Fiat 126

Fiat 126 at a glance

The car sits in the Fiat catalogue next to its predecessor, the Fiat Nuova 500.

Why Fiat replaced the Nuova 500

The Nuova 500 had been on sale since 1957, and the 126 was planned as its direct replacement. It reused the 500's wheelbase and most of its mechanical parts under a square, flat-sided body drawn by Sergio Sartorelli, and the engine stayed behind the rear axle.

The 126 was launched at the Turin Motor Show in October 1972. Wikipedia notes that rear-engined small cars were already seen as outdated in Western Europe, and the 126 became one of the last of them in Europe, along with the Volkswagen Beetle. That is one reason why the 126 lived longest in Poland. Fiat stopped marketing the 126 in 1993 in favour of the front-drive Cinquecento, yet the Polish line kept running for seven more years. In early 2020 Autocar ranked the 126 the 26th longest-lived single-generation car, with a 28-year production run.

From Turin small car to Polish Maluch

The Polish chapter started on 29 October 1971, when the government in Warsaw signed a licence and industrial cooperation agreement with Fiat. A new factory, FSM, went up in Bielsko-Biala in 1972. The first 126p, assembled from Italian parts, appeared on 6 June 1973, and the production line officially opened on 22 July 1973. Polish cars rode higher than Italian ones and carried a "p" suffix.

At 69,000 zloty the 126p cost about 20 average monthly wages, and buyers waited more than four years. From 1977 an "express" pre-payment scheme delivered a car within a month for 120,000 zloty, later 150,000. Poland repaid part of the licence with parts: Wikipedia DE records 800,000 rear-drive sets supplied to Fiat between 1974 and 1980.

Tychy built the 126p from 1975 to 1991 and averaged more than 135,000 cars a year, with a peak of 182,323 in 1980, according to Interia. Bielsko-Biala averaged about 43,000 a year over 27 years. In the 1980s the 126p was estimated to be the most common car in Poland. Exports went far: Australia sold it as the FSM Niki from 1989 to 1992 as the country's cheapest new car, China bought 10,000 for government use in the early 1980s, and about 10,000 were still registered in Cuba in 2016.

Engines: air-cooled twins and the water-cooled Bis

The original engine was a 594 cc air-cooled parallel twin with a 73.5 mm bore, giving 17 kW (23 PS) and 39 Nm. It drove the rear wheels through a four-speed gearbox with no synchromesh on first. At the end of 1977 the bore grew to 77 mm for 652 cc. Fiat kept the quoted output at 17 kW (23 PS) while torque rose to 43 Nm, and the same year brought larger 185 mm brakes.

The 126 Bis of 1987 was the biggest technical change. Its 704 cc twin was laid flat and water-cooled, which freed space for a second boot above the engine and a rear hatch. Output rose to 19 kW (26 PS). The Bis stayed in production until 1991, while the air-cooled saloon outlived it by nine years. A 1974 test quoted by Wikipedia DE averaged 6.1 l/100 km.

Power figures for the 652 cc engine vary between sources, from 17 kW to 20 kW depending on market and trim.

Versions, special editions and conversions

In Italy the facelifted car was called the Personal 4. German buyers got the Bambino from 1977, which was deliberately rated one PS lower for insurance reasons, and the red and brown special editions of 1981-1983 with tinted glass. Austria's Steyr-Puch built 2,069 cars with its own 643 cc boxer twin, good for 117 km/h against about 105 km/h for the Fiat engine.

The Polish range moved on in steps. The FL of December 1984 brought plastic bumpers and a new dashboard, with electronic ignition and a rear fog lamp following in 1985. The EL of September 1994 borrowed parts from the Cinquecento, and the ELX of January 1997 added a catalytic converter. The last series, the "Happy End", was limited to 500 red and 500 yellow cars. In Germany, POP sold open-top conversions of the Bis as the POP 650 and POP 2000 in the early 1990s. FSM also tested prototypes that never went on sale, including a "Bombel" van and a front-engined, front-drive car.

Poland's other Fiat-derived car of the period was the larger FSO Polonez, built by a different factory in Warsaw.

Fiat 126 today: what to check when buying

Classics World's buying guide puts rust first, since it decides value and whether a car can return to the road at all. Check the sills where they meet the front and rear arches, the bottom corners of the rear arches, the floors and the front panel around the spare wheel well, whose drain hole must be kept clear. Reproduction floor panels exist; early metal bumpers and plain rear screens are scarce.

Mechanically the twin is simple, with no conventional oil filter (only a centrifugal unit to clean) and shim-adjusted fan belts. Ignition condensers are a known weak spot, and the water-cooled Bis is prone to head gasket failure. A car that jumps out of gear may only need a cheap gearbox mount, though internal wear is also possible. The drum brakes can fade badly, so many owners fit a front disc conversion that needs 13-inch wheels. Right-hand-drive steering racks and headlamps are now hard to find. In the UK, help comes from the Fiat Motor Club GB, the Fiat 126 Club UK and specialists such as Motobambino.

Values have climbed steadily. The Classic Cars For Sale price tracker put a condition-two car at about EUR 4,000 (GBP 3,500) in 2020, against GBP 900 in 2005. Hagerty UK reported a restored 1991 Bis advertised at about EUR 6,100 (GBP 5,295) in April 2022. Early, very original Italian-built cars sit at the top of the market. More small cars of the era are in the classic cars section.