The Fiat Cinquecento ( in Italian, in English) was a city car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Ital Design, launched by Fiat in late 1991 to replace the Fiat 126. It was the first Fiat model to be solely manufactured in the plant in Tychy, Poland, which was just sold to Fiat by the Polish state, and where the production of the 126 (in its Polish variant, the Polski Fiat 126p) was still running. The production of the Cinquecento ended in 1998, when it was replaced by the Seicento. The Cinquecento was available in one body style only, a small, angular 3-door hatchback, with a favorable drag coefficient of only 0.33 that bore similariies to the Lancia Y10. It featured several advances compared to older Fiat city cars, including independent suspension both in the front and in the rear similar to the FIAT Tipo, front disc brakes, side impact bars along with crumple zones incorporated in the design and galvanized body panels to fend off corrosion. Steering was by rack and pinion, and although power steering was never offered, the car could be ordered with a number of extras, including central locking, power windows, sunroof (or full-length retractable canvas roof in the Soleil version) and even air conditioning. - accessed via the Wayback Machine