Fiat: A Touch of Italian Style

Fiat is an automobile company which has its roots in Italy, first springing into life in 1899 when the very first vehicle was produced from their factory. Giovanni Agnelli was the founder of Fiat and the first car his firm produced was the 4HP. This was received well and in the following decade the number of Fiat cars being rolled out rapidly increased.

The word FIAT is actually an acronym, with the full name being “Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino” which translates as “Italian Automobiles Factory, Turin”, a nod to where the automobile company started out.

The Successful Company Expands

Following this period of huge success, Agnelli visited the US where he met with Henry Ford and saw the mass production techniques now being utilized by the factories. This inspired Agnelli and when he returned to Italy he recreated the same kind of production lines, helping Fiat to churn out even more vehicles.

By the time World War II broke out, Fiat employed 50,000 members of staff and was widely recognized as an economic force to be reckoned with in Italy.

Despite its roaring success, everything was put on hold at Fiat with the sole focus on producing equipment required for the war. After peace resumed, Fiat returned to making cars and by 1969, the manufacturer was producing 1,751,400 cars every year.

In fact, Fiat had become such a success over the years that it had not been left alone to continue as a sole operation. Instead, it had merged or taken over other key industry players at a time when remaining in the market was extremely difficult.

Lancia and Alfa Romeo fell under the spell of Fiat, but the really big story was the acquisition of 50% of the trading profits of Ferrari. However, this is not quite the whole story as it wasn’t the entirety of Ferrari that was purchased but just part of the road manufacturing operation, allowing Enzo Ferrari and his loyal mechanics to focus on racing.

Fiat Today

This merger in 1969 wasn’t to be the last for Fiat, and in 2009 the company hooked up with Chrysler. This merger meant that Fiat was now officially known as FCA, although to customers it was still simply Fiat.

Fiat remains today as a global brand that customers instantly recognize with a range of vehicles both big and small that are popular across both Canada and the rest of the world.