(music) He's back! He's got it! It's super! The Mini showed the world what a practical
small car could be like, but it was Fiat’s 127 supermini that took the category by storm
in the 1970s. The 127 was a big hit, but it would be its
successor, the Fiat Uno that would go on to be the numero uno selling Fiat. Yet the Uno wasn’t originally intended to
be a Fiat at all. Just why was the Uno so popular, and why was
it still in production 21 years after it was supposedly replaced? This is the Fiat Uno Story. (music) The 127 had been a big success for Fiat, and
an update in 1977 kept it selling. Work soon began on a third generation to be
released in 1981. But over at Fiat’s subsidiary Lancia, the
management team were working on a replacement for the Autobianchi A112, as they were responsible
for the Autobianchi brand. The Fiat 127 popularised the supermini category,
but the catchily-named A112 is regarded by some as the first modern three-door hatchback
supermini, beating the Fiat 127 by 18 months. But by 1979 the A112 was looking ancient against
modern competition such as the Ford Fiesta. Lancia enlisted Giorgetto Giugiaro from Italdesign
to come up with something new that could compete with its larger competition. Giugiaro came up with a car that was still
very compact, with a surprising amount of space inside. But with changes at the top of Lancia,
the project was in limbo. Fiat took a look at what they were doing and
decided they rather liked it, and it would make an ideal replacement for the 127. So, despite a third generation 127 being launched
in 1981, the new Fiat Uno, not that different in look from Giugiaro’s original design,
would launch only two years later. The Autobiachi A112 would have to soldier
on without much of an update until 1985 when it was replaced with the Fiat Panda-based Y10,
known in some markets as the Lancia Y10. The prototype was just a three door, but Fiat’s
new car would be launched as both a 3 and 5-door, as was the 127 before it. And like the previous car, Giugiaro’s design
focused on as much interior space as possible. This meant a very steep hatchback angle, almost
making it a mini-estate car like the new Volkswagen Polo, but it was also longer, wider, and taller. In fact, when it launched it was the tallest
car in its class. The Fiat 127 had a pedestrian drag factor
of 0.45. Giugiaro and Fiat found every way to make
the new car better. The cut-off kamm tail shape helped, as did
the bonnet rake, the minimal front air intake, and the removal of as many external adornments
as possible, such as the recessed door handles on the three door model. It all added up to a drag factor of just 0.34. Inside, the focus was on ergonomics, making
this small car roomy for four adults, or two adults and three children. Fiat used mannequins of all different body
types, and made sure they could easily get in and out of the car, especially important
for the three-door model. But whether it was a three or a five-door,
those doors opened wider to allow easy access. The large rear hatch opened up to a boot that
had more carrying space then it had a right to, once the rear seats were folded. And those rear seats had a party trick – they
could recline a little for additional comfort. The interior style was little changed from
Giugiaro’s design of the A112, and the dashboard would have a clean layout that
presented just what the driver needed, using the minimum of materials. This minimalism was shown to
full effect with the single stalk, used for the indicators and the horn. The lights and wiper controls were moved to
the instrument cluster. The ashtray on the dashboard had the unusual
feature that it could be positioned anywhere along the dashboard. And although there might only be one side
mirror, on some models it could be adjusted from the inside. To produce the new Uno, Fiat updated the 127
facilities in Turin with modern robotic machinery that could produce 2,200 cars every day. 200 robots built each car using less metal,
thanks to computer design that reduced the number of folds.
Additional care was made to prevent rust. Each metal joint was protected before welding
and afterwards sealed to avoid contact with the atmosphere. Prototypes were subjected to hundreds of thousands
of miles of durability tests, and cars were subjected to tests in salt water, and long
stays in corrosion chambers. Fiat were keen to tout the steps they’d
gone to prevent rust, but they stopped short on offering more than a 12-month warranty. After spending £380M ($700M USD, €516M,
$650M AUD) on development it was time for the Uno’s launch. But with 5.6M 127s sold, the new car had big
shoes to fill… (music: Skylines - Anno Domini Beats)
YouTube audio library The new Fiat Uno “launched” in 1983 at the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida, for some reason, getting its photo taken in the rocket garden. The commercials were also
pretty "out of this world". Maybe it was because there
was so much “space” inside? OK, enough of the space puns! Fiat’s creative design department even produced
a creative brochure that actually spoke back to you.
