Do you allow a lone tear acknowledging the aching beauty to track silently down your cheek? Do you gasp, a deep, ragged gasp of near-erotic pleasure? Do you find a drink just so you can perform an appreciative (and directed harmlessly to the side) spit-take? Do you collapse to your knees and weep, openly and unashamedly, as you proffer yourself to this shockingly well-packed trunk? Any of these responses is appropriate, I think. Unrelatedly, those taillights are interesting in their simplicity; a slice of salmon upon a slice of tuna, with a little extra notch of tuna at the outer edges. The lone reverse lamp is mounted centrally below the bumper, a curious choice, but fitting for the car. Oh, one more thing! Look down there in the lower left, where it says HIGH PURITY OF EXHAUST GASES – this has to be the strangest phrasing for bragging about low tailpipe emissions that I’ve read. “Purity” is just a weird choice of words here, because I’d think “pure” exhaust gases were, you know, all exhaust, as in unadulterated by clean air. Pure exhaust=all exhaust, right? It’s just weird. Anybody with taste, Jason. Anybody with taste. Let’s be honest here; the Polski Fiat 125p might be lacking in the horsepower department. But damn if it doesn’t make up for it everywhere else. It’s a sedan that is proud to be a sedan. An Italian car that has had the worst parts of Italy surgically removed. A Fiat 1800 DOHC Lampredi making a very reasonable 90HP or so, a manual transmission, four lovely round headlights instead of square ones, four wheel disc brakes, keeping the bits of the suspension that work and throwing out the ostentatious, discarding the unsafe for the more robust. Sure, the original build quality was… well, it sure as hell wasn’t acceptable. But when you stand back 20 feet, damn if it isn’t a gorgeous design. Neither utilitarian or ashamed. A car that says “I am a sedan. Load the kids, the dog, and the luggage and let’s go somewhere.” Slackers. I bet two bowling ball bags would fit nicely in those spots. I think the car may be crowded because there are only two bags that match, which makes me think these bags belong to several different people. Second place, on my just thought up what-can-you-do-with-an-old-Fiat hit list, must go to Jugoslavia, for taking the 128, while secretly longing for a Simca 1100, and then buiding their own mutant between those two, in form of the Zastava 101. – Also look at that lovely giant FSO mud flap! I had forgotten about the sushi taillight quiz! I did…ok on that. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L-wsbGreNEU/U0TMAXHviYI/AAAAAAAAYNs/D27YzJeIQ9I/s1600/1b.jpg They can also make 1/2 scale legless humans for promoting third row seats. Obviously the brown, square hard sided bag on the passenger side has plenty of room to be pushed forward, but then the hinge arm will probably smash it when you close the trunk. You need a soft sided bag under the hing arm to really maximize the available space (like they did properly on the drivers side). I’d be dying to swap the leather duffel bag on the drivers side with the brown, square, hard sided bag on the passenger side. Allowing me to push them both forward without compromising the hinges action, which makes space for easily two more bags. BTW: is DT ded? And really… who the hell stops buying automatics? I don’t own strictly manuals, and certainly wouldn’t in Jeeps.
