You might be wandering why we are mentioning a classic Fiat 126 that was recently sold at auction. Well, because the writer of this post purchased his first car back in 1979 and it was a Fiat 126 but more of that later.

The 1973 Fiat 126 was offered for sale with no reserve by Anglia Car Auctions at its auction that ran over 2 days on the 22nd and 23rd of June 2024. It actually sold for £3,888 including premium.

Apparently, this was a rare Fiat 126 from the UK. It has a 594cc engine that is mounted in the rear of the vehicle. Under the front bonnet is a small boot. It is a 4 seater classic car with little legroom for those rear-seated passengers. It is coloured red on the outside with creamy coloured seats. It is said to have only 63,516 miles on the trip ommitter making it a very low mileage for its age (circa 51 years). It was said to be in running order and there was a video on the auctioneer’s website of the vehicle being put through its paces.

Now, the writer of this post is feeling somewhat disgruntled as, as stated above, he owned such a vehicle in the late 1970’s. If he remembers correctly it was an S registered red Fiat 126 and was purchased from a used car dealer in North London for around £1,000. Oh, if only he had kept it- how much would he possibly get for it now?

The writer of this post lived in Kent at the time and he and his wife, shortly after the birth of their first son, put the baby in a carrycot on the back seat of the Fiat 126 and drove all through the night to visit his grandparents in Northumberland – a journey of over 330 miles each way. With an air-cooled 594cc engine, whilst it was slow to accelerate and struggled getting up some steep hills, it was very good as far as fuel economy was concerned. It really was a quirky looking car and in those days there were quite a few of them on roads in the UK.