Jerry Seinfeld reportedly crashed near his home in East Hampton, New York when the brakes in his 1967 Fiat BTM failed. Seinfeld tried to use the emergency brake, to no avail, then swerved to avoid flying into an intersection. The Fiat rolled over and came to rest upside down, but Seinfeld was able to walk away unscathed. East Hampton Police Chief Todd Sarris said that Seinfeld’s maneuver “probably avoided a serious accident.” While the chief did not elaborate on what type of accident would be worse than one where a car comes to rest on its roof, this writer hereby vows never to drive within 100 miles of Sarris.
The crash was attributed to mechanical failure, and no citations were issued. Seinfeld was quoted as saying, “because I know there are kids out there, I want to make sure they all know that driving without braking is not something I recommend, unless you have professional clown training or a comedy background, as I do.”
When told about the incident, a Fiat spokesman expressed surprise that only two of the systems on Seinfeld’s Fiat had failed. “Cars are very complicated pieces of machinery,” he explained, “and even today, cars routinely leave the Fiat factory with far more than two issues.” While the spokesman found it “regrettable” that the two systems that failed were related and ended in a major accident, he stated that the incident “is in no way indicative of any larger quality control issues at Fiat. Fiat always has, and always will, stand behind its products 90%.”
on May 11, 2008 at 7:26 pm Randy in Arizona wrote:
From the Original Post.
2008
1967 Fiat BTM
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0031
From the web.
The 1967 Fiat BTM apparently is a
hard top version of the Fiat Dino.
So what we have here is a 31 year old EXTREMELY LIMITED PRODUCTION automobile.
I had the pleasure of being taken for a ride in a Fiat Dino Spider in the early ’70s. At that time the owner said it was hard to get parts. The Fiat Dino is only a small step less that a Dino Ferrari. I has pretty much the same engine as a Dino Ferrari and makes a HOT 124 Fiat seem like a tame set of wheels for Grandma.
I was a Fiat mechanic for over ten years in an independent repair shop that often got work the dealer had botched.
We also did Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Ferrari, Maserati, Saita and OTAS repairs and maintenance.
The likelihood is that the parking (so called emergency) cable had stretched and as it would only act on the rear wheels anyway was not equal to the task of stopping the car when the service brakes failed.
As for the reliability of Fiats, it is highly dependent on the level of the maintenance and aptitude of the mechanic.
I fondly remember one of my personal customers. Her ‘Marcello’ frequently paid my house payments and bought my munchies month after month. Nothing major, not abusively driven but just a constant list of minor things to repair.
Then she bought a Honda and I never saw her again!