But marketing aside, it was motor critics and the public that would decide if the Uno
would be a success. There was a lot to like – it had good handling,
performance, economy and practicality. But the lack of attention to detail on those
early cars meant the door seals weren’t quite right, leading to road noise at high
speeds, despite Fiat adding extra sound deadening to the bulkhead to reduce engine noise. Maybe not a big problem in Italy, but the
heater wasn’t the best in the world, but it did allow both hot air to go to your legs
while fresh air cooled your brow, something that would be handy in cars today! The Uno, “one” in Italian, might have
been named for its single windscreen wiper, but without a cam to get the corners of the
screen, on a wet day it could leave the driver ducking their head to find a clear part of
the windscreen to look through. Being the tallest car in its class meant there
was good headroom both in the front and the back for tall people, but it made this little
car especially susceptible to crosswinds. Oh, and the optional Fiat radio was a bit rubbish! But these were mostly minor problems
that were easily corrected. Fiat had got the basics right,
and that included the engines. There was the 900cc straight out of the Fiat
127, and the 1.1 and 1.3L from the Fiat 128, and also used on the Fiat X1/9. The Uno was launched as the 45, 55 and 70
which might seem like random numbers, but they referred to the engine’s output in
metric horsepower. The fastest, the 70S could best the old Fiat
127 Sport in a drag race with a 0-60 time around 11 seconds. But Fiat was anxious to talk about the frugal
Uno 45 ES. Additional aerodynamic changes such as wheel
covers and air deflectors in front of the rear wheels reduced the drag to 0.33. Fiat aimed for better fuel economy using clever
engine tricks such as starving the engine of fuel when it didn’t need to run full
rich, for example when in traffic, but supplying just enough fuel so the engine didn’t stall. It also had a higher compression ratio and
higher ratio top gear. This all added up to 51.4 mpg (5.5 l/100km),
besting the old 127 with the same size engine while getting similar acceleration. You were encouraged to drive as frugally as
possible with a large econometer and light to suggest you change gear. This combination of low drag along with a
selection of economical and peppy engines gave a full line-up that appealed to most drivers. It offered everything a family needed for
a great price. As the saying goes it
“did exactly what it said on the tin”. It needed to. When the Fiat 127 launched it didn’t have
much, if any competition. But 12 years later every mass car maker had
their own supermini. General Motors had just launched the Vauxhall
Nova / Opel Corsa, and Peugeot would launch the 205 just a month later. But the Uno offered more for the price. It also beat out the Peugeot 205 to become
European Car of the Year in 1984. There was some luxury to be had on this little
car as well. Options included a sunroof, electric windows,
metallic paint and central locking. And with it being the early 1980s, a digital
clock was one of those luxurious extras! The only Fiat 127 diesel had been made by
Fiat of Brazil, but later in 1983 the Uno diesel appeared using that same Brazilian
1.3L engine. But it didn’t provide many benefits over
the economical petrol Uno 45 ES, delivering worse fuel economy and slower acceleration. By 1984 Fiat of Brazil started production
of a car that they called the Uno, and looked like a Uno, but was built on the Fiat 147
platform, a Brazilian version of the Fiat 127. In some markets it was known as the Fiat Mille. From this they would produce a saloon version,
the Fiat Duna in 1985. The range was expanded to an estate in 1987,
the Duna Weekend, proving the upright back of the hatchback Uno definitely didn’t classify
it as an estate! Both versions would be imported and sold back
in Europe. The Duna proved to be very popular in South
America, and it was the best-selling car in Argentina in the first half of the 1990s. The Fiat 147 platform was more robust, making
it suitable for carrying heavy loads, so the van version of the Uno was based on the Brazilian
model as the Fiat Penny, Citivan and Fiorino. The top of the range 1984 Fiat Uno SX with
its rev counter showed a hint of where Fiat was going for 1985. With the Peugeot 205 GTI and Volkswagen Golf
GTI hot hatches selling well, and providing a halo of excitement around their models,
