A few weeks ago we listed our Fiat 500 for sale. We decided it was 'do or die' time. Either we restore the Fiat (a year outside under a tarp in a yard in the south of France has not been kind to it) or we sell. With that in mind, we placed an ad for the car, as it is, rust, dent in the roof, squeaky brakes and all, at 4,500€ on a French website.
In all honesty we didn't expect it to go. And we actually needed an offer to decide whether we really wanted to sell it or not.
And today that offer came. And we couldn't. Bottom line is, this car is special to us. We thought if we got 4,500€ for it we could get something else. Maybe a Mk 1 Golf Convertible, maybe a Jaguar XJ-S 3.6 Cabriolet, something we could at least ride the motorways with and use to go on holiday.
But when push came to shove, we realised we would rather spend a few thousand Euros getting the Fiat perfect again than have something else. This car is truly an icon. Though the would-be buyer is a sincere fan of the marque and model, we felt we wanted to keep this car in the stable and ensure its future personally.
So our Fiat 500 is not for sale. We will restore it in the spring and look forward to many happy years (and blog posts) to come. Ok, we'll never do 2,000km road trips with it, but it's fine for ducking around the region, and as practical classics go it's near-impossible to beat. It costs us nearly nothing to run and the joy we get every time we take it out is hard to surpass.
Here's to another 20 happy years of Fiat 500 ownership!
And I might buy that Golf separately, but that will be another story.
