Fiat Uno

The Fiat Uno was produced by FIAT in Italy from 1983 to 1995 and in many other countries until more recently. Even today it is the eighth best-selling car in the world with almost 9 million units sold in two different models, the one from 1983 to 1989 and the second version from 1989 to 1995; according to other sources, the number of specimens produced is approximately 9.5 million. In Brazil, a special local version was produced under the name Uno CS from 1984 and Fiat Mille after a restyling in 1994. It was one of the best-selling and most popular cars in Italy, and achieved considerable success abroad as well. The internal definition of the project identifies it as “Tipo one”, to indicate its location below “Tipo two”, the one subsequently known as Fiat Tipo. The Fiat Uno was initially to be born with the Lancia brand: in 1979, in fact, Gian Mario Rossignolo, at that time in charge of Lancia, had to think of a replacement for the Autobianchi A112 and therefore commissioned Giorgetto Giugiaro to design the new car. Rossignolo presented to Giugiaro the idea of a small luxury car, and Giugiaro presented him with a very compact car characterized by considerable roominess in relation to the external dimensions and a very modern line for those years. However, the project with the Lancia brand will never be produced; Rossignolo matured some differences with the new head of the Fiat group Cesare Romiti and at the end of 1979 he resigned. He leaves the “Lancia Uno” project to Umberto Agnelli, the latter turns the project to Ghidella who at that time was working together with Giampaolo Boano on the heir of the 127. The Fiat Uno will be born practically identical to the project conceived as heir of the A112 , both externally and internally.