SEAT Sure Loved Doubling The Doors Of Little Fiats

Before they were a tentacle in modern Volkswagen’s mighty kraken, Spain’s biggest automaker, SEAT (Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo) was a builder, primarily, of Fiats built under license. After Spain’s devastating civil war, the country desperately needed to rebuild its economy, and SEAT was a major player there, with the Fiat 600-based SEAT 600 becoming a sort of symbol of that economic resurrection known as the Spanish Miracle.

And sure, that’s a big deal, but what I want to note specifically is how much SEAT liked to take tiny Italian city car designs and stretch them into four-door family cars, making versions that were unique to their market. You’d think this would have happened more often with high-volume people’s cars like these – like, for example, why didn’t anyone other than a low-volume taxi company ever make four-door Volkswagen Beetles?

I’ve written about the first time SEAT did this before, with their stretched and extra-door’d version of the Fiat 600, which they called the SEAT 800:

This is what a non-stretched Fiat 600 looked like, for reference:

SEAT had, I think, a real knack for making four-door variants of these tiny cars. The next one they did was Fiat’s successor to the 600, the 850, which I think was a handsome little car on its own:

I always thought these were very friendly-looking and appealing little cars. SEAT actually had two versions of their double-door’d variant, a short wheelbase one, which is incredibly rare, and a longer one, which is the one that actually sold in real numbers:

It’s handsome! And it doesn’t even look especially stretched at all! The smaller SEAT 800 does look a bit mutated compared to the original Fiat 600, but I think with the 850, SEAT really managed to make the proportions work, creating a more notchback-like rear profile instead of the more fastback roof design of the two-door 850.

I’m kind of amazed how natural this four-door sedan version works, given the diminutive size of the original. SEAT’s designers really did have a gift for this very specific thing.

The design of the 850 is quite simple and straightforward, but it has a certain appeal that I can’t exactly put my finger on. The proportions are slightly chonky in a cute way, but not overly so, not cloying. It gives a sense of sturdy pluckiness, somehow.

The interior space looks pretty roomy for a small car, too. It’s not a limo, but that back seat doesn’t seem like a torture instrument, either. And the Spanish have some history with those; anyone who lived through the Inquisition can tell you all about that.

I’m impressed with the packaging of this little car, basic as it seems.

The rear, of course, was all engine, all 850ccs of it, a longitudinally-mounted inline-four with the radiator set off to the side there. I’m always surprised how much airflow these were able to get this way, but they managed.

I appreciate how proud they were of switching from a generator to an alternator; that even gets its own callout in the brochure.

Luggage accommodation was mostly in the front trunk, aside from a shallow well under the rear window, but it looks like with some skills, that trunk could be really well tetrised into holding a lot:

Look how proud they are! I’d be proud, too. I’d show everybody my well-crammed trunk. I might even invite them to tug on those bags, see how snugly I jammed them in there.

That trunk pic is actually from a brochure about the 850 Coupé, which I think is also a lovely little machine, in a different way, but one that shows how oddly adaptable the basic Fiat 850 styling was.

Such charming little cars! I can’t remember the last time I saw one, either in Fiat or SEAT guise. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the four-door one outside of SEAT’s museum outside of Barcelona; but I count myself lucky I got to see one at all.