Fiat produced their own hot hatch Uno, the Turbo i.e., launched at the 1985 British Grand Prix. Fitted with a turbocharger, intercooler and
fuel injection system, it boosted the 1.3L engine’s performance from 67hp (50 KW) to
103hp (77 kW). That was enough to get it over 120mph (124mph,
200 km/h) and to 60 in a shade over 8 seconds. The official engine size was 1299cc, but after
Italy’s highway system allowed higher speeds for cars over 1300cc, Fiat suddenly and conveniently
discovered the capacity was actually 1301cc! The dashboard included a host of information
including a turbo boost dial. It could be swapped out for an optional electronic
dashboard. The Uno was selling well. 1 million had been sold by 1985, and around
2,000 cars were produced every single day. To keep it selling, updates were made across
the range. The Uno got a passenger door mirror, a 60/40
split rear seat, and the smallest engine was all new. Fiat’s new 1.0L “Fully Integrated Robotised
Engine” or FIRE was, of course, built by robots. It was lighter, used fewer parts, and produced
more power while using less fuel. Not only that, servicing intervals grew and
so costs to maintain it went down. This was all music to prospective customer’s ears! It was a clever acronym, but including the
word “engine” meant that, like “PIN numbers” it was always going to be erroneously
called a FIRE engine, when we all know that this is a fire engine! The old Fiat 127 903cc engine was still available
in the budget model – the Fiat Uno Sting. The Uno 55 became the Uno 60 as the 1.1L engine
was more powerful. In 1986 a larger 1.7L diesel engine appeared
with better acceleration, along with a 1.4L turbo diesel with a 0-60 of 12.4 seconds. This all helped to keep sales brisk, and by
the end of 1986 2M cars had been sold. The Uno had always had the choice of a 4 or
5 speed manual, but Fiat introduced their version of the Volvo / DAF constant velocity
gearbox in 1987 as the Uno Selecta. Despite being an automatic gearbox it got
similar acceleration and fuel economy as the 5-speed manual, and was produced in cooperation
with Ford who used it in their Fiesta. By the time of the second generation Uno in
1989, Fiat had sold close to 4M. Maybe second generation was a bit of a stretch
though, as the exterior was only lightly modified. The front got a new, more streamlined look
with a lower bonnet line like the newly launched Fiat Tipo, and the tailgate and rear bumper
had a light update. The old car had a drag factor of 0.34, and
these changes got the new car to just 0.3. Inside there was a larger update. There was a new dashboard with a centre console
and the heater could be temperature controlled. The driver’s seat got adjustable lumbar
support. This was a sorely needed update to keep the
Uno competitive. Fiat’s brochures were sure to point out
the benefits of the Uno, but I think they were running out of ideas a bit when they
highlighted the car’s choke as a feature when many other cars in the class had moved
to an automatic choke! The old 1.1L was replaced by a larger version
of the FIRE or should that be the FIR engine? And the 1.3L used the updated 1.4L from the
Fiat Tipo. This meant the hot hatch Turbo’s power increased
to 117hp (87 kW). But the budget Fiat Uno Sting was still available
with the old 903cc engine that could trace its roots back to the Fiat 600 in 1955. It would still be used in the Fiat Seicento
in 1998! And just to confuse things, alongside the
1.1L FIRE Fiat sold the older 1.1L engine imported from Brazil and used
on the Selecta CVT automatic. The dealers certainly had their work cut out
explaining all of this to prospective customers! Despite an Uno update, the 1985 Brazilian
Duna saloon and estate was still for sale. But selling an old Uno alongside the new Uno
didn’t look good in Fiat showrooms. Fiat had purchased Innocenti in 1990, and
was turning it into a “value brand”, cars for people on a budget, so it made sense to
sell a lightly facelifted Brazilian Uno estate as the Innocenti Elba. It would be the last car sold under the Innocenti
name, a car brand that was founded in 1947 and bought us the reworked Mini that British
Leyland should have produced, the hatchback Innocenti Mini. A main target demographic for the new Uno
were young people, so Fiat’s marketers thought they’d tap into what the kids were into. (rap music) They created a special Uno Rap special edition,
