1991 Fiat Uno 60 Selecta (CVT) Goes for a Drive 

Love the honesty of this era - small cars were simple and affordable.

Never has a man been more excited to be driving an Uno CVT than Matt in this video 😄

I saw the thumbnail and I had to click on this video. The Uno came to India in the early 2000's and we bought one in 2001 when I was 5 years old and now I'm turning 26 later this year and we still have it with us. It's such a beautiful, reliable car. Never broke down on us even once. It's a big big piece of my childhood and we don't wanna let go of it ❤️.

This car is giving me goosebumps, I love Fiats of this era, the uno, tipo, panda. Can’t wait for you to get a hold of a Tipo to review.

Wow, I'd forgotten just how good the Uno looks, and that bright red colour suits it perfectly. A fun filled mini Ferrari for those with more sense than money. Brilliant little things.

When city cars were actually small, simple, cheap and zippy. One friend of mine had the basic Uno 45 fire back in the early nineties. Easily 5 liters per 100 km .

What a lovely example of such a well known model, I would imagine that the CVT is incredibly rare these days - top review as always!

My first car was a 1988 Uno, fantastic car with a manual choke. Never let me down in 2 years apart from a leaky sunroof when ever the wind was in a certain direction.

The Fiat Uno: most famous for pursuing a German executive car in French tunnel. Allegedly.

That brings back memories! I miss my old Uno 45, even though it offered no such luxury as an auto, or 60bhp, or a rear wiper…

My first car was a 1 litre 5 door L reg Uno Start. It needed a run up when getting up hills and when I took me and four mates to Alton Towers it was 2nd gear all the way getting out of that place. Did me proud and I have fond memories of that car. Lasted me four years before it began to fall apart and was scrapped.

Loved my 1990 Uno mk2 , absolutely loved it ! It was brilliant fun to drive , proper nippy, like a luxury gocart with really supportive, comfortable seats & nothing rattled, no bits fell off , it never let me down once.

Great video, love the Uno. My favourite supermini of the 80s. That isn't a FIRE motor, though. That's an 1116cc Lampredi. The FIRE was 1108cc and only fitted to the manual version.

Matt and I share the same opinion about automatics. In 40+ years of driving I’ve never owned an automatic. But I’m here in the US and that makes me a real outlier.

My wife had a mk2 uno 45, a 60ie and 70ies. The latter 2 were fuel injected. All were manual but the 45 had cable clutch which see struggled with ( it was her 1st car) the others were hydraulic clutches which gave a more positive gear change. All were faultless

I remember my mom driving a red Uno just like this one back in the day. And then she fell into some financial struggles and couldn't service the car for a while. But the car just kept on running and running even when she could not service it. The car never broke down. What a great car it was.

Ohh what a joyful little car that was. You're right, it still looks good today. Very well engineered and very reliable.

Back in the 90's my parents had a 5dr Mk1, my grandparents a 5dr Mk2 and my aunt a 3dr Mk2. I remember a distinct "old Fiat" smell, it makes me very nostalgic.

Random facts, at least on the Uno I had... 1) the side vents only blow cold air. 2) the padded roll in the middle of the dash, where the tea shelf is, is an ashtray. 3) the rear light covers just pop off making changing a light bulb a doddle.

These facelift unos look great. A well executed update of the original. And I have always loved the looks and ethos of those door handles, I am sure they have other drawbacks but compared to for example the Tesla Model S door handles that serve the same function but have an extreme amount of electronics prone to breakdown in them, this is what it should be like.

Really enjoyed this video . My parents were Fiat hatch advocates for years . As a kid myself and siblings were driven around in a few Fiat 127s,Fiat Uno and them a Fiat Tipo (my parents first brand new vehicle). The car I drove when I passed my test was my brothers then Fiat UNO 60s . Learned a lot driving that car.

That particular power unit isn’t a “Fire” unit but instead the earlier over head cam unit that was also fitted in many older fiat related cars. Fantastic survivor though.

