FIAT is Italy's largest automobile manufacturer. The acronym stands for "Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino" which means in English "Italian Car Manufacturer of Torino", Torino/Turin being the Italian city of headquarters. Fiat earned a poor quality reputation in the 1970s due mostly to build quality problems resulting from Italian labor union disputes as well as cheap Russian steel used at the time which rusted easily. Modern Fiats are actually pretty respectable thanks to modernization of materials and manufacturing processes, unfortunately most Americans still think of the old phrase "Fix It Again Tony" because Fiat has not sold cars in North America since 1982 and therefore that is the last Fiat anyone there has usually seen. Even the older Fiats are not as bad as their reputation in many cases, they have often earned undue criticism thanks to owners and mechanics who in the 70s had little experience working on "strange little foreen cars" as all they had ever touched were big American engines. As a result of poor maintenance Fiat's reputation was worsened even further. Fiat makes an array of fun, interesting and innovative cars under the brands FIAT, LANCIA, ALFA ROMEO and MASERATI. Fiat also owns controlling interest in Ferrari.
by anon-e-mouse April 11, 2005
by anon-e-mouse August 03, 2003