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Fiat 500
The Fiat 500 (, ) is an Economy car, economy / city car that was manufactured and marketed by Fiat Automobiles from 1957 until 1975. It was sold as a two-door semi-convertible or saloon car and as a three-door panel van or estate car. Launched as the ''Nuova (new) 500'' in July 1957, as a successor to the Fiat 500 "Topolino", 500 "Topolino", it was an inexpensive and practical small car. Measuring long, and originally powered by a rear-engine design, rear-mounted 479 cc two-cylinder, air-cooled engine, the 500 was smaller than Fiat 600, Fiat's 600, launched two years earlier, and is considered one of the first purpose-designed city cars. In 1959, Dante Giacosa received a Compasso d'Oro industrial design prize for the Fiat 500. This marked the first time a Compasso d’Oro was awarded to an automotive manufacturer. History In 1936, Fiat released the front engine Fiat 500 "Topolino" economy car. In 1949 to meet the demands of the post-war market, production resumed as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiat 500 (2007)
The Fiat 500 is an A-segment city car manufactured and marketed by the Italian car maker Fiat, a subdivision of Stellantis, since 2007. It is available in hatchback coupé and fixed-profile convertible body styles, over a single generation, with an intermediate facelift in Europe in the 2016 model year. The 500 is internally designated as the ''Type 312'' by FCA. Derived from the 2004 Fiat Trepiùno 3+1 concept (designed by Roberto Giolito), the 500's styling recalls Fiat's 1957 Fiat 500, nicknamed the ''Bambino'', designed and engineered by Dante Giacosa, with more than 4 million sold over its 18-year (1957–1975) production span. In 2011, Roberto Giolito of Centro Stile Fiat received the Compasso d'Oro industrial design award for the Fiat 500. Manufactured in Tychy, Poland, and Toluca, Mexico, the 500 is marketed in more than 100 countries worldwide, including North America, where the 500 marked Fiat's market return after 27 years. The millionth Fiat 500 was produced in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puch 500
The Puch 500 is a city car produced by the Austrian manufacturer Puch, a subsidiary of Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Graz. It was built under licence from Fiat and was based on the Fiat 500. The beginning In 1954 it was decided at Steyr-Puch to resume car production after the war. Because of the high costs associated with the development of a completely new design, an agreement was made with Fiat to acquire and adapt the body in white of their Nuova 500 () model designed by Dante Giacosa. Of the body, only the engine cover and later the roof was produced in-house. Engine, transmission and carriage were all manufactured by Steyr-Puch. The engine was a two-cylinder (16 hp/12 kW) flat engine which proved to be far more smooth-running than the straight-twin engine used by Fiat. It brought good driving behaviour for its time, especially in mountain rides. The Italians too had experimented mounting this engine to their car originally, but it was dropped in favor of the simpler in-lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vignale Gamine
The Vignale Gamine is a small rear-engined car. It was produced by Carrozzeria Vignale from 1967 until 1970, based on the Fiat 500, also known as Nuova 500. Unlike the 500, however, the Gamine had an open-top roadster structure and only two seats. Styling was by Alfredo Vignale. The Gamine is sometimes related in design to the Fiat 508 Balilla. A hard-top was offered at an extra cost, and is considered these days to be quite rare. It was powered by a 2-cylinder, air-cooled engine of 499.5 cc from the Fiat 500 sport, the sporty version of the 500, and an engine later to be offered on the 500F. There was only one engine version producing . According to official data, the car had a top speed of . The Gamine never sold very well. In fact, the slow sales drove Carrozzeria Vignale out of business, forcing Alfredo Vignale to sell his production line to De Tomaso De Tomaso Automobili Ltd. (previously known as De Tomaso Modena SpA) is an Italian car-manufacturing company. It w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rear-engine Design
In automobile design, a rear-engine design layout places the engine at the rear of the vehicle. The center of gravity of the engine itself is behind the rear axle. This is not to be confused with the center of gravity of the whole vehicle, as an imbalance of such proportions would make it impossible to keep the front wheels on the ground. Rear-engined vehicles almost always have a rear-wheel drive car layout, but some are four wheel drive. This layout has the following features: *Packaging: since there is no need for a transmission tunnel, the floor can be flat. *Rear traction: having the engine located over the driven wheels increases downward pressure, which is helpful for grip on loose surfaces, although can be prone to oversteer. *Simplicity of manufacture: the engine is near the driven wheels, and the transmission can be merged with the differential to save space. This layout was once popular in small, inexpensive cars and light commercial vehicles. Today most car makers have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estate Car
A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate) is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door (the liftgate, or tailgate), instead of a trunk/boot lid. The body style transforms a standard three-box design into a two-box design—to include an A, B, and C-pillar, as well as a D-pillar. Station wagons can flexibly reconfigure their interior volume via fold-down rear seats to prioritize either passenger or cargo volume. The ''American Heritage Dictionary'' defines a station wagon as "an automobile with one or more rows of folding or removable seats behind the driver and no luggage compartment but an area behind the seats into which suitcases, parcels, etc., can be loaded through a tailgate." When a model range includes multiple body styles, such as sedan, hatchback, and station wagon, the models typically share their platform, drivetrain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saloon Car
