Five Fiat 124s are on display at Turin’s Heritage Hub for an exhibition running until late November. The show marks the sedan’s 60th anniversary and looks at how one car changed daily travel for millions.
The Fiat 124 first appeared in 1966, with Dante Giacosa leading the technical team. Designed for easy use and simple repairs, it had a classic three-box shape and roomy cabin, along with features that stood out at the time. Four-wheel disc brakes and a 1,197 cc engine designed by Aurelio Lampredi gave it an edge. The car weighed only 855 kg and produced 60 horsepower. It won "Coche del Año 1967" and soon filled roads across Europe. The car made its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1966 and was named European Car of the Year in 1967, information from independent automotive publications. Stellantis records show that the Fiat 124 and its licensed versions were built for about 40 years. More than 20 million units rolled out worldwide, including over 1.5 million made in Italy alone.
The 124’s story extends well beyond Italy. The exhibition includes the original sedan and a 124 Special that crossed Africa and Europe in the 'Raid de los Dos Cabos', a 40,000-kilometer trek from Cape Town to North Cape in just 51 days. Visitors can also see the Sport Spider by Pininfarina, the Sport Coupé from Centro Stile Fiat and the Abarth 124 Rally, which put Fiat on the rally map.
Flexibility set the Fiat 124 apart. Factories built it in Italy, Spain (SEAT), the Soviet Union (LADA-VAZ), Turkey (Tofaş) and India (Premier). Over four decades, more than 20 million cars left assembly lines around the world. The 124 became a symbol of practical transport and a model for global car production. Stellantis calls it one of the first "global cars": its platform was adapted for different countries and built under license in many places.
Original brochures from the 1960s line the display cases, capturing the hope and pride of the era. Visitors at Via Plava 80 can see how the Fiat 124’s design and engineering shaped later cars in Europe and beyond.
Industry reviews and official production data report that the Spanish SEAT 124 was produced from 1968 to 1980, first in Barcelona and later also in Pamplona, with 896,136 units built, excluding derivatives such as the 1430 and 124 Sport Coupé. In the Soviet Union, the Fiat 124’s design became the foundation for the Lada/VAZ family, which produced more than 17.3 million vehicles over 44 years.
Fiat’s approach to the 124 combined tough mechanics with low cost and flexibility. Its journey from Spanish cities to Russian highways shows how the model endured, while the Heritage Hub exhibition traces its influence on everyday vehicles.
