Many of us have personal preferences for various types and fashions in the styling of a car. Some like the fins of a 1959 Cadillac, some admire the simple but well executed aesthetic of a 1990s Audi, others have a special link to Pininfarina’s elegance. I can admit to all those, in varying degrees, but also for the characterful, the courageous and the deliberately distinctive. Think Citroen DS, Rover 3500 (SD1), 1998 Ford Focus hatchabck or the Citroen Ami. These were all examples of using styling to raise a product’s profile in a crowded and competitive marketplace, of the manufacturer’s confidence in the product, and of styling being a USP.
The 1970s were perhaps the high point for distinctive styling being used as a USP. You only have to think Renault 15 and 17, BL Princess and Citroen GS to acknowledge that. But the Fiat Strada (or Ritmo outside Anglophone areas) was perhaps one of the most striking examples of this “art”.
Prior to 1978, Fiats were always conservatively and usually competently styled. No one was going to run away from a Fiat 127, 128 or 124 because of the styling. You might not run to it, but you wouldn’t be able to cite styling as the reason for buying it.
The Fiat Strada was Fiat’s 1978 answer to the gauntlet on the floor that was the VW Golf (Rabbit) Mk1, which came complete with sharp, attractive Italian styling. Fiat chose to respond with Italian styling, by the Fiat Centro Stilo in Turin. For Europe, in 1978, this style was quite a shock, with the dramatic juxtaposition of flat surfaces, sharp angles and round shaped inserts, such as the headlights and door handles. The polyester front and rear bumpers, while not innovative in Europe as they had been fitted to the Renault 5 had had since 1972 and the larger Chrysler Alpine (Simca 1307/1308) since 1975, were striking too.
But neither Renault nor Chrysler cut the head lights into the bumper, put the grille into the bumper or fitted the rear lights and number plate entirely into the rear bumper.
The door handles were among the most distinctive ever and the Wheels very also prize winners. The shape of the rear window and little flick up at the tail end of the roof are all noteworthy as well, as was the functional bonnet airscoop.
This car had a tough gig to face. Not only the Golf but also the Chrysler/Simca/Talbot Horizon beat it to market by a year, the first front wheel drive Vauxhall/Opel Kadett came in 1979, the front wheel drive Escort came in 1980 and the Renault 9 (Renault Alliance) in 1981. It was also following one of the great front wheel drive cars, perhaps one of the truly great front wheel drive cars, the FIAT 128, some of whose key components it shared. In this company, you needed more than styling to stand out, and unfortunately for Fiat, the Strada stood out for its styling.
Mechanically, the Strada had a lot of Fiat 128 in it. The engines ranged from 1.1 litre to 1.5 litre overhead cam engines, linked to four or five speed gear boxes or a three speed VW automatic. Also featured were rack-and-pinion steering and a strut-type front suspension with an antiroll (sway) bar, with independent rear suspension using a transverse leaf spring, something that was unusual in Europe. Although this set up had worked well on the Fiat 128, it was not fully competitive on the larger, heavier Strada 10 years later, with below par handling linked to only passable ride comfort. The times had moved on, with the Golf. Size wise, the car was 155 inches long on a 96 inch wheelbase, and weighed just under a ton. The feature car is a 1982 Strada 65Cl, so mid level trim with a 1.3 litre 65 bhp four cylinder engine.
The strong style extended to the interior also. The instruments had a deliberately modern and clear graphic but were set in a pretty basic plastic moulding with perhaps a few too many Italian twists. The heater controls were in the centre, but for right hand driver cars the booster fan was controlled by a switch on the driver’s side of the column; the lights, rear wiper and other ancillaries were controlled by unusual two part switches; the clock was only visible to the driver. Having said that, it was probably a better and certainly more attractive interior than Chrysler’s effort in the Horizon, a car which beat the Strada to the European Car of the Year. 1978 was not a peak year.
Fiat attempted to address the style issues in 1982, with a revised four headlamp arrangement in a more conventional grille, a more conventional rear bumper and lights and losing the little flick on the rear of the roof, and many other smaller aesthetic and significant under skin changes. But in reality Fiat had bigger issues than the style of the car.
The 1970s had not been kind to the reputation of Italian cars, with the collateral damage from the Lanica Beta rust scandal spreading the image of the rust prone Italian car. Add to this the reputation Italian cars had attracted for reliability (not entirely unjustly by the way) and you can see Fiat had to work hard to sell 1.8 million in 10 years, despite advertising that tried to build on the contemporary aspects of its design and build.
