Fiat 124 - The Conventional Italian Car - James May's Cars Of The People - BBC Brit 

well proportioned and pleasing lines for a basic 3-box design. not many car designers able to achieve that.

It’s almost designed TOO perfectly. I mean there are definitely better looking cars, but this car is so simple yet effective that it would be VERY hard to beat in terms of design and simplicity.

The design is so perfectly simple in terms of straight lines and body design, that it is beautiful

It gets a Lada respect in Russia!

"when to shift"? i can start from 0 to 70km on second gear, easy👍

Wise words

chumbuckery beat me to it. You can’t film a piece to camera with the windows open or it drowns out his voice.

I thought the triangle window was the crotch cooler.

Knowing James may, a man who was born 40 years before his own conception, likely knows this trick. If you noticed, the windows weren’t rolled down either. This is all likely due to filming and preserving audio quality

And you can taste more than 100 species of bugs with your tongue

And the mirror would be in the way.

RELIABLE ?? I think the Italian consumer has to take what he can get AND AFFORD. [Although I do like the style & functionality of the FIAL 124 SEDAN.]

Michele Brambilla my '82 Fiat 131 supermirafiori has 500,000 kilometers

Il tutto, ricordiamolo, non è merito della Fiat, ma del santino sul cruscotto.

I had one ..... Shitties car I've ever had.

Send me whatsupp video and photo ...

@@bacaca У нас выпускалось 7 моделей, последние кончились в 2012 году, народ хочет классику-проста в ремонте ,сгнивает за пять лет ,зато 5тысяч долларов. Современные ауди, фольцваген, мерседес,бмв -брать нельзя да и дорого. также вольво ,форд,мазду брать нельзя-моторы тоже на 100тысяч .люди ездиют за киа хеундаях-мусор, зато 12 т долларов.другая часть людей пол года пересаживается на ладу , она у нас от 6 т долларов.

+Pasza Biceps Yugoslavian Zastava brand also had its own dreary derivate, the model 101 and later 128. my dad owned a 101.

+Pasza Biceps and Polski Fiat, Seat, Premier Auto's India, ZAZ, and all Zastava models from 1300 to the Skala

+TheCarArchives Also the early cars of turkish brand Tofas. They made licenced building of this car!

Paul Horn Yes Tofas still produces Fiat cars in Bursa such as the Doblo and the new Tipo

TheCarArchives I thought they build little peugeots?

Жигуль бро, копейка к ладам не относилась

@@DiegoShock на экспорт они шли как Lada, бро ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%96%D0%B8%D0%B3%D1%83%D0%BB%D0%B8_(%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C)#%D0%9D%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5

Žigul

@@MrOndrof ты сейчас демона на латыни вызвал

Spain; SEAT 124

Да

Da

У батька была копейка с фиатовским движком. Не убиваемая и долговечная была и я на ней учился. Как я ещё хочу на ней кататься.

Жигули❤️❤️❤️🇷🇺🇧🇬🇷🇺🇧🇬🇷🇺🇧🇬

+Trenthamfolk I just read it poops out 69 hp sorry xD

+Gigaguenther Manufacturers having to bolt all sorts of emmision control parts onto an engine are what sap all the power on modern engines. Also it's the reason why American big V8s were such a joke during the mid 70s- late 90s take the Cadillac 8.2L V8 from 1971 it made 365hp, by 1976 that same engine having to meet emmision regulations was making a feeble 190hp.

The 1966 corolla had a 1.0 liter engine with 67 hp

+Matt Bartholomew That's certainly part of it, but there's two other factors at play: First, they used to measure power at the flywheel/flex plate, then they started measuring it at the wheel. Second, many of the engines from the 70's and 80's were underrated on purpose to get around insurance barriers.

SAE horsepowers, significantly less if tested with DIN system

Im site hew knows thay, but might affect tbe sound

They can't really do it beefcake then he wouldn't be able to be heard. The microphone would pick up all the winds noise.

