after only 3 model years. The Canadian government was bankrolling Bricklin and when it stopped funding Bricklin, the company went into receivership.
Then, looking for more suckers, started importing the 2 FIAT cars. Being friends with our local dealer, they got stuck with cars in their inventory and warranty repairs were not reimbursed.
Remember the Yugo? Still looking for suckers, Bricklin started importing them. That was actually a FIAT 127. Again, customers and dealers took a bath. When is the last time you saw a Yugo driving around?
Ever heard of the Chery car brand. Bricklin tried to import that Chinese-made vehicle.
Well, I guess you don't know about FIAT, but you are in the minority. There are still suckers around who will buy a FIAT-based car, but I've heard some horror stories. Look what FIAT has done to Chrysler. They are down to a few different models and Chrysler has seen it's glory days long ago. Today, they survive on Ram trucks, with the Cummins Diesel keeping them afloat. FIAT management stopped the use of the new small Cummins V8 diesel, which Chrysler had invested a ton of money in. FIAT, instead, decided to put their own V6 diesel in the Ram trucks. Many of these truck had to be bought back and unsold trucks couldn't be sold due to FIAT cheating on emissions.
In the meantime, Nissan has been putting that V8 diesel in their trucks and Cummins dealers are busy retrofitting other trucks and vans .