There were some more interesting later high performance editions though. The early 1980s were the start of the true hot hatch era, as the Golf GTi led a trail everyone had to follow. Fiat followed with a 2.0 litre twin cam version of the car, known as the 125TC and offered in left hand drive only from 1981. The later (1983) 130TC came in right hand drive as well with 130bhp and 120 mph, but still ran with twin Weber carburettors rather than the expected fuel injection. The fixed bucket seats hit the roof when tipped, making the rear seat all but inaccessible to any one over 12 years old. A flatmate of mine had a Strada 130TC, in red obviously, whilst I drove an Austin Metro. Let’s just say I gave him more lifts to work than he did me.
Bertone produced a Cabriolet version of the second series for Fiat, and there were saloon and station wagon versions as well, known as the Regata and Regata Weekend.
There are now perhaps fewer than 50 Stradas on the roads of Britain, and outside Italy, precious few others elsewhere. This striking and beautifully kept example is, aside from a Cabriolet in southern France last summer, the only one I can remember seeing for many years. It is actually unrestored, having been well cared for and then stored when the owner retired from driving.
So, distinctive styling is not enough to overcome other issues. The Triumph TR7 is perhaps the ultimate proof of that.
But it did give us what is perhaps still the best car TV advertisement ever, directed by Hugh Hudson of Chariots of Fire fame. He had to run a gauntlet, too, of strikers behind barricades outside the factory.
I remember seeing the Top Gear piece on the 130TC; those seats really should’ve been offered only on the five-door version.
Misty weather used to be enough to render Italian cars and motorcycles inoperative over here never mind in rainy England, surely they improved on that.
That “hand-built by robots” slogan is probably the greatest oxymoron in automotive ads’ history…
Also, remember the “and driven by idiots” that used to follow that?
Roger, thanks for the writeup on the early Strata. The Golf 1 had introduced such serious efficiency to car design that played into the vision at the time of a more austere future. Renault with the 5 and Fiat with the Strata allowed the incredible efficient design of the Golf to be reflected but added a large dollup of quirky national styling to the mix. I am surprised this was not better received. The details of the doorhandles and wheels are just fantastic and show that efficiency does not always have to be so serious. Does anybody really think in retrospect that the refinements of the 83 Strata refresh or the second generation Renault 5 were improvements?
The cars themselves were also improving with ohc engines and five speed transmissions becoming much more common and allowing the Strata to be much more flexible as a family car, if less innovative than the earlier 128. The all around rubber trim fades over the years and perhaps just hides rust, but was also useful for ding prevention and period flair.
I hope the few survivors live on to show what an interesting period of design 1975-85 was. So many of the cars were very boxy. They were also efficient, easy to see out of, easy to maneuver and increasingly able to accommodate the modern comforts.
Great analysis. Some friends parents had a Strada when I was a little kid and I always found the details to be fascinating.
Nice find, Roger. It seems to be in a very good condition. They have all faded away by now, unlike the VW Golf Mk2 (and Mk1, for that matter).
The last one-to-one VW Golf competitor (a C-segment hatchback) that Fiat offered in Europe was this Bravo.
I quite liked it, just like the smaller B-segment Fiat Punto.
These were very nice to drive – if a little flimsy with a bit of an only skin – deep feel. Much overlooked as a classic – partly I’m sure because there are now so few to be seen.
I may be one of few Americans (certainly from the midwest) who actually rode in a Strada. In the early 80s, a friend called and invited me to go with a group of guys he worked with to the Chicago Auto Show. There were maybe 6 or 7 of us, and two brothers drove, each in a Fiat. The other car was a more typical 131 (I belive) and my friend and I rode with the guy who had a red Strada.
I remember not being crazy about the styling, but for several hours in one day it was not a horrible place to be. They were still being made, and they stuck me as something modern that I was going to have to get used to. Turns out, I was wrong, because Fiat went away completely (from here) a few years later. I cannot tell you when I actually saw one last, but I’m certain that it has been decades.
This is one car whose looks have never really grown on me. But, I guess it is a pretty good period piece of late 1970s Euro-modern.
I lived in Wisconsin when I owned mine. Winters and the salt were not kind to it. Also if it got really cold (below 0) and you were on the highway you had to shut off the heater (brrrrr!) or the engine would start to miss! You would actually see the temp gage go to COLD! But with front wheel drive and those narrow Michelin X radials you could go through anything.
Bob
The Ritmo/Strada was a great design, in its original incarnation. The restyle really dumber it down.