Many Russian familes had a good pride in it. We have even a film Kopeika dedicated to this car. It has a real big place in heart of EVERY Russian, everyone had one in family, and it is still popular (derivatives like Lada 2105, 2107 and small trucks like VIS-2345 and Izh-27175 were produced untill 2012). Even now many people buy used ones as a first car, or if short on money: you can repair it yourself, they are used to Russian bad roads, and parts are widely availeble and cheap. We have a good joke: "If you can drive Lada, you can drive EVERY car)

@@maks_volchonok Fascinating, but this is not a Lada. It's a Fiat.

@@Sanderford Lada 1200 (or Zhiguli 2101, as it was inithially called) is a licenced and slightly modificated copy of a Fiat 124, produced in Soviet Union from 1970 till 1988. Derivatives were priduced till 2012

You forgot to mention, South Korea :)

2104, 2105, 2106 and 2107 are not Fiat 124 and they are much more popular

Man, all cars (2101, 2102, 2103, 2104, 2105, 2106, 2107) are called "Zhiguli", not just 2103. The name "Zhiguli" is intended for the domestic market of the USSR. For the foreign market, the name "Lada" is used. The word "Kopeyka" means 1/100 of the ruble and because of this, 2101 is called "Kopeyka", such as this is the "01" model.

@@daraka1754 2106 is very similar to 2103 and therefore to 2101 and Fiat 124

Don’t forget Bursa, Turkey (TOFAŞ)

And russians ripped it off.

Perittologos Megas Sure it looks like a "beautiful" lada

Reinis Maurers No the I'ties/woggs sold the press tools to the Ruskies back in the seventies actually.

Beautiful, honest, communist Lada. Or Pirin-FIAT (Bulgarian FIAT). Or both. ☭

какой нафиг пьюркардезайн, эту копейку дибилы с лады штамповали вплоть до начала нулевых

too damn hard to get lots of money on such a cars for marketing stupid-asses. They need you to buy car every year, not a once in a 20 year line.

Das stimmt. 100% Technik

And ZAZes is not origials and many GAZes is not originals and AZLK

@@Pfluckerwagen e

because much more videos on YT showing Ladas . FIAT 124 is the original project, Ladas are most widespread in space and time, still quite common in Russia

@@roadrelics8162 derivatives of 124 were made as Ladas 2104 and 2107 till 2012) And Lada 2121 4x4, SUV which is partly based on classic Ladas is still made despite being introduced in 1977. And they will keep it in production till 2026!

@@maks_volchonok Thank you very much for your info ! I am happy that they are keeping in prod those Ladas till 2026 !

Yeah.. and SEAT 124 had the biggest engine fitted to those with the 124 2000 (2000cc 115hp). Alltought the 124 FU was the most powerfull one with a 1800cc doing 118hp

Torrente powerhouse!

It wasn't under licence, it was just re-badging, Fiat owned Seat at the time, they later sold it to VW.

Купили у итальянцев право назвать их машину по другому!

Александр Ленских why you steal fiat 124 model?

@@wlaskicod9522 ...The Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade entered into an agreement with the Italian company Fiat on scientific and technical cooperation. The contract value was estimated at $ 642 million. One of the samples of the Italian concern served as a prototype for the creation of a new car. Moreover, test tests showed the vulnerability of Fiat on Soviet country roads. In the framework of the agreements reached, Italian designers had to take into account the comments of Soviet engineers. Together, more than 800 changes were made...

@@wlaskicod9522 now some stranger Alexander stealed fiat, beautiful vaz factory was builded in cooperation with italians. they give us rights to use and change construction, and then we got 2101. if u interested u can read lot more somewhere in wiki, my eng cant give u correct sentenses

@@user-nl1sg5fm3m , от фиата там остался только дизайн. Почти все было переделано и усилено. Именно поэтому у нас копейки до сих пор катаются, а их фиаты можно найти только в музеях.

Four people? They packed in double that number.

Believe me, they would pack four in a 500, which is half the size.

