Fiat 131

The Fiat 131 was a mid-size family car that Fiat built from 1974 to 1984 after its debut at the 1974 Turin Motor Show, succeeding the Fiat 124. It came as a two-door and four-door saloon and a five-door estate over a single generation, and it was also sold as the Fiat Mirafiori, named for the Turin district where it was made. It used steel monocoque bodywork with a front engine and rear-wheel drive, a solid live rear axle on trailing arms with a Panhard rod, MacPherson strut front suspension and disc front brakes. All its engines were inline-fours derived from the 124 range, first with pushrod valve gear and a belt-driven camshaft, an innovation for an overhead-valve engine, and later with double overhead camshafts. The range was revised in 1978 and 1981, and production reached 1,513,800.