Needless to say, I’ve long given up hope of finding a curbside Strada. I can’t even remember when I last saw one. But I live in hope….
The poor little Strada isn’t alone in this – FIAT has always had a tendency to do cop-out mid-life restyles on otherwise distinctive (if often polarising) designs. These usually amount to “quick, put a more conventional grille on it!”
🙁
I knocked together a quick “before/after” comparison of a few examples off the top of my head – subjectively I prefer the original in each case but I think each restyle is also objectively a less harmonious design.
In my opinion FIAT’s design is at its best when they hold their nerve.
Thank you for the write up Roger. My 1st new car was a 1979 Strada 4 door, metallic green with a tan interior. 1.5 liter engine with a 5 speed and “custom interior”. Mine being a US car had the aluminum battering ram bumpers mounted on GM shock absorber type mounts. In addition to the wacky details you mention, mine had the “bowling ball” wheels with the 4 little circles in them. Believe it or not I drove that car for 10 years and 130,000 miles. The handling was not on par with the 128 but I found it to be a wonderful car for it’s combination of ride and handling. I drove across the US with a friend in this car. 7,000 miles in 3 weeks. 38mpg and burned no oil the whole trip.
The car was not without it’s problems (surprise?), it went through a number of front wheel bearings. I had frustrating carburetor problems since almost day 1, and at some point gave in and had a rebuilt carb put on. And of course rust. I was constantly grinding and repainting the seams along the door bottoms. 1 bad episode was when the pellet filled GM catalytic converter blew it’s guts into the muffler, plugging it up. I was able to limp it to the dealer. By then exhaust was coming out of the carburetor! But it still ran! The dealer poked a hole in the muffler and revved the engine up, blew pellets all over the shop floor just as they swept up for the day.
Alas rust took it’s toll. Also the last set of tires I put on it were I believe from a Yugo as I couldn’t find tires to fit anymore. On top of that my wheels didn’t have a center hole in them so finding someone who could balance the wheels was a challenge.
I replaced the car with a Honda Civic. Handling and reliability were a whole level better than the Fiat but the Civic couldn’t hold a candle to the Strada’s ride.
Thank you again for the memories.
Bob
I always assumed the air intake on the bonnet was for the heater. There wasn’t any element of the Ritmos styling that appealed to me , and the front end was particularly poor. After the 127 and 128 one had certain expectations that a Fiat would look sharp, and the Ritmo looked lame.
The bonnet/hood “scoop” on the first-gen car was functional. It’s for interior ventilation. This was changed after the face lift to a more conventional linear grille at the base of the windshield.
Thanks – correction made
Some worthless trivia about the Strada. The 5 speed manual transmission did not have a direct drive. 4th and 5th were both overdrive.
Bob
Doppelschnellgang – cool!
I was working for a VW/Fiat/Saab/BL dealership when these cars were new. But I never got a chance to ever drive any of the Fiat models. I do recall they really liked frequent repairs, even when almost new.
Great write-up, and I learned a lot about this car that I’ve hardly ever seen, even when they were new.
I don’t remember ever seeing photos of the European version without the huge US bumpers, or the 1982 restyle, so this article was quite a treat to read.
I remember seeing Stradas occasionally when they were new(ish), and it was always exciting to see one. Most of them that I remember seeing, if I recall correctly. were in the blue of this car, or apple green. If I was of car-buying age at the time they were made, I would probably not have been adventurous enough to buy one, though.
And one further thing — I’ve watched the “Handbuilt by Robots” ad about 6 times now, and I agree that it’s likely be best car ad ever made.
I recall seeing one once-20 years ago. there were also quite a few still around when I went to Italy about 10 years ago as well, all of them the facelifted versions.
After seeing a European model of the Strada and then an American model, all I could think was: how pointless. I mean, the Euro model was quirky, but not quite cute, while the American version seemed to be trying to “normalize” all the quirkiness out of the design.
As “odd” as the styling was, I’ll always remember the icing on the cake….so to speak, and that was the truly one of a kind switchgear. EVERY magazines road tests mentioned those odd “two-part” switches with their “barrel” shapes. The total opposite of the usual/VERY intuitive switchgear seen in Japanese and German cars of that period.
Dad has a 2nd gen in Rome as a beater. He doesn’t need two cars over there but his Ritmo just keeps going. Wish it was the weirder looking first gen.
