CarBrandLogos archive · Fiat · 1966

FiatFiat 124

A conventional saloon that ended up being built, under other names, for forty years.

Photo: User:Luc106 · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Fiat history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Fiat 124, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

There is nothing exotic about the Fiat 124. Introduced in 1966, it was a boxy four-door saloon with a front engine driving the rear wheels, coil springs all round, disc brakes on every corner, and a body designed to be simple to press and simple to repair. It won European Car of the Year for 1967 on the strength of doing ordinary things unusually well: it was light, roomy for its size, and it handled better than its shape suggested.

1989 Premer 118NE · No machine-readable author provided. BetacommandBot assumed (based on copyright claims). · Public domain

Design and engineering

Fiat also used the platform to make more interesting things. The 124 Sport Coupe and the Pininfarina-bodied 124 Sport Spider took the same underpinnings and added a twin-cam engine designed by Aurelio Lampredi, which turned a family saloon into the basis for a rally programme and, in the Spider's case, a car that sold in America for two decades.

Fiat 124 Special rear · Corvettec6r · Public domain

Italian police car, FIAT , polizia photo-3

In production

The far larger story is the licensing. The Soviet Union chose the 124 as the basis for its new mass-market car, and AvtoVAZ built a strengthened version at Togliatti as the VAZ-2101, sold abroad as the Lada. Tens of millions of Ladas followed over four decades, making a Fiat design the default car of the eastern bloc. SEAT built the 124 in Spain, Tofas built it in Turkey as the Murat 124 and its descendants, Premier built a version in India, and it was assembled in Bulgaria, Morocco, Malaysia and South Korea, where Kia produced it.

Italian police car, FIAT , polizia photo-3 · AlfvanBeem · CC0

Legacy

Fiat itself stopped in 1974 and moved on to the 131. Everyone else kept going. Few cars have been so thoroughly unremarkable and so consequential.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1966–1974

Engine

1,197&nbsp

Body

4-door Sedan

Technical specification

The Fiat 124, in detail.

Production: 1966–1974
Class: Small family car
Body style: 4-door Sedan (car); saloon; 5-door station wagon; 2-door coupé (Fiat 124 Sport Coupé; 124 Sport Coupé); 2-door Roadster (automobile); spider (Fiat 124 Sport Spider; 124 Sport Spider)
Layout: FR layout
Engine: 1,197 cc Overhead valve engine; OHV Straight-four engine; I4 ; 1,438 cc OHV I4 ; 1,438 cc DOHC I4 ; 1,592 cc DOHC I4 ; 1,756 cc DOHC I4
Transmission: 4-speed manual; 5-speed manual (Special T)
Assembly: Italy: Turin; Bulgaria: Lovech (Pirin-Fiat); Malaysia: Johor Bahru (KPKK) ; Morocco: Casablanca (Somaca) ; South Korea: Hwaseong, Gyeonggi; Hwaseong (Kia Motors)
Manufacturer: Fiat