Seeing a green Fiat 132 in this Telegraph article reminded me of the first Fiat I drove. Although a slightly earlier model (and GL not GLS) our ‘family car’ was similarly rare, but not exotic, car in New Zealand. Although cheap to medium priced mass market cars in Europe Fiat in NZ were comparatively rare and even a bit ‘premium’.
UK’s rarest cars: 1976 Fiat 132, one of only two left - www.telegraph.co.uk
1973 Fiat 132 1600 GL.
It had a both unfortunate demise as it was parked when a ‘stolen’ bus totalled it.
I say ‘stolen’ because it was always difficult to believe a bus ‘thief’:
- Took a bus from an Auckland Regional Authority depot
- Drove at least 10km (the shortest distance between depot & crash)
- Smashed into three parked cars (the 132 catapulted at least 30 metres, only stopped by hitting a power pole)
- Returned the bus to the same to the depot ‘undetected’
There was no outcome to either the Police follow-up or ARA’s own ‘internal investigation’. The only fortunate thing is nobody was injured or worse.
