Italy Top Four Brands : 1970-79

The Fiat 132 replaced the fine 125, but not quite as good a car.

Moving on from the 60's, things became more fluid as brands passed and were in turn overtaken again. Fiat's Autobianchi fell away through the decade, replaced by French brands and Ford. The top share share fell from 72 to 67% as Fiat lost its total dominance of the market. Renault supplanted Alfa Romeo in second while fourth became a sort of musical chairs party game.

The Fiat 128 was European car of the year in 1970.

Clearly Italian buyers supported local brands, but pressure was mounting from ever improving foreign makes. Some Fiat models were not as good as their predecessors either, which didn't help.

Below we see the chart, which  shows sales in thousands.

Yr	1st	Sales	%	2nd	Sales	%	3rd	Sales	%	4th	Sales	%	%
1970	Fiat	760	56	Ford	77	6	Aut	74	5	A R	68	5	72
1971	Fiat	822	57	A R	73	5	Ford	72	5	Aut	62	4	72
1972	Fiat	805	55	A R	85	6	Aut	83	4	Sim	68	5	71
1973	Fiat	781	54	A R	124	9	Aut	80	6	Ren	67	5	71
1974	Fiat	690	54	A R	94	7	Ren	81	6	Aut	77	6	74
1975	Fiat	511	49	A R	97	9	Ren	67	6	Aut	59	6	70
1976	Fiat	553	47	Ren	95	8	A R	92	8	Sim	66	6	68
1977	Fiat	594	49	Ren	97	8	A R	80	7	Ford	71	6	69
1978	Fiat	550	46	Ren	96	8	A R	87	7	Citr	65	5	67
1979	Fiat	641	46	Ren	121	9	A R	106	8	Ford	71	5	67

For other years, simply click on the year: 1960-69, 1980-89, 1990-99,
and 2000-2013.