Fiat 600 History

Introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1955, the Fiat 600 was the car that first put ordinary Italians behind the wheel in large numbers. A rear-mounted 633 cc water-cooled four-cylinder powered the small, four-seat unibody sedan at a price working-class families could afford.

The 600 also spawned the distinctive Multipla (1956), an early people-carrier that crammed six seats into the car's short wheelbase by moving the driver forward over the front axle — a remarkably progressive design for its era.

Production ran through 1969 in Italy, with licensed variants built in Yugoslavia (as the Zastava 750) and Argentina continuing well beyond. The 600 was supplemented by the even smaller Nuova 500 in 1957 and gradually replaced by the 850 for more demanding buyers.