Italian Car Production (Brand) : 1971-80

The Alfasud looked great and handled well but had durability issues

This started out as a good decade for Fiat. By 1973, over 1.8 million cars were made in Italy. Then it fell to under 1.45 million by 1980. That wasn't due to Alfa Romeo or Lancia, both of whom over doubled production. Fiat was the problem as far as numbers were concerned.

One reason was the opening of a plant in Poland to make the 126 model that took volume away. Also models such as the 131 and 132 didn't match their predecessors (124 and 125) in popularity. The Ritmo (Strada in some places) wasn't quite the match for the 128 either. It all added up to a fall in numbers.

Yr	Fiat	Alfa	Auto -	Inno-	Lancia	Ferr-	Mas-	Lam-	Other	Total
		Romeo	bianchi	centi		ari	erati	borg
71	1,371,729	123,309	87,958	61,950	52,789	1,246	550	422	1,111	1,701,064
72	1,368,216	140,595	113,399	62,834	41,778	1,843	557	318	2,839	1,732,379
73	1,390,251	204,902	113,896	58,471	52,631	1,772	738	550	122	1,823,333
74	1,205,754	208,386	108,314	60,711	44,920	1,436	571	355	239	1,630,686
75	1,006,660	189,682	71,347	33,061	45,745	1,337	201	276	235	1,348,544
76	1,098,182	201,145	93,874	12,789	63,348	1,427	195	201	147	1,471,308
77	1,057,261	201,118	72,704	38,120	68,944	1,798	292	105	128	1,440,470
78	1,104,026	219,499	89,436	40,719	52,462	1,939	339	68	109	1,508,597
79	1,081,386	207,514	88,734	39,991	60,459	2,308	371	55	86	1,480,904
80	995,455	219,571	76,585	39,770	110,756	2,381	555	64	84	1,445,221
Av	1,167,892	191,572	91,625	44,842	59,383	1,749	437	241	510	1,558,251

Data source: ANFIA.

The Lancia Beta was a good car let down with rust problems

Italian Car Production (Brand) - 1961-70

The Fiat 124 was a smash hit, especially with courting couples it seems

This was good decade for car manufacturing in Italy. The total units made increased by over a million, which was a 150% increase. Fiat hit its highest production volume in Italy for 1970. Models such as the 124, 125 and 128 were introduced in the latter part of the period under discussion.

Of the others here Alfa Romeo grew relatively slowly at +89%, as did Lanica with +60%. Innocenti had been a success with it's BLMC cars, and Autobianchi was enjoying much success. ISO was making exotic cars, a long way from the Bubble car it made of the 1950's. Lamborghini started it's super car history but shows up on this list about four years after production commenced. It obviously wasn't an ANFIA member at first. A few 'Other' numbers are excluded due lack of space.

Yr	Fiat	Alfa	Auto -	Inno-	Lancia	Ferr-	Mas-	Lam-	ISO	Total
		Romeo	bianchi	centi		ari	erati	borg
61	566,284	57,181	25,553	16,598	27,119	442	457	-	-	693,695
62	748,608	56,460	24,296	20,906	26,615	493	421	-	-	877,860
63	909,887	85,605	37,242	30,618	40,921	598	397	-	-	1,105,291
64	881,702	65,193	31,538	20,376	28,988	654	279	-	199	1,028,930
65	957,941	61,236	32,713	24,749	25,949	741	469	-	134	1,103,932
66	1,110,701	59,971	37,422	35,967	36,988	665	494	-	210	1,282,418
67	1,233,892	76,831	37,778	46,026	43,172	706	624	-	182	1,439,211
68	1,301,751	97,220	56,782	50,540	36,668	730	733	361	147	1,544,932
69	1,219,161	104,305	72,799	47,760	31,556	621	594	411	159	1,477,366
70	1,418,929	107,989	95,447	50,630	44,542	941	706	391	140	1,719,715
Av	1,034,886	77,199	45,157	34,417	34,252	659	517	388	167	1,227,335

Data source: ANFIA.

The variety of body styles for the Fiat 128

Mitsubishi Sports Car Production By Model : 1997-2014

In the final of the series, we look at sports cars. In this period there are three models to consider and none were produced beyond 2011. It is a class of car that has lost ground over the years. I don't know what the customers bought instead, but perhaps it was just the Sunday drive that has gone out of fashion.

The Eclipse was a compact model produced in 3-door hatchback and 2-door convertible configurations. It lasted a long time, from 1980 to 2011. It was also made for Chrysler, being sold under the brands Plymouth (until 1994) and Eagle (until 1998), the latter I have kept out of the data below.

The Eclipse was aimed at the North American market but also went to the Middle East and a few other markets. It was made in the US and 900,000 came down the assembly line, including those made for Chrysler.

The Eclipse model

The FTO was a Japan only compact 2-door coupé, which was eventually sold in limited numbers in a few right hand drive markets. It's life span was only from the year 1994 to 2000 and 36,500 were made, the majority of those in 1994. I think more should have been done with this model.

The Mitsubishi GTO or 3000 GT came as either a 2-door coupé or soft top (briefly) and was produced between 1990 and 2000. It was also sold as a Dodge but that ended in 1995. It was a touring sports car, built in Japan. Somewhere in the region of 80,000 were possibly made (excluding Dodge).

Summary: Sports cars are not about making money but to provide a halo model for the brand. It gives a positive sporty image that helps sales for other models, although difficult to quantify how beneficial in that regard. Despite any benefit these cars offered, Mitsubishi reached a point it had to vacate this segment due to financial constraints.

In the chart below, the extreme right column shows the percentage of total Mitsubishi car and LCV sales.

	Yr	Eclipse	FTO	GTO	Total	%
				3000GT
	97	66,000	1,960	5,496	73,456	5
	98	50,966	1,033	2,207	54,206	4
	99	54,340	616	2,355	57,311	4
	00	77,795	160	114	78,069	6
	01	70,565	-	-	70,565	6
	02	75,323	-	-	75,323	6
	03	25,974	-	-	25,974	2
	04	10,433	-	-	10,433	1
	05	37,399	-	-	37,399	3
	06	39,602	-	-	39,602	3
	07	24,333	-	-	24,333	2
	08	13,814	-	-	13,814	1
	09	2,278	-	-	2,278	0
	10	7,173	-	-	7,173	1
	11	4,956	-	-	4,956	0
	12	-	-	-	0	-
	13	-	-	-	0	-
	14	-	-	-	0	-

Data source: Mitsubishi Motors.

Links to the other articles in the series: Regular, Kei, SUV, MPV, LCV and Regional.