One of the things I really like about Junkyard Curbsiding is the second chances it gives me. Not so much that a particular car will be there the next time I visit (often it’s gone or there is much less of it so dallying does not pay off), but that I see cars that used to be on the street but clearly haven’t been there for some time. For example today there were a couple of 1970s Audi 100s as well as another Audi 5000 diesel, both models that have been featured in this series previously but also that I have not seen in the wild in the meantime.
As far as this Fiat 131S Mirafiori is concerned, I don’t know that I can even pinpoint the decade that I last saw one, especially the wagon, if ever. I was certainly surprised to see it today. As with many of these junkyard finds, this one appears to have sat somewhere for a long time, and now is celebrating its last hurrah, so let’s all join in the festivities.
Fiat’s 131 was made to replace the 124, and was offered in two door coupe as well as four door sedan form besides this wagon. Initially displayed at the 1974 Turin Auto Show, it remained in production to 1984, however in North America it was eventually renamed the Brava. Total production over the decade was in excess of 1.5 million, the majority of which were sold elsewhere.
Squint a little and imagine it in white and that’s what the subject looked like 45 years ago. I’d at least test drive one I think. It would look good next to the 124 Spyder in my fantasy garage. Might as well test drive both.
Double round headlights on anything European usually mean business and for 1976 the 131S wagon was equipped with a DOHC 1.8liter inline-4 (as per the brochure, never mind what Wikipedia thinks). As you can probably see it is not currently present where it should be. Don’t go anywhere.
Remarkably, not too much seems to have fallen off. Well, besides this backup light lens. But the unit itself is still in the body. And the rust monster isn’t anywhere near as bad as it could be. That sweet little aluminum badge now graces one of my shelves.
Zooming out we can see that there was only one backup light. That’s all you need. Why worry about the wiring to two of them, twice as much to fail. This one apparently carried a student first to Colorado College down in Colorado Springs and then to University of Wyoming up in Laramie so it looks to have been local.
Which is borne out here with the delightful juxtaposition of Mirafiori, the assembly plant where this was built and Boulder European Autos where it presumably was shipped to and sold from. The sun always shines in Colorado as you can clearly see on what remains of the state flag logo.
A jazz lover! But more importantly for all the Fiat-haters, here is evidence that the car was still running at two years old, as it passed whatever the 1978 Clean Air Test was. Was that when Colorado started emissions testing? Someone will know.
Yes, this tells the sad tale. This appears to be the engine that was in this car. Tony or someone took it apart and then gave up. I wonder what the problem was….in the meantime though, check out that red interior! But don’t let your eyes wander to focus on the rust that seems to be on the inside of the car at the side windows.
Hmm, I think I see the problem with the engine. Cylinder #1 seems to have an excess ventilation issue. That’s gotta be demoralizing. Presumably this was diagnosed before the engine was pulled, then it was disassembled further and then someone reached the limit of their abilities or motivation. There’s the two-barrel Weber carb in the background. I wonder if the owner pulled the head or the oil pan first after he heard the Big Noise.
We already knew it wasn’t a CA car since it had the Boulder sticker. I don’t know if they sold the wagons in CA, maybe that’s why I don’t recall seeing them. Fiats though in general, of course, in fact my California proto-online driving school (via a UHF channel high up the manual TV dial in the summer of 1985 used a 128 to demonstrate stuff) and 124 Spyders were everywhere, but the 131, and in wagon form? I’m not sure.
Radiator and other engine ancillaries are riding shotgun today. This car is equipped with a five-speed manual box, heady stuff in 1976. Especially in a wagon. The steering wheel rim is pretty fat for the day, and there’s a nice and high dashboard with all of the important stuff on display. The owner invested in a set of red faux-sheepskins to match the interior, I recall having a set of blue ones to match the blue interior of my Mazda in the ’80s.
Why the clock of all things should be absolutely front and center is baffling, but at least there’s a 120mph speedo and a tachometer with a redline that looks to go fully red at 6,500rpm but then goes even darker red at 7,500…maybe that’s the problem that’s in the back seat now!
37,853 miles? Naaahhh, more likely at least 137,583 what with the two different college stickers and perhaps a Boulder home base.
An EGR light on the left of the dash…no choke though, these were automatic in that regard.
And a Sanyo AM/FM/cassette deck, lots of vents, the obligatory smoker package as well as HVAC controls and a number of vents. And of course the 5-speed with the accordion boot and a very long lever to row around with.
Never forget. Hard to when it’s so big right in front of you.
Later in life these were redesigned a bit with a super weird glovebox involving sliding lids and stuff like that. But here it’s normal. Thank goodness dashboards don’t crack anymore these days, huh?
