The Fiat 126 is a city car

City car

A city car is a small car intended for use primarily in an urban area.City cars are sold worldwide and most automotive industry manufacturers have one or two in their line-up. In North-America city cars are often referred to simply as "subcompacts" alongside the superminis. These kind of cars...

 introduced in October 1972 at the Turin Auto Show

Turin Auto Show

The Turin Auto Show is an auto show held annually in Turin, Italy. The first official show took place between 21 and 24 April 1900, at the Castle of Valentino, moving to Turin in later years....

 as a replacement for the Fiat 500

Fiat 500

The Fiat 500 is a car produced by the Fiat company of Italy between 1957 and 1975, with limited production of the Fiat 500 K estate continuing until 1977. The car was designed by Dante Giacosa....

. Most were produced in Bielsko-Biała

Bielsko-Biała

-Economy and Industry:Nowadays Bielsko-Biała is one of the best-developed parts of Poland. It was ranked 2nd best city for business in that country by Forbes. About 5% of people are unemployed . Bielsko-Biała is famous for its textile, machine-building, and especially automotive industry...

, Poland as the Polski Fiat

Polski Fiat

Polski Fiat was a Polish car brand. Under this brand, cars under licence of the Italian manufacturer FIAT were manufactured or assembled in Poland.-Before World War II:...

 126p until 2000. It was replaced by the front-engined Fiat Cinquecento

Fiat Cinquecento

The Fiat Cinquecento was a city car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro launched by Fiat in late 1991 to replace the Fiat 126. It was the first Fiat model to be solely manufactured in the FSM plant in Tychy, Poland, which had been sold to Fiat by the Polish state, and where production of the Polish...

 in 1993.
The 126 used much of the same mechanical underpinnings and layout as its Fiat 500 rear-engined predecessor with which it shared its wheelbase

Wheelbase

In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...

, but featured an all new bodyshell closely resembling a scaled-down Fiat 127

Fiat 127

The Fiat 127 is a supermini produced by the Italian automaker Fiat between 1971 and 1983. It was introduced in 1971 as the replacement for the Fiat 850...

.

Engine capacity was increased from 594 cc to 652 cc at the end of 1977 when the cylinder bore was increased from 73.5 to 77 mm.