Нашу семью при развале СССР выкормила машина, пришлось опустится до огорода, благо была земля в 130 километрах от Москвы.

If you wanted something more exciting, there was the 124 Sport Coupè. Same chassis, engines from 1.4 to 1.8 litres, and a sportier look. My father had one identical to this. www.vitadistile.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0971.jpg

@@pitmezzari2873 This is the original 1957 TV ads for the 500. As you can see, there are no other than children in the rear seats. It was a 2+2 "second car" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-98CuKijsT8o.html The 124 Berlina was a small family car with 4 comfortable seats.

don´t forget about the heating! the switch of my lada´s heating got stuck once (they are prone fail every once in a while) you could not drive the car with short pants anymore due to the heat provided to the drivers legroom :^)

That actually happend to me last summer, in the Lada 2112 that I owned then. The thermostat somehow broke and the ventilation system thought that it was winter and freezing cold, it blasted hot air through the vents all summer untill I had it figured out! Still drive a Lada, now a 2110 though.

where do you live? :)

Sweden!

***** oh, it's so unusually that you drive Lada :) I'm from Russia

My mum had a white one , also 1600 . It had red vinyl interior. I can still smell it. A hot sunny day in South Africa , baking in the sun and you open that door….plastic heaven.

Как гелик

Классика, проверенная временем. :)

Совершенство не изменяется, оно модифицируетя!

The fly windows (known as "wing windows" in the USA) also provided an incredibly easy route for thieves to gain access to the car. On most cars, one could just press the forward corner of the window inward and break the latch by brute force.

Very true about thieving, but would you want to steal a battered old VW Beetle? On mine the door locks didn't work, and could have been started with any car key in the barrel. Nobody wanted to steal it, which is why I used to be able to park it anywhere......

People in some places here in the States would steal anything. Something they could joyride around in and dump later, or use in something like an armed robbery. Stealing ten year old junkboxes was pretty common, actually, as they were commonly cut up for parts. When aftermarket radios became a thing in the '80s, thieves often broke in to steal those, as they were more interested in the radio than in the car. (People sometimes took to putting "NO RADIO" signs in the window.)

+Dom Degood Lotus Cortina and normal Cortina Mk1, 4 on the floor, the Fiat Dohc from the 60s was a double cam but had 2 valves per cylinder ....

wyrazowfkp Alfa Romeo and Fiat were the first cars to have 4 valves per cylinder.

Sorry but that was Peugeot. You were writing about the 60s, and production cars then did not have that then and the Lampredi DOHC was 2 valves per cylinder. Fiat was not the only one, not even first in some categories.

Dom Degood: The first mass production saloon with 4 valves per cylinder was the almighty Triumph Dolomite Sprint. No hate, I´m a big fan of oldschool Fiats though.

wyrazowfkp + the 125 Special had 5 on the floor in 60's....

думал это была твоя мама

121bham no it's not normal, in fact it doesn't happen. Have you had any notice that italian cars start dissolving after 2 years? Of course not, still you prefer sticking to a 40/50 years ago cliché rather than changing your mind. This is what 90% of people does, 99% of which never ever owned one. On the other hand, 99% of people who owns/owned one, reports zero issues. Call it whatever you want.

121bham you know you have actually no idea and on top of that you're lying and you know it. You do know it. This is what i like the most.

121bham you have no idea simply because 1) you admittedly never owned one yet you keep claiming you're objectively right and 2) you've called them slow and ugly which is objectively wrong.

121bham that's weird cause they've won more "Car of the year" prizes than any other brand in the car industry, you can check by yourself. I'm not evem sure whether you're talking about Fiat or Italian cars in general. Anyways it's not a secret italian brands are among the most valued, if not a proper reference in the supercar segment. But you're free not to like them.

121bham why biased? Am i not free to simply say "i owned italian cars and they suck and I will never buy one again"? What you say doesn't make any sense.

Gordon Freeman Or Zhiguli for short

Esуyer 私の lot of lada are based on fiat or fiat engines

Рукипроч от скреп

???

