The first car I can really remember properly from my childhood was a 3-dr metallic blue Fiat 127 Special that we had from 1978 to 1981. Hard as it is to believe in these days of two- and three-car families, this was our only car for a family of five. Anyway, it looked almost exactly like the one in the bottom left of this picture. Normally, we would have kept the car for longer than three years but it was rear-ended at speed in a contraflow on the A1 and, although repaired under insurance, it was never really the same again. That's how my parents came to be in the market for a new car in 1981.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), I was a pushy and curiously influential child who had quite fallen in love with the humble Fiat range. I was particularly taken with the X1/9 but since that was a two-seater coupé, I turned my attention - and, by my inherent child's skill of badgering, the attention of my parents - to Fiat's newest model, the Strada. This was quietly revolutionary at the time, from the use of computer-aided design by Fiat's draughtsmen right through to the degree of automation in the construction process. Much was made of this in the advert shown below, courtesy of YouTube - the ad cost a fortune to make, was only shown a handful of time (four, maybe?) on British TV, and pre-dated lots of subsequent car ad's by being soundtracked with opera. I was sufficiently impressed and, by proxy, so were my parents - we ended up with a 1.3 litre 65L in a beautiful shade of blue (Rhodes Blue, it was called in the brochure). This was the car that, some years later, I learnt to drive in (thanks Mum). Anyway, the car has long since expired, but the advert remains a classic, as you can see...
Of course the "handbuilt by robots" tagline was seized upon by comedy-writers of the day. One favourite was to show a car crashing with the subtitle "built by robots, driven by Italians". Hey, I said it was seized on by comedy-writers, I didn't say good comedy writers! But I digress... I much preferred the parody created by the Not The Nine O'Clock News team, below, with its obvious, but nonetheless funny, pun...
And having watched the above on YouTube, I was then offered the following NTNOCN sketch which remains, for me, one of the funniest things they ever did. Enjoy.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), I was a pushy and curiously influential child who had quite fallen in love with the humble Fiat range. I was particularly taken with the X1/9 but since that was a two-seater coupé, I turned my attention - and, by my inherent child's skill of badgering, the attention of my parents - to Fiat's newest model, the Strada. This was quietly revolutionary at the time, from the use of computer-aided design by Fiat's draughtsmen right through to the degree of automation in the construction process. Much was made of this in the advert shown below, courtesy of YouTube - the ad cost a fortune to make, was only shown a handful of time (four, maybe?) on British TV, and pre-dated lots of subsequent car ad's by being soundtracked with opera. I was sufficiently impressed and, by proxy, so were my parents - we ended up with a 1.3 litre 65L in a beautiful shade of blue (Rhodes Blue, it was called in the brochure). This was the car that, some years later, I learnt to drive in (thanks Mum). Anyway, the car has long since expired, but the advert remains a classic, as you can see...
Of course the "handbuilt by robots" tagline was seized upon by comedy-writers of the day. One favourite was to show a car crashing with the subtitle "built by robots, driven by Italians". Hey, I said it was seized on by comedy-writers, I didn't say good comedy writers! But I digress... I much preferred the parody created by the Not The Nine O'Clock News team, below, with its obvious, but nonetheless funny, pun...
And having watched the above on YouTube, I was then offered the following NTNOCN sketch which remains, for me, one of the funniest things they ever did. Enjoy.