I had a 92 UNO Start from new, did 120,000miles, brilliant little car

My Dad's car transporting company used to deliver those. One time when there was a problem at the dealers we ended up with 22 of these parked all over our garden for 2 weeks until the dealer could take delivery 😆 They were decent little cars, very popular with the hire companies.

I have a UNO 1.5 liter here in Brazil, it is on family since 94, it's an amazing little "sport" car, can do anything you want, supercheap maintenance, fuel consumption and u can unfold or easily take out the back seats and boooom, u got a little cargo truck. And the guy on the video forget to open the secret spot, that is on the top of center console - it flips up and have a removable smoke tray and the lighter. Love it!

Here in Argentina the Uno, and mainly the Duna (saloon version of the Uno), were really successful cars. We had many variants since 1988 with 1.5 petrol engine at first and then 1.4 and 1.6 Tipo engines with a carburator until 1996. From 1997 on, we had 1.3 multipoint injection engine and 1.3 Fire engine in the end of its life comming from Brazil. As for the diesels we had the 1.7d engine, same you got in Europe for the Alfa 145/6 but without the turbo. In 1994 we got some of the Italian Unos with 1.1 and 1.4 fire engines (Uno Smart and 70s) we also got a few 1.4 turbo IE and 1.3 turbo diesel. As it is very common in our region, they continued producing the original 1988 Uno with some restylings until 2014, and it outlived the new body shown in this video that we only got from Italy in 1994... But the most wanted Uno here is called Uno SCR, it came with a 1.6 carburated engine, it was really fast and it had loads of standard equipment (A/C, electric windows, central locking, alloys, etc)

I have a Brazilian 1990. It got the Autobianchi 112/Lancia Y10 1.3 engine, and is built on a Fiat 127 platform. The 1980s dash held on until the mid 90s in Brazil. The Argentinian car is the same as the Brazilian market, as is all of Latin America to my knowledge. (I'm in Costa Rica, closer to Atlanta than Brazil.)

What a fabulous little car, always loved the Uno and the condition is incredible ❤️ the Uno is very popular in South Africa incidentally! And also it was star car in ‘One Foot In The Algave’ so much kudos. Great review Matt

I have a mk1 Fiat Uno 45 ''Breeze'', one of the many limited editions that Fiat did back in the 80's & 90's! So really pleased to see the mk2 Selecta get reviewed!! my Uno has been the best car by far that I've owned. It's took me to work in all weathers and on all sorts of roads, I've been on holiday with it. Nights out with friends, and I've even moved furniture and done a bit of motor racing with it! Whatever the journey, this little car is always ready to go without any fuss.

Great review Matt - my Dad and I have had 2 of these in the past - a K reg Uno Start 1 litre and a H reg 1.3 litre 70 SX - both in the same burgundy red colour and both great cars.

Fancied a Fiat Uno Turbo ie back in the 90's. Giugiaro was an artist. Making a utility box. Sexy! Ended up with a Mazda 2 Takuya though...In Black. It's Sexy! World Peace! X

I bought an Uno 60DS pre-facelift model brand new in 1989. It was a NA 1.7 diesel and a week later it took four adults on a week's self catering holiday to France, complete with the mother-in-law's pillows, tea bags and McVities biscuits. Kept it for 10 years and over 100,000 miles.