This car type is 131 AF and twice to boot! Yes it is, because it’s a wagon, the best kind of car. Actually I think the way to read the VIN on an older Fiat is to put the type ahead of the ID number, so the full 13-digit 1976 VIN would be 131AF24048370. I think.
In white with red interior this was pretty sharp and would have stayed looking good if it had lasted. Standard rub strips to try to fight off dents, big rubber pads on the bumpers to protect against inconsiderate parkers, and a roof rack, apparently all standard! What’s not to like.
I can even see the rear defroster. (the button was on the dash, next to the radio). In 1976 this was a decently hot ticket to roam around the Rockies with, too bad it didn’t work out long term, both for the owner as well as the builder. At least this one is getting one more day in the sun.
And of course there’s a video too, but not of the wagon. I’ve sure if would look even better going through the cones than this coupe does. The announcer and the music sure have me pumped up to check out a Fiat! Where’s my media guy’s number…
Related Reading:
Vintage R&T Review: Fiat 131 by PN
If it were in Europe I’d salvage it and restore it in Olio Fiat colors to match the Group 4 131 Abarth. A rare survivor, probably made from better steel since these estates are Seats and were made in Spain. They were sold under Seat for Spain and Fiat for the rest of the world.
Interesting to note then the Fiat 131 got a longer lifespan in Turkey and got a new life in Ethiopia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofaş_Şahin
http://www.autosavant.com/2008/06/17/the-ancient-fiat-putting-ethiopia-on-the-motoring-map/
I’ve never seen the wagon before – I like it! It looks like a fresh find considering the date on the driver’s side rear window. Too bad it ended up in the junkyard; how many are left?
The last time I saw one of these was about 14 years ago when it arrived at the junkyard where I was working. It was green and looked just like the one in the commercial except a little tired but not bad and it even ran. The gal that worked our front desk fell for it so we made an effort to see if it could be tidied up and made somewhat reliable for her. We determined that it could not. From 10 feet away it looked okay, no dents or visible rot. Mechanically it presented a continuous series of problems that just indicated that this car’s trajectory was terminal. It was in the process of quietly dying. The last straw for me came as I was trying to smooth out the idle and watched the metal fuel line that was routed along the top of the passenger side inner wheel well quietly fail. It had been dry one moment and the next suddenly was seeping gas. It was though the metal had become so weakened that the friction of the fuel had finally dissolved the final microns of steel comprising that part of the fuel line, a hemorrhage. Furthermore the fuel line was inexplicably routed close by the battery. Fuck that, I wasn’t interested in getting burned up while trying to convince it to go on living. If it felt that strongly about it who was I to argue? I realized that summed up the entire car. Although it could be made somewhat presentable the entire enterprise was just too fragile to be made reliable without an extensive redo of everything. It was almost as if the Italians had designed it this way. We were sad about that we couldn’t get it back on the road.
A friend of mine in San Francisco bought a new 131 wagon ca. 1976, so they did sell them in California.
Of course that 131 sedan that reached 569,000 miles was an outlier.
Another great find from Jim! This little wagon brings back lots of childhood memories. We never had one, but I went down a rabbit hole of automotive recollections…..
The mid-size town where I grew up didn’t have all the imports in the 1970’s, I don’t think we had Toyota or Honda until the 1980’s. But, we had a very large, respected Oldsmobile dealer that also carried Fiat. So there were a disproportionate number of Fiats there.
I recall a LOT of Bravos, sedan and wagon form, about town. A good high school friend (so this would be later, Class of ’88) had a Ritmo, that was a weird car.
We also had a funky dealer in an old textile mill downtown who carried Peugeot, TR7’s when they existed, and the Rover SD1. No Jags though, you had to go to the next city over for those.
The Pontiac dealer also carried Mercedes-Benz, and the Cadillac dealer carried BMW as a side hustle.
This would make for a cool Resto-Mod.
Drop in a Honda K24 or F20 with trans combo.
Adjust the stance with some coilovers and vintage wheels and bring it to your next C&C.
Instant magnet!!!
Surely someone can save this.
Fantastic find! But you’re grossly underestimating the mileage on this pillar of durability. Let’s not forget the 131 that racked up over 559k miles on its original (although smoking) engine!
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-for-sale-1980-fiat-brava-131-with-559355-miles-the-original-engine-is-smoking-though/
I note that you didn’t link to that one; you’re not indulging in a bit of anti-Fiat bravado, are you? 🙂
The wagons were sold wherever there was a Fiat dealer, but they really were quite rare for some reason. I guess sport wagons weren’t yet a thing, and these were targeting a shrinking demographic of Italian sporty sedan buyers.
