CarBrandLogos archive · SEAT · 1953

SEATSEAT 1400

The first car built in Spain by a Spanish company, in November 1953.

Photo: Jmcastano · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in SEAT history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the SEAT 1400, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

SEAT was created in 1950 by Spain's state industrial holding company, with Fiat providing the designs and a group of Spanish banks providing part of the capital. The point was national: Franco's Spain had almost no car industry, imports were restricted, and the state wanted vehicles built at home by Spanish workers using Spanish steel.

Classic Seat 1400. Sign · Tomás Fano · CC BY-SA 2.0

Design and engineering

The first car out of the new Zona Franca plant in Barcelona, on 13 November 1953, was the 1400, a licensed version of the Fiat 1400 designed under Dante Giacosa. It was a full-size, unitary-construction saloon with a 1,395 cc four driving the rear wheels through a four-speed gearbox, later joined by an estate. Modern in construction, roomy and durable, it went into service as the standard Spanish taxi and official car.

Classic Seat 1400-2 · Tomás Fano · CC BY-SA 2.0

In production

It was also far beyond ordinary means. At launch the 1400 cost the equivalent of many years of an average wage, so the customers were the state, professionals and the taxi trade rather than families. That gap is what made the small 600 such an event four years later. The 1400 ran until 1963, was replaced by the 1500, and remains the car that started Spanish mass motoring from the top down.

Seat 1400A al mnactec · Jordiferrer · CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance