Fiat 147

The Fiat 147 was a three-door hatchback subcompact car that Fiat produced in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais from autumn 1976 until 1987, when the Fiat Uno replaced it. It was the Brazilian variant of the Fiat 127, and some were also built by Sevel in Argentina until 1996, where later models were called Spazio, Brio and Vivace, with assembly in Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela. It is notable as the first modern car to use ethanol as fuel instead of petrol. The cheap petrol sold in Brazil in 1976 had an octane rating of only 73, so the car needed a low compression ratio of 7.2 to 1 and therefore a larger engine, a 1,049 cc unit with a five-bearing crankshaft instead of the 903 cc engine of the Turin 127. That engine later appeared in the Series 2 127. The Panorama station wagon was added in April 1980, and a 1,301 cc diesel followed in 1980 and 1981. Ethanol use raised fuel consumption by 30 percent but the alcohol cost a quarter as much.