The 131 was very popular in Austria, as were all Fiats for decades. My uncle had one in 1980 when we were there, and he took us on a few outings in it. It was a very basic stripper with the pushrod four. But then it was a “work car” (company car), as he worked for the huge public electric utility company. It replaced a VW Squareback.
The life history of this car is playing out like a movie in my mind’s eye: young guy buys a very attractive-seeming Fiat wagon as his first car, with a bit of help from his parents. The wagon suits his lifestyle, which includes climbing and backpacking. Of course he should have bought a Subaru 4WD wagon instead, but life is full of “what ifs”. He gets married and the young couple travel all over the mountainous West in their Fiat, albeit with a few unplanned stops to visit the very few Tonys in that part of the world.
They have kids and get smart and buy a 4WD Toyota van, which one of their kids still drives today. The Fiat gets relegated to second car status, and not used much, as he bikes to work in Boulder.
But he’s emotionally attached to it, and when it finally goes Pop!, he keeps it, with the idea of fixing it some day. A decade later he pulls the engine and pulls the head and pan, and realizes he’s in over his DOHC head. The Fiat sits another couple of decades until they decide to move into a senior-community condominium. The kids don’t want the Fiat, so off to the junkyard it goes.
Or something like that.
Ha, no, I couldn’t find that link! Thanks for including it. I found a shorter outtake one that had one picture and a short writeup of that same car but not that one.
Your envisioning of the process seems quite accurate. There may have been an Audi of some sort after the Fiat too in my mind. Undoubtedly there’s now a Tesla and white ’90s VW Westy Eurovan in the driveway off Pearl Street in Boulder, I’ll have to look next time I’m down there.
Sounds right to me.
Paul, what a beautiful story. Young man gets his car, hangs with the car for years. Car needs a repair, but life has gotten in the way of him fixing it, but he will eventually get to it. He is aging and what may have been a doable repair for him is now an impossibility. The man goes to retirement home, car goes to the yard. I know all too well what time can do to ones body, and as someone that would repair anything, now its impossible to even change brake pads. I just lived this story with my long loved AMC.. Thanks for the story.
There were few 128s in 1977 in Long Island in 1977, let alone 131/Brava. Consider that Fiat sold 100k units in 1975, no doubt many of those in NYC area.
The 37850 mileage is correct. This is in too good a shape to have rolled the odometer.
I suspect it spent most of its life garaged, because it was troublesome. “…but Dad, the body is in great shape, and the miles are low”. Sold to the next victim. This cycle was repeated, as each successive buyer realized the car was too troublesome or not worth fixing.
By 1982, a Fiat was rarer than a Pontiac Astre—in NY! Vegas still were on the road. CORVAIRS were still on the road! In NY.
Yet three decades later Fiat owned Chrysler, lol!
Thanks for the memory—please, find a 128 or any Renault for the next time!
Thanks for the memory!
In a similar universe….my first car in College was a ’72 Fiat 128 Wagon, bought at Nordic Ford in South Burlington, Vt in summer of 1976. Didn’t know much about cars and neither did my Father, it was already a rustbucket and I didn’t realize it (was fixedup/painted nicely). Manual choke, had to remember to move it during the drive when cold; small gas tank (think less than 10 gallon?) and took premium fuel. I did some electrical work on it to get headlights and horn working to get it to pass inspection, but I didn’t have it long…..2 months later it thew a gear and the shop didn’t know if they could get it back together again after removing the transaxle, due to rust, so had to junk it. Even left a pair of my Father’s good snow tires on it (not sure why I had them on so early; guess the tires were bad when I bought it and my Father took sympathy on me and let me put on his snow tires).
Think I had the right idea, I was just too early (and too young to have enough money to buy a decent example). FWD cars were pretty scarce in 1976, mostly (besides Fiat) you paid a fair amount for them, even though they’d be great for winter driving up in Vermont (similar to Colorado, I’d imagine). Maybe I should have looked for a more conventional car (like the 131?…conventional layout but don’t know if a Fiat should be called conventional)…but anyhow something like a Toyota or Datsun. Ended up being the first to own FWD car in my family, only by months though, my Father bought a 1976 Subaru DL new with FWD, they did offer 4WD but I think only on a wagon model back then. He considered VW (the Rabbit was new previous year and pretty pricey); Datsun (didn’t like the F10 not due to appearance, but suspicious of the add on vents midway down the hood near the carburator, spooked purchase) but Subaru was pretty unknown then and he took a chance, not a bad car, but rusted like crazy, common issue there.
He didn’t even consider a Fiat (after my fiasco with the 128).
