Final Parking Space: 1980 Fiat Brava

Fiat departed the United States after 1982, not to return until the retro-styled 500 showed up as a 2012 model. Right now, Americans can buy just two new Fiat models, but the storied Italian company once offered a full line of cars here. That included an assortment of stylish sedans, and we’ve got one of those cars that showed up in a Northern California car graveyard last year.

I spent much of my childhood in a pair of Fiat 128 sedans, a yellow two-door and a green three-door, purchased after a short-notice move from Minnesota to California during which the family Chevy Sportvan Beauville wiped out on black ice in Nevada. My parents needed commuter machines in a hurry and the Fiat 128 was the cheapest new motor vehicle they could find right now. Many other American families were tempted by the great deals on 128s during the decade.

However, those wealthier American car shoppers who wished to drive sedans boasting rear-wheel-drive and Italian passion had some tempting Fiat choices during the 1970s. The 124 sedan was available here through 1975, which was the same model year in which the bigger and plusher 131 showed up on our shores.

The 131 is best-known in enthusiast circles today in its Abarth Rally form, but plenty of ordinary 131 two- and four-door sedans snarled out of American Fiat showrooms. The name for the North American version was changed from 131 to Brava for the 1978 model year, and sales continued here through 1981.

Fiat sold plenty of bread-and-butter 131s to European buyers, who were able to experience this sort of thing firsthand and wanted a taste of it for themselves.

The 131/Brava was well-priced to compete for sales against other sporty imported sedans of its era. The MSRP for a 1980 Brava two-door with fuel-injected engine was $7653, or about $31,015 in 2024 dollars.

Meanwhile, the list price of a new 1980 BMW 320i was $11,810, which comes to $47,863 after inflation. The smaller Audi 4000 two-door started at $7495 ($30,375 today), the Datsun 810 Maxima cost $8129 ($32,945 now), and the very courageous could stride into a Lancia showroom and depart with a new Beta sedan for $8,551 ($34,655 in today’s money).

You had to be brave to purchase a Brava in 1980, of course, because the 131 had become well-known for its iffy reliability when subjected to indifferent American-style maintenance and punitive American road and climate conditions. What you got with your Brava was a sonorous 2.0-liter Fiat Twin Cam engine, rated at 86 horsepower and 100 pound-feet, plus a taut suspension and stylish interior.

The original purchaser of this car likely wasn’t interested in spirited driving, since they opted for the $390 automatic transmission ($1581 today). Check out that cool-looking gearshift rig!

Would you have trusted Fiat air conditioning in 1980? This car’s first owner did, at a cost of $549 ($2225 now).

All the instruments and controls in this car are masterpieces of beautiful design. Sure, the 320i was quicker and held together better, but it was all tedious business inside compared to the Brava.

This car sat outdoors and immobile for many, many years, if we are to judge from the roasted interior, upper-body rust, and heavy vegetation buildup under the hood.

A Pick-n-Pull shopper removed the passenger door and then decided against buying it.

I spent many years not seeing discarded Fiats other than 850 Spiders and 124 Sport Spiders, with the occasional 128 thrown in every few years, but then a Fiat repair shop in Denver shut its doors five years ago and auctioned off close to 100 cars. Since that time, quite a few 131s and Bravas have appeared in the local boneyards. It was exciting to find a junked Brava that wasn’t from that batch.

Two years after this car was sold, the final-year American Fiat lineup consisted of three cars: the 124 Sport Spider, the X1/9, and the Strada. Malcolm Bricklin imported the first two for a few more years, with Pininfarina Azzurra and Bertone X1/9 badges; after that, we didn’t hear much about Fiat here until its merger with Chrysler in 2009. And we heard from Bricklin in 1985, when he began importing the Yugo.

If you’ve never considered a Fiat before… maybe it’s time.