Fiats for Females

Believing that females about to invest in Fiats may be confused about which model to buy, the British branch of the great Turin Company has issued a little booklet, of hand-bag size, illustrated in colour, in which Frances Howell, well-known lady motoring writer, sorts these matters out. She has done this extraordinarily well, and with conviction, perhaps because, although this is an official Fiat publication, she has been permitted to criticise Fiat cars where she has criticisms to offer—which isn’t very often. We did not follow all her arguments, for instance that Fiat’s windows are lifted by winding forwards because closing a window is a tougher job than opening it— if that sort of force were needed to close the window of a car we wouldn’t buy it anyway, apart from which, if a winder is used, surely you both pull and push, both when lifting and lowering a window? On a less carping note, Frances Howell says of a Fiat’s lamps/signalling stalk-control that it can be operated without removing a hand from the steering wheel, even a tiny frozen hand. Although when we commenced taking out girl passengers in Chummy Austins we experienced those with tiny frozen hands, and even some tiny frozen girls, our experience of even the smallest of the present-day Fiats is that their heaters function very effectively. So, although the lady’s hand may be small, she will be very frigid indeed if it remains cold while using transport from Turin. . . .

Otherwise, this little book is great stuff, entertainingly and honestly written. It deals with the Fiat 500s, 600, 850 saloon and coupé, 1100 saloon and estate, 124 saloon, estate and coupé, 125 saloon and 2300 saloon and estate, all of them lengthily and pithily described and each model pictured in good colour.

Presumably Alfred Woolf and Frances Howell did well for themselves out of this piece of publicity and, if so, good luck to them, for it is useful and tasteful publicity. The booklet, written by an experienced lady driver who believes that while women do not want to know about bores and strokes and final-drive ratios they are keen about more technical things than just “pretty-pretty” colours, is available free, from any Fiat dealer in this country or direct from Fiat (England) Ltd., Northdale House, North Circular Road, London, N.W.10; you just ask for a copy of “Yes, but which Fiat ?”. Please mention Motor Sport when doing this, because we have often wondered how many girls read us and now, perhaps, Fiat will be able to give us some idea. But this little book may appeal even to male motorists and it is available to them, if they insist, from the aforesaid sources.—W. B.