As 2026 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of a fantastic road trip through Wales in a tiny Fiat, it seems like the perfect time to look back on my history with right-hand-drive Fiats. Before we begin, a brief apology for some of the photos; they were taken with an early Sony Mavica digital camera that stored images on 3.5-inch floppy disks (remember those?)—an impressive technology at the time, if not by today’s standards.
The story begins in 2000, when my best friend J and I traveled to the United Kingdom. Having previously studied in Britain and visited Europe several times, I was comfortable navigating trains, cities, and unfamiliar roads. For J, however, it was his first trip abroad and likely his first flight. After spending a few days exploring London, we boarded a Great Western Railway train bound for Wales, unknowingly beginning an adventure that would spark a long fascination with right-hand-drive Fiats.
Upon arrival in Swansea, we picked up a blue Fiat Cinquecento at a local car hire business. We had the car for about twenty four hours and drove out to see the castles nearest to Swansea. I had driven small cars before (my Ford Escort, for one), but nothing as small or minimally powered as this Fiat. Combine this with my first experience driving an RHD vehicle and I was faced with a steep learning curve. It came to a head in a quiet neighborhood in Swansea when the car overheated while we were trying to find our way out of the city. I parked the car and calmly had an internal breakdown while J sat next to me, unaware of how concerned I was.
We eventually topped up the radiator, found a map and made our way out into the green countryside. I drove the Fiat a little easier after that, and we didn’t have any issues for the rest of the trip. I found the hardest parts were turning onto country lanes – without a center painted line and other traffic, my natural inclination was to end up on the “correct” side of the road. This was fine until another car came along. It only took a few near head-on collisions before I unlearned that behavior.
We nicknamed this Fiat “Mumbly Peg” after the Mumbles, a set of rock formations that we visited. It was at this location that we became stuck at the bottom of a rather steep incline out of the parking area. The little Fiat didn’t have enough grip on the front wheels with two “American Sized” passengers. J started to worry, but I quickly realized we could reverse up the incline, putting all the weight on the driving wheels. We zipped up backwards without incident. It was a great short trip, and we decided that we were going to come back the following year and make a longer trip to see Wales.
We came back in 2001 and traveled directly to Wales. We rented another Fiat Cinquecento (a white one this time, named Bumbly Peg) from the same car hire.
We headed out for the countryside again, spending the entire trip (5 or 6 days) wandering around.
As it was March, the weather was cool and rainy, but a glorious time to see ruins of castles. We traveled all over Wales, seeing Tenby, Beaumaris, Carmarthen, Kidwelly and a host of others.
We also ventured over the Brecon Beacon Mountains. While they aren’t particularly steep (at least compared to the Alps or the Rockies), it did take a little work to get the diminutive Fiat up and down them with any speed.
The only mishap on this trip was a bent rear wheel (a wobbly, as it were) after some sprinted B-road driving. I swapped on the spare and hoped that the car rental place wouldn’t notice (they didn’t).
It would be another seventeen years until I found myself again behind the driver’s seat of a Fiat Cinquecento in the UK. In 2018, I traveled to Northern Ireland to visit a (former) friend, before we both headed over to Birmingham to enjoy the humongous car show at the NEC. One of the most interesting things to happen to me on that trip was the opportunity to drive a VW XL-1.
If you don’t know about the XL-1, in short it’s a diesel-electric hybrid “supercar” that Volkswagen engineered for extreme mileage. Capable of over 200 mpg, it’s also a noisy, slow and cramped vehicle that does one thing really well (fuel economy) and everything else minimally. This car would eventually make its way to the US and is now part of the Lane Collection.
After enjoying a few miles in the XL-1, we travelled over to Birmingham in another white Fiat Cinquecento via ferry where the Fiat would be on display. I drove for quite a bit of the way, although this time in a Fiat that was more of a classic car than a bog-standard city car (it was 15+ years later after all).
Fast forward to the following year and through a series of events that I don’t quite recall, I was the owner of a RHD Fiat Tempra.
The Tempra had been sent to the US by my (former) friend to try and sell. Needing someone to pick the car up and register it in the US, I agreed and was suddenly the owner of a very weird Fiat.
As previously noted in my V70 COAL, I went down to NJ to pick it up on a U-Haul tow-dolly. After getting it home, I drove it occasionally, acclimating myself to driving a RHD car in a LHD world. The only time it really felt disconcerting was on I-95 as sitting on the right hand side of the car put me at the lower edge of the crown of the road and it perpetually felt like it was going to flip over.
Some online sleuthing turned up the son of a former owner. His father had purchased it used in 1997 and used it sparingly, with less than 600 miles being added per year. His son reported that his family used to make wine every year, using the Tempra to haul 70 cases of grapes (two trips), never getting the seats dirty. He said that his father “never wore a seatbelt…he was a typical Italian who didn’t like to be told what to do”.
I bopped around with my Anglo-Italian mutt for a while over that summer, while it was legally registered to me it wasn’t really “my” car and I never grew attached to it. It wasn’t anything special enough that people stopped on the street to talk about it, it didn’t drive all that particularly well and as mentioned before, the RHD in a LHD had its downsides.