What a friendly, eager to serve, practical servant of a car was/is the Uno. He still rejoices in the name we gave him of Giovanni. Our series 2, 1.1 FIRE van was acquired from my mother's next door neighbour back in about the year 2000. I used it for several years, mostly as a go anywhere, do anything vehicle while I was working in the precast concrete industry. It was then passed on to my wife for several years, before winding up in the care of our younger son, for a year or two. It is now still the daily driver of a family friend, believe it or not. Here in SA, Unos were built under license from Fiat by Nissan SA. Before we acquired Gio, I attended a talk by the Quality Improvement Manager of Nissan SA. He touched on the various pukka Nissan models they were then building and mentioned that the Unos seemed to mate with each other and just go on multiplying (not Multipla, you understand), filling up the factory's dispatch area every shift. The FIRE engine is worth a mention - being cleverly simple (SOHC, 8-valves) and long stroke, in the interests of flexibility and economy. The Weber carburetor also worked very well. Our van was a manual - five speed, no less, and therein lies one of the drawbacks of Uno ownership - the gear selection mechanism. It was not a good design to start with (compare with the beautifully engineered, rifle bolt-like, arrangement on my wife's present car, a 2002 Toyota Corolla) and with age they wear such as to leave you suddenly stuck in neutral and unable to proceed - much to the ire of fellow road users. Gio was an early Series 2 and the design of the gear change mechanism was changed and improved as they went along, but I'm told it was never ideal. The other problem, of course, is (guess) - yes, rust. Gio also had his own tame black hole - drop anything smallish in the cabin and, seek as you may, you'd never find it again. You mention, Matt, the lack of poke with the CVT version. We found that, with the manual box and friction clutch and because of Gio's light weight, one could out drag all sorts of cars up to about 40 kph. As you can see, we have fond memories of Gio and his present owner still loves him, even though he (Gio, that is) is becoming increasingly geriatric.

My Dad had an L plate manual 1.1i, took us on many holidays 4 up with luggage and I don't recall it ever breaking down. Passed my test in it as well. I do remember the gearchange being really rubbery, and the tweed seats were not comfy. Was going to get given to my sister but it took her 5 attempts to pass her test, by which time it had been sitting for a while so he just scrapped it.

I still own a 1994 fiat uno 1.7 Diesel , In great condition and drives lovely, had it 20 years

That single wiper makes it kind of exotic!

Lovely to see a car that was once such a common sight on our roads. Had a few Unos and always thought they were perky, reliable and extremely spacious. It's not a FIRE power unit tho, this is the much older 128AS series engine, first seen in 53 years ago in 128's, then X1/9's and Strada. Strangely tho this 1.1 produced more BHP than the more modern 1.1 FIRE The 903cc OHV engine fitted in some Uno's came from the 127 but the 1049cc OHC (known as a Brazil engine) never went into an Uno either.

This channel is the only car channel I know that can persuade me to spend 24 minutes of my life hearing about a 90s FIAT Uno and not come to regret it. Well done! This car is the testament that even a very cheaply made car of the cheapest materials can last long and look great if very well taken cared of...well, most weren't and aren't, because cheap cars tend to attackt cheap owners and that is why they get such a bad rep in relibility and longevity. I guess I lived long enough from going from despising those extremely common, extremely booring, extremely cheap (and usually very poorly kept) cars and be a bit happy whenever a great example of one pops up.

My first car was an 88 45S MKI Uno.. lovely car and that 999cc FIRE engine was really nice. Later, did an upgrade to a 60SX with lovely blue interiors.. i still miss the revs on that 1108cc :)

My Dad had 2 Fiestas in the 90s with this gearbox in it, both brand new. G reg 1.1L and a K reg 1.3 LA. They made it all over Europe with no problems. Strange sensation/noose when accelerating.

I once owned a mk2 Ford Fiesta fitted with a CVT gearbox. Never thought about anything which would be considered shortcomings today. We just accepted it and got on with life.

I had a 1984 Uno 45 and remember it being the most sweet handling involving car to drive & very perky performance with its 903cc engine, and the original Citroenesque flap paddle switchgear

I remember my Uno, bought it dirt cheap and it was a shed but it kept on going, although there were so many teeth missing on the starter gear that I tried to park it on a hill to jump start it. And the passenger seat mechanism was broken, the seat was no longer secured to the floor. Happy days!

My first new car was a Fiat Uno Fire. Loved it to bits and kept it for 17 years, latterly as a second car, and it's still around today with my nephew who is in the process of putting it back on the road.

The childhood memories! My grandfather had a 4-door version (60 SX or something like that), from 1992 and picked me up from school everyday in it!

