Meet The Owner – Mo Ali and his Fiat 128 Estate

Many of you are familiar with this experience: scanning the Facebook page of a well-known car club when you suddenly see pictures of a vehicle you long believed vanished from British roads. This writer was looking at the Fiat Motor Club GB’s Facebook site only yesterday when Mo Ali’s 1978-model Fiat 128 Estate appeared to leap from the screen. I had not seen an RHD UK-market example since Bros were last in the Top Ten. Mo explains: “It has only approximately 9,000 miles, and I am the second owner. When I found it, it had been in a garage for more than 20 years, I think. The condition was very original, but it had a couple of holes where the garage roof was leaking, so I had it repaired.”

Such a rare barn find is an opportunity to remind ourselves about the history of the 128, the car the great L.J.K. Setright described as “the most important and influential car since Ford first furnished motoring for the masses”. Fiat commenced work on a front-wheel-drive project, code-named ‘109’, in 1961.

Project 109 had the challenge of replacing the 1100 ‘Millecento’, the archetypal petite-bourgeoise Italian transport since its launch in 1953, and Dante Giacosa, Fiat’s director of engineering, established the following criteria: “Weight approximately 700 kg, cab (cabin) comparable in dimensions to the 1100 but more comfortable, front-wheel drive with a transverse engine, independent suspension all round, front suspension on the MacPherson system, a four-cylinder engine with a capacity of about 1,000cc.”

Engineering maestro Aurelio Lampredi created a new belt-driven SOHC 1.1-litre power, and the resulting 128 debuted on 28 March 1969. It was the first FWD car to bear the Fiat name, and Car magazine thought that in its design, the 128 “laid down a new set of standards that other manufacturers have yet to equal at the price”. It became Car of the Year 1970.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Fiat introduced an estate version, and a 1.3-litre engine became available in 1971. Three years later sales exceeded 1.75 million units and in 1976 the range received a facelift -

Fiat GB, in a not a very subtle dig at British Leyland, claimed the 128 was “More espresso than Allegro”, and by then it was the car of choice of discerning motorists who craved the Fiat’s sheer brio.

In August 1977, the first month of the new ‘S’ registration, a 128 CL Estate cost £2,319 compared with £2,746 for the Escort GL Estate Mk.II and £2,498 for the Chevette L Estate. The always-entertaining Car magazine thought the Ford had a serviceable rear seat, while the Fiat and the Vauxhall were better suited to “unwelcome mothers-in-law or deprived children”. But despite lines that sound as though they were borrowed from a Les Dawson monologue, Car concluded: “But if what you really want is a little sports car, although circumstances dictate it has to look like an estate car and be capable of carrying bulky and heavy objects, then take a good look at the Fiat. Go for a drive in it, and it will probably make up your mind for you. Nor is it likely to be hard to remember that it offers the most for the money.”

Countless owners echoed these sentiments and mourned the demise of the Italian-built 128 in 1985. Of course, this was not the end of the narrative, as the design enjoyed a long career in the former Yugoslavia and Egypt. In the UK, the 128’s numbers had already rapidly diminished by the 1990s, partly thanks to Fiat’s adhoc approach to rust prevention.

This is why Mo’s Fiat is such a delight in every detail, down to the speedometer's orange pointer. As one advertisement stated, the 128 is “a joy to drive—at any speed. Espresso. Or moderato”.

With thanks to: Mo Ali