After all these years the 131 in its various body styles is still a great looking car. And far cheaper than a Camargue. One of my strongest memories of them, presumably either a few model years later than this 1976 version, or perhaps all along on California emissions configurations, was the “Benzina non Etilata” sticker by the fuel filler. “Unleaded Gasoline”. On the one hand charming; on the other hand an indicator that Fiat’s approach to US compliance had its limits, and translating anything that wasn’t required by law was one of those limits.
That’s a neat find! I don’t think I’ve ever seen any fiat older than a strada in person. Irrelevant point: when I was a child in the 80s, we watched a lot of educational public broadcasting (on our own) and one show featured a girl named alice who solved ?mysteries? With a talking computer named mac. She drove a strada in the show and I was impressed by this.
I wonder if the old audis came from the same stash? Seems as though someone who would have a deceased fiat would have to have a few deceased contemporary audis to go with the fiat and then finally they all got cleaned out.
I am a sucker for clean styling and a non obvious choice in cars and would probably have fallen victim to this had I been purchasing cars in the mid 70s. Then i probably would have failed to learn my lesson and bought a Peugeot 504 wagon. Really, there was more automotive diversity then; there were so few compact, cleanly styled, four door wagons. Domestics in 1976 had the hornet which was clunky, the aspen which was the aspen, and then you had to go to the Malibu or ? Toronto? Which were bloated and wallowy and a little too mommymobile. Then the toyota and datsun were not sporty and certainly not as nicely trimmed as this.
Paolo that was a fun story to read and I like your writing style.
504 Wagon you say? Here you go (same yard):
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/junkyard/junkyard-classic-1980-peugeot-504-diesel-wagon-paris-16th-arrondissement-just-got-a-little-poorer/
My fiance doesn’t know it but he should be turning cartwheels with joy that I am so far from wherever this is not to be tempted into rescuing any of these cars
Another possible explanation as to why it ended up there with the partially disassembled engine in the back was that this was the donor for the car that came with the blown up engine. For much of time the wagon was seen as the least desirable body style. That mean that many a functioning wagon gave its life so that a more desirable version could live on.
Of course the fact that this one is so intact makes that unlikely since I would bet a few other parts, particularly something like a radiator would have been put on the shelf as a spare.
Yes, the wagons were sold here in California, as my sister and BIL bought a ‘77. As for the engine, the twin-cam was a pretty good motor, especially when compared to contemporaries. Fiat owners who simply followed the maintenance schedule normally got good service from their cars (as I did with my ‘74 X1/9).
There are several American cars that – in my personal experience – I couldn’t say that about.
Was the two-door 131 really a coupe? To me it always looked like a sedan, as per our esteemed leader’s definition (same roofline). Back in the 124 days, you knew when you were looking at a coupe.
I couldn’t help noticing how much the 131 wagon looks like the Marina wagon. Hmm, 131 as the Italians building a better Marina, maybe? Whatever, it’s done a good job to have lasted so long.
The ad copy calls it a Coupe so I used that, although I did originally call it a two door sedan and then changed it.
“How do you double the trade-in price of a Fiat?”
“Fill up the gas tank.”
In the 1970s, FIAT stood for, “Fix It Again, Tony.”
Also: “Fix It Alla Time”.
🙂
Find it a towtruck. Feeble Italian attempt at technology.
I had a 79 Brava. Brava’s were initially trim option on the 131, but eventually became the model name in the states. I loved that car to the very end and have been tempted a few times since in getting a replacement Brava. Rust tends to be problem here in Wisconsin, not the engines, which were strong and also used in the Spiders. I have had my Spider now for over 25 years and part of the reason is that it is a summer car only so it doesn’t see salt. Unfortunately for all the 131 Bravas, they got used year-round which made for a shorter life.
My 131 wagon was found used, c. 1983, (re)painted metallic medium gray, original reddish vinyl upholstery. Having had a (used) first-gen 124 Sport Spider a decade earlier, I was delighted by this car. A broken timing belt and a rear-ending later, I reluctantly gave the car to the mechanic in Fairfax who had rebuilt the engine for me. What a sweet car. The new Civic wagon replaced it . . .
I recall noticing the matching forms of the rectangular door mirror and instrument-cluster bezel, at one point. Like Savagatl I am a sucker for clean styling. Staxman, what do you remember about your friend’s 131 wagon ? How long did he or she have it ?
My view of it was from the passenger’s, not driver’s, seat, and I rode in it only a few times, so nothing really stood out. From that viewpoint it was pleasant enough. About a year later I moved away and lost touch with my friend, so I don’t know how long he had it.
I’ve seen that rust on the inside of the rear quarter windows before, on a well-used California Volvo 240 wagon. I think it happens when the seal around the window shrinks from age and sun exposure.