Lovely example! 😍 I prefer these facelifted Unos to the original. Nice redesign to the plug the gap before the launch of the Punto. Iirc, these were launched the UK in February or March 1990. A few months before the Rover Metro. At the end of 1990 there was also the heavily facelifted VW Polo & Vauxhall Nova/Opel Corsa A, so the Uno faced stiff competition by 1991.

Ripper little car. Unusual for a small Italian car to have any sort of auto. CVT adds to the quirkiness. 👍👏

My first car was a 1988 Uno 45 fire. It was cheap to run, very practical, reliable and fun to drive. Fiat really had small cars down to a tee back then.

Compared to my 1994 Panda, this car is luxury.

I bought a D plate Uno 60 with a knackered engine for £40, popped a 55 engine in from a rear ended scrapper for £125...polished it, MOT'd it...sold it, for £650. Not bad going for 1992, I must've under priced it 'cos the phone was red hot once the advert was in the paper!

8.8 million produced worldwide and I don’t think I’ve seen one out on the road for a long long time. Thanks for the review!

Well done for reviewing a car most people would ignore, their loss. I haven’t checked all the other comments but I’m sure people have already mentioned that this car was not fitted with the ‘FIRE’ engine, it’s got the older Lampredi unit. The Panda Selecta did use the ‘FIRE’ engine however.

I've always been a fan of the Uno.

5:30 Recognized that engine right away. The same one used in Zastavas, and later licenced manufactured by DMB (engine company) mostly with 55 hp.

My "first car", my mom's car, a Fiat Uno 45s. Cool looking, fast driving feeling but radiator heating problems. After some time electronic problems, the car suddenly cut off. But it was a nice car.

My wife had a used B-reg Uno many years ago, it was rusting in many places after just a few years. IIRC the Uno was the first car with no external gutters

The 1.3 SX mark 1 was a lot of fun to drive. I used to call mine 'my little Italian mist rocket' :-)

Carburetor + CVT, that's a combo I didn't know existed

I had a very similar car until very recently, when it got stolen and set on fire :( the blanking plug next to the steering wheel was for the choke on engines that needed it. And you forgot the ashtray and light, hidden under a flip top in the centre just before the tea shelf :)

The 1.2 engine in my 2014 Panda doesn't look much different to that of what's in the Uno 🤣

Brazilian Fiat Uno's had independent rear suspension instead of torsion beams. Fiat Duna/Premio and Elba was a Brazilian developed Sedan and Estate based on the Uno. Also we had 1.6 engines with 80 hp

What an awesome little car. I lived in Brazil and they got a new Uno in around 2010. Interesting car. The 1st gen, however kept being produced, but it got one version only. Quite simple. Thanks a lot for sharing this. Curiosity: since old cars use to get extinct in UK, how many of these Unos are still around? Any data? Didn’t observ the info on the video.

A Brazilian Legend this lovely car is the 2 most sealed car in my country and stop the production just in 2021

The Fiat Uno was a worthy successor to the the great Fiat 127. It would be great if, one day you would review one. Great review, thanks.

My 1st car was the 45 Formula. Glacially slow but so much more modern than Fiesta and Metro rivals.

I now prefer a manual, but didn't learn to drive one until several years after I started driving. Everyone in my family has had automatics forever and a day (big Commodores and Falcons), so there wasn't a manual for me to learn on. As such, my first car was an automatic. I had a manual after that, but, when the manual went to that great scrapyard in the sky, I replaced it with a CVT. So many cars here (New Zealand) are automatic/CVT now, you have to really hunt for a manual. I didn't have time to do that and I'd just moved to Auckland, the city with the worst traffic in the country, so I figured I'd just bite the bullet and get another automatic. I still have it six and a half years later and, although it's not the most exciting car in the world - it's a Mitsubishi Colt, which is the unofficial chariot of grandmothers everywhere - it gets me where I need to go with reasonable fuel costs and great reliability.

