Friday 6th March 2009

SOTW: Fiat 126 BIS

Rear-engined, rear-wheel drive, Italian and rare - all this for less than a grand?

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If you are eight years old or have been living on the moon for the last twenty years you could be forgiven for thinking the whole eco city car segment is a new thing. You may marvel at how Toyota managed to fit four people into its tiny iQ, or how Smart can charge 15 grand for a convertible Brabus FourTwo, but years and years ago the whole concept had been fine-tuned elsewhere.

Of course there was the original Mini but over in Italy, where they are the kings of small cars and low-speed crashes, Fiat had created the 500. Again, if you have been stuck on an island with Tom Hanks for the last five years, that’s the one that looks a bit like Fiat’s latest small car.

The 500 was a great success and in 1972 the company decided to replace it with something rather more modern-looking, borrowing the boxier lines of the larger 127. It was called the 126 and much of the mechanicals were borrowed from the 500.

This however was no bad thing, especially if your other car is a Porsche 911. The 126, like the 500, was rear-engined and rear-drive so traction was good, as was the possibility of going backwards into a hedge.

Get it right though and the 126 was an absolute hoot to drive, with handling you would never get bored of, in much the same way as you could never bore of telling people your car rolls with a ‘straight two’.

The engines ranged from 594cc to a heady 704cc and while performance was not something to shout about, who cares when you can tail slide at the kind of speeds where you run the risk of being overtaken by a pushbike?

Perhaps surprisingly the prices of 126s seem to be rising and while it is not quite at Fiat 500 levels yet the chances of this becoming a true classic are high. The first question you have to ask yourself is how many 18,000-mile cars do you see these days for £950? The second question is how many do you see that are this goddam funky-looking?

You may not get it – and you won’t be alone – but a Fiat 126 on some cheeky Minilites in white is just working for the PH office this morning. Maybe it’s a Friday thing.

MOT until next year, and tax, and with what looks like spotless condition. Think outside the box with this one and you’ve got a city car for peanuts which is unlikely to do anything but go up in value. Speed may not matter quite so much with this one but who cares...?

Autotrader ad reads: '1990 FIAT 126 BIS 3dr Hatchback, White, 704cc Petrol, Manual, Minilite Wheels, Tinted Windows, CD Player, Tax Aug 2009, Mot Feb 2010, good condition for year, a clean economical fun car £950.'

 

[adycav]

Oh wow...my Mum had one of these, a red one!

I haven't seen one for years.

[poosemon]

if you want a cheap one go to Poland, there are thousounds of these things everywhere!! just called a Polski instead!

[FWDRacer]

That is a really cool little car

[Chris71]

I can empathise with that!

Cool little cars and if you're not of the Fiat persuasion you can always tick the drive train in an off road buggy like the old NCF Blitz.

Personally I think that's a very cool car for £900 though.

[dpbird90]

That's quite tempting for me, have a written off Seicento at the minute so might go old school

[wl606]

The tinting needs to go. Other than that a great, unusual choice for SOTW.

[Tony*T3]

My mum had one of these in the late 80's. It dissolved completely in about 3 years. Literally, the paint had more integrity than the metal underneath.

Sure the ones made in Poland later were better.

[LuS1fer]

I love them. The originals had some sort of rip cord to start them, like a lawn mower. We used to call them chubby cars (no, not that sort of chubby).

[ian_c_uk]

My sister had/has one. Drove it once... tough to decide whether to drive in the gutter, between the double yellows, in the vast expanse of the carriageway or over near that white line in the middle.

Gearbox lunched itself, it's sat at my parents place for years... should I go and fiddle?

[massive1]

LOL , i just paid more than that on a new BMX ( and im 32 )

cracking little car if you live in a city

[Hub]

I hadn't seen one for years... until I saw one yesterday! It was riddled with rust, and amazingly small!!

[J-Skid]

I recall a evening spent in a snowy car park with one of these - superb fun, until we clipped the kerb with the left rear and it tore the whole engine / suspension / gearbox assembly off the bottom of the (rather rusty) frame with that rather unmistakeable "bag of spanners dropped on the garage floor" sound.......

[Bobdenero]

Hmm, I dont get this one, but my brother once had a 127 Sport which did look good in Black and went pretty well

[Twincam16]

There's a guy who lives near me with an absolutely pristine red one he's had for as long as I can remember. Looks good as new.

I bet they're an absolute hoot to drive, and if the engine's basically the same as the 500, all the Abarth mods will work too.

Could end up with the most bonkers track day machine.

[Gizmo!]

Don't these take something like 28 seconds to get to 60mph?

[HereBeMonsters]

Anyone else frantically searching ebay for one of these...?

[Merry]

Is it wrong that I want this car quite a lot?

[dirty boy]

Gizmo! said:

Don't these take something like 28 seconds to get to 60mph?

you've got your numbers the wrong way round

[lydian]

adycav said:

Oh wow...my Mum had one of these, a red one!

I haven't seen one for years.

Yep my mum too, although it was a horrid turquoise colour!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cotty]

my Mum had one of these as well but lime green.