Tales of fiat tractors.

Was helping a neighbour with some bales of silage and he got a lone of a wrapper and to my surprise the wrapper was on a fiat 80/90. That brought back loads of memories of the 80s and 90s when l was a teenager, we had about 6 fiat's over those years. We got a brand new 80/90 in 1992, my dad was as proud as a peacock with it. It lasted till 2012, l got 3000£ for a trade in, it was very rusty, did any other folk on here have them. And did they rust aswell?
 

Manney

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Penzance
We have a 1979 Fiat 780 thats been on the farm since the 80's. Now the yard scrapper tractor but still much loved. In the past had 2 88/94's and an F115 winner. Wish I still had the winner as I miss it dearly.

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We had a shot of a winner 115, kerr of linlithgow had the fiat agency at that time, it was such an up grade, to big for us dad said at the time. We had in 1992, fiat580 with quickie loader YReg, 680h, A reg, 2wd, and the 80/90, f reg,. Those were the dayz, dad was very friendly with the tractor dealer Willie burns,
 

bluegreen

Member
And did they rust aswell?
I thought everything made by Fiat in the 70s, 80s and 90s rusted well !! My relatives Fiat Punto being a prime example.
A local farm had lots of Fiats back in the early 90s, loved them as I recall. I thought they looked hideous and still do, a proper marmite tractor. But to be fair ive heard more than once how reliable they were. Especially the engines which of course are now FPT and performing very well for CNH.
 

balerman

Member
Location
N Devon
I used to drive a new 9090 in 1985 for a grass drying plant,they were marvellous tractors back then much better than the Ford 66s and 76s they replaced.The panels did rust and fall to pieces but underneath they were solid with no real weaknesses,infact CNH have used much more Fiat technology than Ford in their subsequent models.
 

Hooby Farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
roe valley
My oul boy had an original 780. It's the only tractor he said he was happy to see leave the farm. Rotted within a year, was painted twice under warranty by Fiat, gear box seized twice for no reason dealer never worked out what was wrong with it. Final nail in the coffin, it split in half driving down the road.
 

Agri Spec Solicitor

Member
Livestock Farmer
My uncle bought a new Universal 445. He and local dealer were £50 apart so uncle suggested a game of dominoes to decide. Uncle lost. Father was suitably impressed by the 445 and by then essentially the same thing was also marketed as a Fiat 450 with Lambourne Q cab. Cost £3k new in 1976. It did a job but was old tech compared to say an IH 454, and was a bad starter. But it was cheap. Pleased to see it go. If it returned I guess we could have transformed it with a geared starter motor.
But it didn’t rust, unlike the many Fiat cars we had.
 
I used to drive a new 9090 in 1985 for a grass drying plant,they were marvellous tractors back then much better than the Ford 66s and 76s they replaced.The panels did rust and fall to pieces but underneath they were solid with no real weaknesses,infact CNH have used much more Fiat technology than Ford in their subsequent models.
They even kept the fiat badge for newholland
 
We had two 640’s when I was a lad, dad bought the first to replace a 3 year old leyland that was nothing but trouble and within 12 months bought the second as he was so pleased with the first. Good simple tractors that performed well for their size, my uncle had a newer universal 640 which was more or less a copy, it did have a different gearbox, the first shuttle gearbox I ever used which would have been ahead of its time but it seemed completely gutless compared to our fiats.
 

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