I have had 3 fiats….a tipo 1.7 diesel, a uno 1.7 diesel and a petrol panda 1.1, only the panda was utter crap, knocking engine at 3000 miles ( due to miss matched pistons)….uno was the best my sister loved it and doubled the milage in 18 months after i sold it to her, she was gutted when some yob stole it effectively writing it off.

Bo! (Sorry, early 2000s reference). That is an unbelievably clean 31 year old example of a Uno! 😯

My first car was a 999cc (45bhp) Uno J721 KKM. The condition of this car beggars belief as they rust everywhere! Nice spec interior on that.

Haha I agree. My mum passed her test in 1985 in a manual. My Grandad (a Longbridge engineer) bought her an rusty old automatic Vanden Plas Princess as her first car. Which to my 5 year old eyes was a Roles Royce. She's never been able to drive a manual since. These days it wouldn't be a problem finding a small automatic. Micra's and then the Jazz have been the best small autos

...and in South Africa they made the Uno Turbo up until 1998, and I owned a 97 model. Now that was a pocket rocket!

0:52 "Our chief weapon is surprise, surprise and fear, fear and surprise. Our *two* weapons are fear and surprise, and ruthless efficiency. Our *three* weapons are fear and surprise, and ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical dedication to the Pope."

Whatever happened to Fiat? There used to be a dealer in every large town and several per city. Innovative, good to drive and sporty with good engines. A sad demise of a great brand. I had a 128 3P, a Panda, an Uno, A Strada (Ritmo), a Tipo and a Tempra

Is that any Penny (Uno wagon) with CVT? Here in Brazil this car was a total success and nowadays is very common to see this cars running on cities specially a tá countryside. As you said, Uno had a tottaly new version for Brazilian market and it was discontinued about a month ago, ending the UNO'S era!

My dad bought a 1.4i.e.S new in 1993, K204XUD. Nice memories the interior shots take me back. Even as a 12 year old back then I did find it odd that there was no logo on the steering wheel.

Good to see you review one as you just don’t see these anymore. I had a series 1 Uno 45. Bog standard with a 903cc engine. It was slow but pretty fun, as you could wring its neck & never actually go that fast. And yes, rather quirky controls but you soon got used to them. The worst thing about it though was the colour; hearing aid beige. Still, it was wheels.

We have a 1998 4 door turkish 1.4 70 SX i.e with 190.000 km right now. we owned it since 2003 and its a pain in the ass to maintain it and unreliable as hell but we'll still keep it because after 18 years it became a part of the family.

I remember having a couple of these over the years. Fun and cheap.

Simplicity is a virtue and Fiat were very clever at making super reliable highly functional small cars at a profit - incredibly hard to do but they had a very talented team. That engine in this car is not a FIRE engine but the 1100cc version of the Lampredi designed engine which in 1300 form appeared in the Uno 70. Here in New Zealand they too were great sellers and simply made all other small cars in our market look really old and inefficient. I`ve had three two 70SL, and a 999cc Fire 3 door. Each was super economical, fun and absolutely reliable, By the way the CVT was developed from the Van Doorne concept by Fiat, was sold to other manufacturers and appeared in later Fiats such as our highest specced Mark 2 Punto which suited it well. Nissan are currently one of the biggest users but it appears in many current cars and is very efficient and refined, I presume Fiat clip the ticket everytime another CVT is produced.

Very common car generally back in the day…..but not that one 😀 I didn’t even know they made an automatic version of this car. Yes, back then small automatics were rare even new.

The whole car reminds me of my Fiat 127 1050cc. That was in great condition and had a 5-speed box - ahead of its time. Could do 90mph on the speedo. Grip and handling were good - perhaps due to the Lotus like low weight. It really felt bright and breezy with minimalist styling. The clutch on mine was very heavy though for some reason - terrible in traffic! Blew head gaskets but was otherwise reliable due to being so simply engineered. My father got rid of all the bits of rust and resprayed it - it looked like new. I got comments from people for how good it looked, it was a fairly old car back then. Carried five people in it at times - and that meant you had to allow more braking time!