because that was the latest thing, at least it was 10 years earlier! It had a suitably cringe-inducing advert that
probably got all the kids rushing down to their Fiat dealers! But the Uno Rap showed that Fiat was reverting
to the old trick of special editions to keep their aging car selling
until they could launch its replacement. That came in 1993 as the Fiat Punto, although
as Fiat did with previous cars, the Uno remained on sale as a budget option. It remained in production at the Turin factory
until 1995, after selling just over 6M cars. But even though Fiat had moved on to the Punto
in Italy, the rest of the world wasn’t done with the Uno, especially in developing markets
who wanted inexpensive transportation. With raised suspension, it proved particularly
good on rough roads. Tooling was transferred to Poland, and the
Polish Unos would still be on sale in Italy in 1997 as the value branded Innocenti Mille
Clip. They’d continue to be sold in Poland until
2002. It was produced in Yugoslavia in 1988 as the
Yugo Uno, but sales were slow and the war in the 1990s caused production to be untenable. The second version also started production in
Morocco, Turkey, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. The new home of the Uno though was Brazil,
and in 1989 production expanded to Argentina. Production of the Fiat 127/Uno hybrid that
became the Brazilian Uno continued into the 1990s with their own restyle, sometimes still
renamed as the Fiat Mille, and was restyled once more in 2005 still with that FIRE engine? Whatever you want to call it! In South Africa, production was licensed to
Nissan of all people and produced from 1990 until 1998 when Fiat took over production. It was still on sale in 2007 when it got the
Brazilian facelift. Such was the affection for the Uno in Brazil,
Fiat of Brazil decided to bring it back one more time as the 2010 Fiat Novo Uno, or “New
Uno”, or “New One” if you want to get pedantic! The Uno would get a new platform for the first
time since 1983, the Fiat Chrysler Economy platform based on the platform used by the
Fiat 500 and Panda. It was a sister to the world cars, the Fiat
Palio and Grand Siena. It was around the same length, but wider and
taller than the original Uno. The design of the body came from the concept
of the “round square”, a popular style at the time adopted by cars such as the Kia
Soul and Scion xB, and it adopted a similar style to the 2011 Fiat Panda. It still used the same 1.0L and 1.4L FIRE
“whatever you want to call it” as the previous car. Inside it was all you would expect from a
modern supermini, like the original Uno it was basic transport but it got the job done. Fiat pitched the Novo Uno to a young audience. The old Uno was surprisingly still sold, and marketed to customers
who were watching their pennies. Fiat showed off a cabrio version, but other
than the van version the Novo Uno was only sold as a 3 or 5-door hatchback, with a raised
suspension option for rural customers. It got a facelift in 2014 which included automatic
start/stop. Another update appeared in 2016, with an upgrade
to the new FireFly engine that got slightly better acceleration. In 2021 it reverted to the FIRE, just before
production ended. There have always been rumours that Fiat will
bring the Uno name back to Europe, but Fiat already has two successful supermini brands
and doesn’t need another. But some have said it could become a crossover
in the future, so who knows? The original Uno got a send off with the
“Grazie Mille” special edition in 2013. It should have been “Grazie nove milioni”
as by the end of production in 2014 the Uno had sold almost 9 million, easily outshining
its dad, the Fiat 127. It had been on sale for 31 years, 30 of them
in Brazil. Fiat has had its missteps as many car companies
have, but one thing they’ve been remarkably consistent with is producing amazing small cars. From the 1950s Fiat 500 and 600, to the 1970s
Fiat 126 and 127, to the Panda and the modern 500. But the Fiat Uno is the best-selling Fiat of all time, even if you combine all the 1950s
and modern Fiat 500s together. It provided a practical family car for a price
that they could afford. As they say, it
“did exactly what it said on the tin”. The Uno provided a lot of space, but so did
the Fiat 500 in the 1950s and the Fiat 126 in the 1970s. There are links to videos about those cars
on the right. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in
the next video!
