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Classic & Sports Car recently celebrated the Fiat Argenta as one of Martin Buckley’s “Guilty Pleasures”. The great scribe made references to a 132 facelift that ‘managed to make it worse looking than it was before, so that it could almost have been a new Volga rather than an ’80s Fiat’, Furthermore, the Argenta was ‘the final instalment of an essentially indifferent design’.

Certainly to look at the British market brochure is an experience akin to glancing at an old copy of the Radio or TV Times and seeing listings for sit-coms and dramas that you never knew existed. Here is the great car in an advertisement fatally reminiscent of Channel 9 from The Fast Show -

But was Mr. Buckley being entirely fair to one of the most forgotten Fiats of its era? James Nicholson, the owner of the only RHD Argenta Volumex, argues that his feature is ‘More than a bit harsh. I think that he misses the point again. I don’t think that the 132 was ever meant to be a direct replacement for the 125 – Fiat was trying to build a different type of car’.

The Argenta debuted in May 1981 at a time when Fiat was heavily involved in planning the Uno. “The Type Four” agreement had been signed in 1978, but the resulting Croma lay seven years in the future and the logical solution was an update of the 132, which dated back to 1972. The new model featured new frontal treatment and fascia plus an enhanced specification -

Fiat offered Italian motorists a choice of 1.6 and 2.0-litre units, but only the latter was available in the UK when sales commenced in 1982.  Home market versions appealed to the bourgeois driver who could not quite run to a Lancia Gamma Berlina or an Alfa Romeo Six; one journalist thought it ‘a traditional and discreet sedan, elegant enough without being affected’.

However, in this country, the Argenta occupied that strange marketing netherworld between the upper echelons of the Ford Cortina and the lower reaches of the Granada range. A potential buyer would probably have also looked at the likes of the C31-series Datsun Laurel, the Toyota Cressida or the Vauxhall Viceroy. On 18^th May 1982 Sue Baker and Frank Page reviewed the Fiat for Top Gear; let us hope the edition survives in the BBC Archive.

 ‘A ‘luxury car doesn’t have to be boring’ claimed the advertisements, for ‘at weekends it’s a sports car’. In reality, its main selling point was its list of standard fittings as opposed to its twin-cam power plant and five-speed transmission. For his/her £6,345 the owner gained central locking, tinted windows, a ‘stereo radio’, metallic paint and even translucent sun visors ‘at front and sides’. The dashboard was a riot of non-ergonomics, the instrumentation included that early 1980s gimmick, the “econometre” while ‘luxury deep pile carpeting’ covered the floor.

Yet the big Fiat failed to appeal to British motorists. The name “Argenta” did not exactly help matters in 1982 for obvious reasons and nor did the sales copy. James thinks that Fiat ‘lost their way with properly marketing the bigger cars well before 1983. Just think about BMW, Audi etc. reputation at the beginning of the 1970s and how it had changed by the mid-1980s’. As it was, the brochure contained such gems as ‘a new grille in an exciting shade of grey’ and bumpers ‘Made from moulded resin’.

However, the main challenge facing dealers was selling the last incarnation of a car that never really established itself in this country. The 132 did sell in fair numbers in its homeland, but too many UK motorists failed to appreciate what was a rather agreeable and good-looking saloon. In 1983 Fiat facelifted the Argenta with their new trademark five-bar grille and a widened front track, by which time it was starting to look as much of an early 1970s throw-back as a repeat of Special Branch.

And in 1984 Turin introduced the “VX” with its Volumex supercharger. For many years it was assumed there were no British imports of this new flagship but, as James observes, Fiat built his car:

‘as part of a batch of prototypes in September 1983  - all in white - and this was the only RHD one made. It was sent to the UK for Type Approval, and then FIAT UK kept it for two years. It has first series cloth pattern in a second series interior - slightly different inside. A 415 AHN was registered in March 1984 when the Government granted type approval. At the same time, a 1.6 carb and a 2.0-litre were brought in, but I don’t know what happened to them. My car was originally registered consecutively with the other two but then had a private number plate during the late 1980s.’

Production of the Argenta ceased in 1985 and James believes there is now an Irish import metallic blue second-generation 2-Litre carburettor version and a couple of SORN examples in this country. As for his Volumex:

‘The supercharger completely changes the car into a very laid back cruiser. Lots more torque. Unlike my other twin-cams normally there’s no need to take it past 3,500 revs - unless you’re trying a bit harder! Perfect for long Italian motorways. It also has a different gearbox in it which brings engine revs down.’

Today the Nicholson Volumex receives a varied reaction from the public. ‘Most people don’t know what it is, but then we did take it to a local show last year, and a couple of people knew straight away what model it was (not about it being supercharged though). At shows, it tends to attract people who are interested in the technical aspects and also the fact that it is so rare; Fiat sold very few of them anywhere in Europe. But it obviously doesn’t receive the “I used to have one of those’ or ‘I remember those” that the 132s get’.

So perhaps Mr. Buckley was a tad unfair on the Argenta, Fiat’s last sizeable RWD car. And besides, who could resist the temptation of a car featuring ‘hand trimmed cloth seats’?

With Thanks To – James Nicholson

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