Hi,
My Mother has an R reg' Punto Cabrio' which she loves dearly and has
served her flawlessly, but the roof has now [spontaneously] failed; it
will now neither fold all the way down or up again. Most of the
mechanism appears to work/fold correctly apart from the front-most
joint which will not fold/lock all the way open or closed. With the
hydraulics "off" you can manually push it into position, but it
wont "lock" there.

We've taken it to the local FIAT dealer whose answer is that the WHOLE
roof needs replacing, at a cost of GBP1500.00. I find it hard to
believe that the entire roof is broken, but (admittedly) I have no
experience with Cabrio' roofs (though I'm far from ignorant of Torino
mechanics, I own two X1/9s).

Any experience/advice/opinions on this? If it comes to it she will fork
out the GBP1500.00 because she loves the car so much (and it's low
mileage etc) but I feel the FIAT dealership [in Peterborough UK BTW] is
taking her for a ride.

Thanks for /any/ advice...