Mc19 Baavai I'm confused as well.

well of course.. its an Italian tractor

@@sparrowlt maybe a Lamborghini 🤔

Lanciarules And James doesn't know how to use the quartet window! It isn't turned to the angle that gets the air circulating into the car :)

I had a 124 and later an Escort. I loved the 124 and whilst the Escort did everything ok it was stodgy compared to the 124. The steering of the Escort was heavier than that of the 124.

yes but they are "Moskwitch" or "Lada"

+Thomas Telling They are Lada´s.

BlacK DusK they did not they made it better.

the VITURA LOOOL! try to convince 6 billion ppl with that :)

BlacK DusK I’m not convincing shit I just said a MY opinion and nothing more i think the Russians made one of the best cars and that’s it.

*USSR not URSS.... learn some history n00b

*en(DOT)wikipedia(DOT)org/wiki/URSS* google the history, n00b )))) Hello from Russia! ^-^

Yanuchi Uchina In Italian it is Unione delle Repubbliche Socialiste Sovietiche. That's why Ettore wrote it that way. Actually, it should be CCCP (= SSSR).... learn some history double noob! (and ricer!)

in italian language is correct write URSS and not USSR

Internet....what a stupid thing: you correct me for itl. URSS instead eng. USSR and say to me "learn history"......hahahaha I learned History in High School an University, you do not know nothing about me and my life! Before writing, please connect your brain !!!!

tofas murat 124

любдю жйгули 2101 Did I get that right? I'm not Russian?

ugurblack 35 🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷

😂🤣😂🤣

Serçe

He didn't expect it to have it, he just wishes it did cause he obviously was melting in there

As a filmmaker I think rolling down the windows would have ruined sound so they didn't.

@@xmlthegreat Exactly

Uk climate makes cars to be more prone to rust

TheKenjoje I always liked the Fiat 124 and 131 design, but I'll probably just buy the Lada versions. If you think Fiats rust fast in the UK, then you should try living in upstate NY. I've seen cars from 2005 that already have rusty fenders. I can't even begin to think how fast a classic Fiat would rust in my town. I'd give a 124 a week before it desintigrates.

A FIAT resist as any other car of the time, perhaps better. The Ford are much more prone to rust for example.

No you can't find tons of pre 1980 anything in Italy, unless you have a fortune of money. Italy is the most expensive place on Earth to buy a car, even if it is a pre 1980 rusted hunk of rubbish.

used cars are cheap in italy. potential classics - maybe not, but regular cars are. someone mentioned lada - lada is worse to drive

Yeah. It was gorgeous, but a little bit unpractical.

BynaTillOss it would be a tofas murat, which is shittier.

why do you haft to be so disrespectful? i spend so much time and money on my car and trust me fam it get more attention that this car. i won 4 car events with it :), and i fully rework the motor and the suspension so trust me on this this shit aint got shit on my haci murat ^_^

Your country is named after the most delicious bird on the planet. I salute you.

@@GoldenGrenadier actually the bird named after country. The eu guys called it turkey chicken. And Turkish guys named the bird "hindi" because they get it from india. In Turkish hint means "indian". Its a indian chicken... You're welcome my idiot friend...

Abdulkadir Özgencıgor The Portuguese name that bird “peru”.

Watch the full episode ;-)

in the full episode he compares it to the identical lada. Whitch lets be honest was worse in every way.

Cause the Lada was completely shit.

Errrrm.... they are one and the same.

Darwinion The quallity of the Lada was really low.

Потому-что Фиат - это ретро-классика, а ВАЗ - жалкая подделка, которая не менялась более сорока лет.

@@user-kp5iq4qd8s В чём заключается её "жалкость"? Напомните, сколько лет ЛР Дефендеру? А Фиату 500? А классический жук, который выпускался с 38-го по 2009? И никто не говорит, что всё это - хрень. Также:если бы ваз выпускался лет 15 - он стал бы от этого "ретро классикой"?