As others suggested, I expect the hood scoop was the air intake for heater and defroster. My Renault R5 had a grill like that on the hood. Renault offered an optional scoop that snapped on over the grill, and I found out what that was for. Under the grill was a plenum, with the air intake for the heater core in the side of the plenum. There was a drain hole in the bottom of the plenum for rain that fell through the grill to drain out, but the snow that fell through the grill would not drain, unless it happened to melt. I soon learned to turn the defroster and fan on full as soon as I started the car, to suck the snow out of the plenum, which resulted in a blizzard issuing from the defroster vents and settling on everything inside the car. If I did not clear the system of snow before the heater core warmed up, then the snow would be melted by the heater, and the resulting water vapor would condense/freeze on the inside of the windshield.
Last time I saw a Strada in the wild was 1985 or 86. A coworker drove his to a company meeting.
Not all Fiats were “handbuilt by robots” The production line footage in “Gung Ho” was filmed in a Fiat plant in Argentina.
…line shot montage starts at the 18 second mark. The models shown as the Regata and Spazio, with a black panel covering slanting bars in the center of the grill that Fiat used on many models at that time.
Thank you Roger for another fine read. It’s ages since I’ve seen one, with less than 30 left it’s no surprise. I lived in a cul de sac where a neighbour got a hand me down 65cl from his father with no reverse gear(the cost of repairs far exceeded the value of the car) and we would often help him turn it round.
It says a lot about the Fiat when you had to give your flatmate a ride in your Metro
I remember our boss bought a couple of Stradas for the business when they came out, one for the rep, one for his wife.
While I thought the quirky looks were cute, and the removable radio (for anti-theft) was an interesting idea, the car was one of the few I really didn’t like when I got the opportunity to drive it on a few occasions, including a 150 mile trip to deliver to the rep in Aberdeen, starting from Glasgow.
Everything was hard plastic, and there seemed to be nothing soft in the car (apart from the seat cushions), so you felt as if bumping into any part of the interior would leave a bruise, or you would skin your knuckles on any edges or corners on the dash.
The feeling inside was of a very ‘unfinished’ and uncomfortable place to be.
I’d had a basic Escort 1.3, and that was devoid of any creature comforts, not even a radio! Yet if was a better place to be.
Here’s a better version of that ad :
Spoofed, of course, by Not The Nine O’Clock News…
I always loved the looks of this car. While the same elements in other cars were just box like, the Strada had visual interest along with stark sensibility. The grille and headlights were my favorite aspects of the design.
There was one in my neighborhood years ago, in the same color as the one pictured above and it always caught my eye. Much better looking than the facelifted one that stripped away all the interesting design features.
That’s a small glove compartment door! I wonder if the square blanks at both ends of the dashboard in the right hand drive photo serve any purpose – flip down cup holders? Funny how the gas pedal is curved like a banana.
My best friends parents bought a Ritmo new in the early 80’s. And they called it the “Rutmo”. Never well off, it was the only car they ever bought new from a dealer. And it rusted away in a matter of a few years. The car had to be scrapped at five years old because of structural damage to the car. I can’t tell you how much of a beating that took to their economy, they could never afford to buy a new car again, I only saw them having used cars after that. They talked about it constantly when car ownership came up in the discussions.
If only a nice example still exisisted…..I really would like to have one again, I owned a white 75L and a white 125 TC back in the early nineties and both were really nice cars to drive, and never gave me any trouble. (For the six months I owned them,that is)
Like the other Americans here who did NOT own one, I honestly don’t think I’ve seen one for ~30 years. It’s been so long, that although I remembered both the Strada and Ritmo names, I had forgotten which name was used in the US. I still see 124, 128, and 131 sedans or wagons about once a year but these hatchbacks have disappeared. Time to buy a new Mitsubishi Mirage and seal it up for 30 years as a future CC.
I loved the car, some neighbors in Spain had one, but I know they were always complaining about not being reliable., and considering what Seat was doing in the era, it was probably true.
Paul, if you thinksthe redesign of the Ritmo was bad, you should see something worse: the copycat that Seat did of the Italian Ritmo and called it Ronda. It was a messy divorce for Fiat and Seat. It ended in an international court arguing about this model.
I don’t think I recall ever seeing these on the roads here–I was a child at the time and my part of North Carolina wasn’t, all things considered, much for unusual car purchases. I don’t really remember seeing any other Fiats on the road either, with the exception of the X1/9 and !24 Spider.
I do like the styling though. It’s quirky, but it really works.
Nice write-up Roger! I’ve (unsurprisingly) a soft spot for these in their un-watered down form. Damn shame FIAT didn’t match the design with appropriately forward thinking mechanicals – especially galling since they owned Lancia by then and had access to the excellent underpinnings of the Delta…