Italy Top Four Brands : 1960-69

The Fiat 500, named after its engine size. Called the Bambina in NZ.

Back in the 1960s, Italy was getting over World War II and starting to prosper. Car sales were rising and just about everyone was buying a Fiat car. I assume import duties made sure that the home brands were the value option.

Below in the chart we see that Fiat had about 3 in every 4 sales for much of the decade. The top four brands had a staggering 95% of the market in 1960, all of them local makes. In case you are wondering 'A R' is Alfa Romeo, 'Lan' Lancia, 'Aut' Autobianchi and 'Inn' Innocenti. The sales figures are in thousands. Fiat for example sold 851,000 in Italy in 1967.

The beautiful Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sport. I had one as a dinky car.

Autobianchi was part owned by Fiat, was a higher priced brand than Fiat, was used to test new features before they were introduced to Fiat models and - like Fiats - were small cars. It was eventually merged into Lancia.

Innocenti made BMC cars under licence and they proved quite popular. However, when BL got into financial problems of its own, it eventually and understandably impacted on the brand.

Yr	1st	Sales	%	2nd	Sales	%	3rd	Sales	%	4th	Sales	%	%
1960	Fiat	291	76	A R	41	11	Lan	17	5	Aut	12	3	95
1961	Fiat	341	69	A R	52	11	Aut	25	5	Lan	23	5	90
1962	Fiat	422	66	A R	47	7	Aut	24	4	Lan	23	4	81
1963	Fiat	595	63	A R	62	7	VW	51	5	Aut	35	4	78
1964	Fiat	583	70	A R	47	6	VW	29	3	Aut	27	3	83
1965	Fiat	655	74	A R	49	5	Lan	30	3	Aut	24	3	85
1966	Fiat	753	74	A R	49	5	Inn	35	3	Lan	32	3	86
1967	Fiat	851	73	A R	54	5	Inn	45	4	Lan	36	3	85
1968	Fiat	792	68	A R	66	6	Inn	51	4	Aut	45	4	82
1969	Fiat	765	63	A R	70	6	Inn	53	4	Aut	51	4	77

For other years, simply click on the year: 1970-79, 1980-89, 1990-99,
and 2000-2013.