@@user-ub8dc3rb4e Жук с ЛР тоже были нагло слизаны? Не неси чушь: это, как и Фиат, оригинальные авто, над которым работали целые студии, а не Вася с завода в Тольятти, пришедший на всё готовенькое, и за 40 лет изменивший в авто ровным счетом нихуя. В совдепе хоть танки могли строить, в РФ и те, блять, на парадах до гаражей доехать не могут...

@@user-kp5iq4qd8s Вы отказываетесь от своих предыдущих аргументов, что ВАЗ-2101 был жалок и выпускался слишком долго? Хорошо, тогда перейдём к последнему: Китайские лицензионные клоны АК выпускались дольше, чем оригинальная модель - аж до нулевых, когда Россия перевооружилась уже несколько раз, и АК-47 в частях уже не оставалось вообще. Это - нормальная практика, закупать и производить по лицензии. Что вас не устраивает - не пойму. Да, жигуль был морально устаревшим ещё в девяностых, но назначение дешёвой и массовой машины он выполнял. Возьмём тот же Жук, в котором комфорта в разы меньше - немецкий запорожец, только в довесок - выпускавшийся 80+лет. И что даёт нам этот оригинальный дизайн? К тому же, после копейки пошли другие модели, уже чисто свои... Круто обсуждать некомпетентность того, что давно перестали выпускать. Современные лады стоят на уровне корейцев и являются одними из лучших в цене-комфорт-качество в своей категории - Дэу и многие китайцы за те же деньги предлагают только средство передвижения на 2-5 лет. В опровержение принимаю только аргументы, свои матюги и ругань оставьте при себе. Танки классно приплели. Они и наша промышленность тут как-раз к месту. Однако, и тут не угадали( Т-14, как и любой новый образец, требует доработки в реальных условиях. А все Т-90 работают безупречно, закупаються многими странами с любым климатом и рельефом, и технологичнее Абрамаса хотя бы тем, что имеют автоматическую перезарядку. И да, они точно не производились в СССР

@@user-ub8dc3rb4e Факт! Полностью согласен!

:D

Gardner ! Хаха Руская копейка

Lada rules! 💪

@@ivannovoselac3518 +

хороший танк кстати был -ремонтировать легко , последние в 12 году были , теперь нет.

Ladas didn't have disk brakes on the rear axle.

@@82panther Дисковый тормоз сзади ставится на моторы больше 106 лошадиных сил .диск сзади портится быстро от грязи переднего колеса - барабан практичней.

@@user-vv4ds1sx9s Sorry my friend, i do not understand russian

@@82panther A disc brake at the back is put on motors with more than 106 horsepower. The disc at the back deteriorates quickly from dirt on the front wheel - the drum is more practical.

If you had one of these you would love to have drums on the rear. There is a reason why most of the standard cars have drums or discs with drums in the rear. In 124 handbrake was weak and prone to "sticking" (hot disc transfered its heat to cyllinder, which often got stuck in place after cooling on parking. Happend to me 2 times in one year, then i started to just leaving it in gear instead). And, after all, back then rear axle wasnt needed as much for braking :)

Also, disc brakes were not properly cover and in result lots of dirt was getting on it. It was a huge disadvantage for bad Soviet road infrastructure.

The Lada was adapted to fit the much rougher Russian climate. It also needed different servicing and manufacturing costs. The Soviet market and the European one were very different, there was no way to sell the exact same car in both countries.

What's wrong with with it having a crank start option? It saved my dad on quite a few occasions when the weather would go to extreme freezing conditions and killed the charge in the battery - mind you the CCA back then was quite a bit lower than in modern day batteries. Never had him complain about the brakes either.

Выпуск этого автомобиля был прекращён как раз после развала. А при прошлом режиме его клепали десятки лет. И сколько кстати Советский Союз экспортировал автомобилей? Цифру хотелось бы узнать, и год достижение этого показателя. Или сколько их было произведено?

Три года назад я потратил 6 месяцев на поиски и купил себе 2103! И хотел бы купить её сегодня новенькую с завода! КРАСНУЮ! :))