I’d not long passed my driving test in 1992 and had one of every engine type, upgrading from the 903cc right up to the pocket rocket 1.4ie Turbo. Loved them! When compared to the metro or fiesta these were so modern and fresh.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Matt. The facelift Uno was the first car I owned and my realistic dream car as a young person at the time. Keep up your great work!

Brown is underrated. Beats the modern gray/black everything nowadays.

I bought a new 45S FIRE from my then local Tunbridge Wells FIAT/Citroen dealership in 1987. I initially liked it but only kept for 6 months due to gearbox issues. I think the original dashboard was much nicer, it was a bit like a Citroen’s. I later drove a 70SX which was much quicker and the gearbox was so much better having metal rather than plastic bushes. I traded the 45 to in for a Visa 17D which was probably one of the nicest cars I ever owned.

My first car was a Uno 60 (manual, 1108cc engine pre-FIRE). Great little thing, very light and brisk - hopefully you'll have a chance to try out the manual version at some point, it is great fun! (used to leave behind the big SUV things at the lights given the large power-to-weight ratio! :) )

My mum had an Uno 45 ES (the 0.9 engine with economy gauge and gear change light) she had it at 4 years old in 1988 but it was overall very reliable considering my parents do the minimum of maintenance possible! Great review btw!

No you didn't!!! No, YOU DIDN'T!!!! You didn't just find a clean Uno Selecta to review! That car deserves a like even before watching the video!

Had the same with a manual box. Bought with 237000km, for 200€. Drove it foot to the floor across Germany twice in a row. It died the month after. It was a well designed car and it served me well.

Bought a brand new 60s 5 door in 1986, the mk 1, loved it. Enjoyed Sunday mornings, taking the back lanes between Sevenoaks and Tonbridge. The manual with this engine was nippy with good gear ratios. Fifth was made for very relaxed motorway cruising. Thanks for a great review.

The Uno is very familiar to me: my dad had 4: 55S, 45S (903), 45S Fire and 1.1 Suite (facelift like this red CVT) . I myself had 2 70S's 1st series, one from Belgium having electronic ignition!

Years ago we took a 2nd hand Lancia Y10 Selecta for a test drive. Decided it was so slow that there was something seriously wrong with it. A few weeks later we took an almost new Punto Selecta out for a test drive - pretty much just as slow. Wasn't anything wrong with either of them, they really were just meant to be that slow. Manual Uno with the pushrod 903cc engine was a lot more fun to drive.

Love the Orange peel paint on the close ups. Drag co- efficient could have been reduced even more, with a smooth paint finish!

I have to say I have always liked the Uno. A friend had a Turbo another a five door one and someone else had a diesel)sadly this is the one I liked the best). Another great video Matt and the Mustard and Blue hats I bought have been fantastic this last week or so with the weather we have had .

I was driving Lancia Y10 1993 till 07.2021 which is almost the same car. Good memories, cheap maintenance, very few problems. Changed it with Bravo 2

Great video and great memories! Just to be precise, that is not a FIRE 1.1L engine, but the 1.1L derived from the FIAT 1.4L mounted in the Uno 75 and Uno Turbo.

I had a 1990 1100 Fire when they where first introduced to South Africa. Pretty flimsy in typical Fiat tradition but never missed a beat . The car was actually very enjoyable to own and drive . I did strip out the interior completely and fitted sound insulation and sprayed every nook and cranny with anti rust wax both of which where conspicuous by their absence

Had a diesel Uno. Loved it. It had 130k on the clock when we let it go.

Drove one when i was living in the Netherlands, great for nipping around the streets of Amsterdam.

Old small cars are all over it for practicality. This is all the car many need; even today. I hate auto's because they don't decelerate when you simply lift off like a manual will so I spend much time on the brakes. Soon manuals will be considered a quant mechanism from yesteryear...