A sedan (American English) or saloon (British English) is a automobile, passenger car in a three-box styling, three-box configuration with separate compartments for an engine, passengers, and cargo. The first recorded use of ''sedan'' in reference to an automobile body occurred in 1912. The name derives from the 17th-century Litter (vehicle), litter known as a sedan chair, a one-person enclosed box with windows and carried by porters. Variations of the sedan style include the close-coupled sedan, club sedan, convertible sedan, fastback sedan, hardtop sedan, notchback sedan, and sedanet. Definition A sedan () is a car with a closed body (i.e., a fixed metal roof) with the engine, passengers, and cargo in separate compartments. This broad definition does not differentiate sedans from various other car body styles. Still, in practice, the typical characteristics of sedans are: * a Pillar (car), B-pillar (between the front and rear windows) that supports the roof; * two rows of s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City Car
The A-segment is the first category in the passenger car classification system defined by the European Commission. It is used for city cars, the smallest category of passenger cars defined. A-segment sales represented approximately 4.2% of the European market in 2024. It is approximately equivalent to the kei car class in Japan. Definition As of 2021, the A-segment category size spans from approximately to . Characteristics Body styles for A-segment cars in Europe are always hatchbacks. But as crossovers gain popularity, new models may shift to resemble crossovers. Examples of crossover city cars include Suzuki Ignis and Toyota Aygo X. Other body styles such as sedans are not present in this segment because these shapes largely prove impractical at typical A-segment dimensions. Current models In 2020 the ten highest selling A-segment cars in Europe were Fiat Panda, Fiat 500, Toyota Aygo, Renault Twingo, Volkswagen Up!, Hyundai i10, Kia Picanto, Peugeot 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economy Car
Economy car is a term mostly used in the United States for cars designed for low-cost purchase and operation. Typical economy cars are small (compact car, compact or subcompact car, subcompact), lightweight, and inexpensive to both produce and purchase. Stringent design constraints generally force economy car manufacturers to be inventive. Many innovations in automobile design were originally developed for economy cars, such as the Ford Model T and the Austin Mini. Definition The precise definition of what constitutes an economy car has varied with time and place, based on the conditions prevailing at the time, such as fuel prices, disposable income of buyers, and cultural mores. It typically refers to a car that is designed to be small and lightweight to offer low-cost operation. In any given decade globally, there has generally been some rough consensus on what constituted the minimum necessary requirements for a highway-worthy car, constituting ''the'' most economical car poss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiat 126
The Fiat 126 (Type 126) is a four-passenger, Rear-engine design, rear-engine, city car manufactured and marketed by Fiat over a twenty-eight year production run from 1972 until 2000, over a single generation. Introduced by Fiat in October 1972 at the Turin Auto Show#1972, Turin Auto Show, the 126 replaced the Fiat 500, using major elements from its design. A subsequent iteration, marketed as the ''126 Bis'', used a horizontally oriented, water-cooled engine, and featured a rear hatchback with additional cargo space. The majority of 126s (some 3.3 million) were manufactured in Tychy and Bielsko-Biała plants, Poland and were marketed as the Polski Fiat 126p in many markets. Fiat stopped marketing the 126 in 1993 in favor of its new front-engined Fiat Cinquecento, Cinquecento. Total production reached approximately 4.7 million units. In Poland, the car became a people's car, and a cultural icon, earning the nickname ''Maluch'', meaning "The Little One" or "Toddler", a name that even ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiat 500 "Topolino"
The Fiat 500, commonly known as "Topolino" (), is an Italian city car produced and manufactured by Fiat from 1936 to 1955. The name ''Topolino'' is , and is also the Italian name for Mickey Mouse. History The Topolino was one of the smallest cars in the world at the time of its production. Launched in 1936, three models were produced until 1955, all with only minor mechanical and cosmetic changes. It was equipped with a 569 cc four-cylinder, side-valve, water-cooled engine mounted in front of the front axle (later an overhead valve motor), and so was a full-scale car rather than a cyclecar. The radiator was located behind the engine which made possible a lowered aerodynamic nose profile at a time when competitors had a flat, nearly vertical grille. The shape of the car's front allowed exceptional forward visibility. Rear suspension initially used quarter-elliptic rear springs, but buyers frequently squeezed four or five people into the nominally two-seater car, and in la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-synchronous Transmission
A non-synchronous transmission, also called a crash gearbox, is a form of manual transmission based on gears that do not use synchronizing mechanisms. They require the driver to manually synchronize the transmission's input speed (engine RPM) and output speed (driveshaft speed). Non-synchronous transmissions are found primarily in various types of industrial machinery; such as tractors and semi-tractors. Non-synchronous manual transmissions are also found on motorcycles, in the form of constant-mesh sequential manual transmissions. Prior to the 1950s and 1960s, most cars used constant-mesh (and also sliding-mesh) but non-synchronous transmissions. History Most early automobiles were rear-engined, using a single-speed transmission and belt-drive to power the rear wheels. In 1891, the French Panhard et Levassor automobile used a three-speed manual transmission and is considered to have set the template for multi-speed manual transmissions in motor vehicles. This transmis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manual Transmission
A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canadian English, Canada, British English, the United Kingdom and American English, the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle Transmission (mechanical device), transmission system where gear changes require the driver to manually select the gears by operating a gear stick and clutch (which is usually a foot pedal for cars or a hand lever for motorcycles). Early automobiles used ''sliding-mesh'' manual transmissions with up to three forward gear ratios. Since the 1950s, ''constant-mesh'' manual transmissions have become increasingly commonplace, and the number of forward ratios has increased to 5-speed and 6-speed manual transmissions for current vehicles. The alternative to a manual transmission is an automatic transmission. Common types of automatic transmissions are the Automatic transmission#Hydraulic automatic transmissions, hydraulic automatic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
