FSM Cinquecento History

Pre-series production of the Cinquecento at FSM's Tychy plant began in January 1991, with regular series output from June 1991. The car was formally presented to the Polish public in December 1991 at Warsaw's Victoria Hotel. Though conceived and designed entirely by Fiat in Turin, the Cinquecento was built exclusively in Tychy throughout its entire production run — making it a deeply Polish car in manufacturing terms, even if Italian in engineering origin.

FSM badged the earliest units as the 'FSM Cinquecento' until May 1992, when the privatisation agreement with Fiat — signed on 28 May 1992, with Fiat taking a 90 % stake and the Polish State Treasury retaining 10 % — converted FSM into Fiat Auto Poland S.A. Production of the Cinquecento then continued under the Fiat name until 1998, reaching a total of roughly 1.1 million units at Tychy. The car placed second in the 1993 European Car of the Year contest and became the best-selling car in Poland by the mid-1990s.