My (former) friend flew over to the US with his partner and took the Fiat on a cross-country road trip before selling it on to someone in California. I’m not sure the ultimate fate of that particular Fiat, but it was a quirky little car that was fun to own for a short time.
Who knows what other English Fiats are in my future? While the (former) friend is no longer involved in my life, I do have another friend in the UK who is as much into cars as I am and we often send links of cars for sale back and forth. I’d love to have the chance at another Fiat, maybe even a Cinquecento of my own!
Enjoyable read, places, people and cars. I too have had the odd adventure in a RHD Fiat. Ours took the family in New Guinea, the UK, and Europe ( as far East as the former Yugoslavia) on Papua New Guinean licence plates.
That’s impressive!
Compared to its predecessor, the Regata, the Tempra was a significant improvement in every way. Better design, better interior, safer, and even more reliable.
Both the Tempra and the Croma were Fiat’s best cars of the 80s and 90s (which weren’t great years for the brand).
A really enjoyable read and some great road trips.
I am curious as to why you called them “English” Fiats rather than “British” though? We are more than one country and you spent the first visit in what I guess you would call a Welsh one!
You’re absolutely right!
I was actually writing this post while on a train from London to Wales and was in a rush to get it completed before my journey ended. In my haste I used England instead of Britain, which is 100% correct as the Tempra and the second white Fiat both originated in Northern Ireland.
If you get a Cinq, make sure it is a Sporting. Bigger engine, and the gears shifts much better.
I saw a Tempra in the same color that was sold on the Bring a Trailer website a while ago.
Is this the same one?.
It certainly is the very same one. And it has quite a story with it. Sold in 2019 for $2400:
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1993-fiat-tempra-2/
Yes, it is one and the same. You’ll note that it has RI plates on it for that journey and for the sale – the car was still legally in my name at the time.
It took me forever to get the plates back – my former friend left them on the car (like is done in the UK) and didn’t realize I needed them back. I was quite upset that a stranger had my plates across the country. I eventually did get them back, thankfully.
Thanks for explaining the mystery of the RHD Tempra when it made its first appearance here. Quite likely the only one in the US.
I would have enjoyed driving a Cinquecento through Wales; I’ve got a thing for little underpowered cars; they’re endearing and it’s more challenging to get the most out of them compared to a bigger and more powerful car.
Believe it or not, there was a blue Tempra floating around Connecticut around the same time. I have no idea what happened to that one…
I had a Tipo [the hatchback version of the Tempra] with that same dashboard. I must have found it hard to take seriously because I got three speeding tickets in it.
I too have a little experience of English Fiats. When I was at school we would often be driven by my friend in his dad’s 131 Mirafiori estate. The interior felt flimsy, but the car very much lent itself to being driven in a “spirited” fashion. I also recall spending time in the passenger seat of a Panda, which felt like quite basic motoring. You certainly didn’t feel insulated from the outside world.
In the late 90s. me and my future wife hired a Uno to drive around Ireland. I found it a fun car to drive on the narrow twisty Irish roads.
I also like small underpowered cars. My first trip to Europe was in 1964 when my family spent the summer visiting my aunt who was in Germany with the Canadian forces. We started out in England at the docks in Southampton where we picked up our Morris 1100 rental and headed off to Wales. It is not a Fiat, but there was a similarity in performance. There were 4 of us plus luggage, some on the roof rack, so it was well loaded. I remember my dad telling us not to worry as we laboured up a hill, as we still had one gear left (meaning he was in second).
As I noted above, I wrote this post while in the UK.
I was driven to the train near Bristol in the backseat of a very spiritedly driven 2CV…it was glorious.
Small FIATs are often fun to drive. They’re not necessarily technically excellent (offset pedals in RHD and rubbery gearchanges would offend the Japanese) but they have a liveliness and au unpretentious functionality which adds to the charm. Strangely, I find the comparatively excellent Honda Fit/Jazz mildly depressing to drive.
One gets the feeling one is beating the system with a tiny, cheap FIAT.
The Tempura was a strange one; it was a bit more akin to the Jazz with a trunk (Honda City?) and lost that irrepressible feel.
Like its Tipo 3 counterparts, it ended up being compared to ‘proper’ C/D segment cars (even cynical old Ford discovered excellence with CDW27) and found wanting. FIAT has never properly recovered and now sticks to the small cars it’s good at.
If anyone is curious as to what happened to the second white Fiat, please read this story:
https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/picture-car-confidential/picture-car-confidential-crashing-cars/
What is it with Fiats and English car rentals? When we were in the UK for our honeymoon i 1993 our rental for a loop around the Midlands was a Fiat Tipo. We currently have a 2013 Fiat 500, but that’s a Mexican Fiat, the English 500s were made in Poland and you have to be aware of the detail differences beyond the steering wheel. Here in Oregon RHD vehicles are common because of Japanese imports. My son has a HiAce and it’s generally OK except for drive through windows