Fiat has long been associated with the best of Italian car manufacturing. It has always been in the forerunner and played a role in the automotive industry right since it was first rolled out in the year 1899. This was the time of the Italian Industrialization as well. The Fiat brand is world over recognized and known for its products that are not only in the automotive industry. It is a social status symbol and has always produced cars that have a whole lot of history behind it. The first charter of Societa was signed for Fiat in the year 1899. Giovanni Agnelli was a member of the Board of Directors and began to be associated as the innovator of the company.
In the year 1900, the first Fiat factory saw the light of day in Carso Dante and the employees were 150. This was when the first 24 cars were rolled out of the assembly line. The year 1904 saw the introduction of the Fiat logo and the building up of the brand image with it firmly entrenched in the minds of the buyers. The war years were very difficult for Fiat just as it was for a whole lot of people. But, the Fiat Company met these challenges and moved on to recovering from the crisis by manufacturing better cars.
The coming of Mussolini to power in Germany saw Fiat abandoning its plans to take the car to international shores. They only began to concentrate on the domestic market and the car models were tweaked to address those particular demands. The company also forayed into newer markets such as commercial vehicles like trucks and aircrafts. There were newer cars being introduced such as the Topolino which is the smallest utilitarian car around and was made until 1955 when production was stopped. The other car that was equally famous from the Fiat Company was Tariffa Minima which is also popularly called Balilla. This was so because it was one of the most fuel effective cars to be found.
Newer Fiat models were continuously introduced right from 1939 onwards. There was the 1400 diesle that came in the year 1953. By the time of the early 1960s Italy was doing really well and there was more demand for Fiat cars from the domestic market. More and more people were buying cars. From a figure of one car for every 96 Italians the rise was to one car for every 28 Italians. This was quite a substantial increase in the car ownership patterns and Fiat was certainly going to be a part of it.
However, the year 1969 was not a good year for it. It saw a whole lot of trade union upheavals and strikes that had a lot of man hours lost and loss for the Fiat Company. The latest is the Fiat Idea which is a full sized MPV car. The design for this car is unique and well appreciated by the buyers.