Fiat Ritmo
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The 1978 Fiat Ritmo, styled by italian Bertone, was the most distinctive looking small car in Europe on its launch. It was badged in Britain and the US as the Fiat Strada but failed to attract many Ford Escort/Austin Allegro buyers because of its unconventional appearance. Legend has it that the reason for the name change was that "Ritmo" was a make of ladies sanitary towel in the US.
Underneath its quirky looks the Ritmo used most of the front-wheel drive running gear which could be found in the more conventional looking 128, which continued until 1984. Ride and handling were good, but outside Italy and Spain the Ritmo struggled to attract buyers. The 1.1 L, 1.3 L and 1.5 L petrol engines were reasonably refined and economical, but were hardly the last word in excitement.
Technologically, the biggest innovation of the Ritmo was not the car itself, which took the underpinnings of the 128, but the way in which it was manufactured. Fiat, already an industry pioneer in automated assembly, took the ambitious step and made the Ritmo the first car to be almost completely built by robots, earning the car the advertising tagline Hand Assembled, by Robots. In the UK, a memorable television advert, showing the robots assembling the car to the strains of Rossini's The Barber of Seville was shown.
The so-called Robotgate system made the car cheaper and quicker to manufacture, but the Ritmo also suffered a terrible reputation for poor build quality, unreliability, fragile interior trim and electrical problems. The infamous rust-bug which afflicted most Italian cars of the 1970s and '80s also struck hard and very few Ritmos have survived the test of time. In addition, there were mechanical problems, such as the very rapid wearing of the gearbox which some owners suffered.
The resulting bad publicity severely dented Fiat's reputation in export markets, and although it was successful in its home Italian market, the car failed to make much impact elsewhere in the world. The severe rust and unreliability problems which the car was infamous for led to Fiat's withdrawal from the United States.
1984
A 1984 facelift saw the Ritmo's styling become more restrained and a hot hatch version - the 130 TC - was added, with a 2.0 L engine capable of nearly 120mph. It was sporty-looking and huge fun to drive but not an ultimate hot hatch in the same vein as the VW Golf GTI.
A sedan version, the Regata, was also launched without great success outside Italy.
The Ritmo Cabriolet was launched in 1983 but low demand saw production end after just two years. It was better value for money than a Golf Cabriolet but not up to VW standards in terms of quality or ability.
The year 1988 saw the last Ritmo roll off the production line and the more conventional Tipo take its place. The Ritmo had given Fiat a reputation for building unreliable, badly built and rust prone cars. The Tipo successfully lifted this image of poor quality.
The spanish twin
Spanish car maker SEAT began their history as a Fiat licencer, making only rebadged clones of Fiat cars, until the agreement was dropped in 1983. From 1980 to 1983 a spanish version of the Ritmo, the SEAT Ritmo, was produced in Spain. When the licence expired, SEAT had to quickly change the least possible number of pieces in their model range so that Fiat could not sue them on the basis of patent infringement, and the SEAT Ritmo yielded the SEAT Ronda, under production until 1986. Later, a 4-door version was developed on the same underpinnings, called the Malaga. SEAT's subsequent takeover by Volkswagen saw the Fiat heir models being quickly killed off, including the Malaga.