Chrysler Drifter and Fiat Dino - the ones that got away

By: Cliff Chambers, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 20.11.2016

Come for a cruise through our old classifieds

Drifter was famous for living up to its name.

Advertised Aug 08  Chrysler CL Drifter

Whoever chose the name for these Valiant vans had either a firm grasp of the ironic or never drove one with any degree of intent.

Carrying way too much body for their rudimentary suspension, Chryslers vans might appropriately have been called the Tail-Happy Barrier Slapper or perhaps Fall Over And Skid Down The Road On Their Sider but nothing that implies controllability.

CL vans lasted barely 12 months in the market and sales were minimal.

This one looks to have been nicely preserved and warrants a spot in a museum somewhere.

Then $19,500  Now $25-30,000

Advertised Feb 97  Fiat Dino 2.0 Coupe

We get the feeling that not a huge proportion of Fiats Australian import quota went towards landing examples of the lovely but expensive Dino Coupe.

The Fiat versions - there was an open-top Spider as well - predated Ferraris 206GT and sold pretty well considering the exotic origins of its V6 engine. In the space of just two years, 3670 of the 2.0-litre Fiat coupes were built and then replaced by the 2.4-litre version.

The last Australian sale we found realised $34,000 but that was in 2011 and overseas values have climbed considerably since then.

Then $26,000  Now $65-80,000

(From Unique Cars mag #378)

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