It’s been a long ride, but Italian brand’s regional effort with cars is over.

ALMOST seven decades after it seriously hooked into New Zealand life, and 120 years on from first showing, Fiat has wrapped up involvement in the car scene here.

Ironically it has thrown in the keys after being depleted to selling just a predecessor of its only locally-assembled model.

Decision to pull out of NZ has come less than a week on from Fiat also deciding to leave Australia.

The marque will continue to have a presence in our market with its commercial vehicles, via the Fiat Professional franchise.

The news was broken today by a website, CarExpert NZ, which has quoted distributor Ateco New Zealand says its position replicates what was outlined by the rights’ holder for Australia, Stellantis.

Fiat New Zealand’s passenger vehicle line-up is small in every sense.

The make has positioned solely with the fully electric 500e and Abarth 500e that landed in 2023, as well as the petrol-powered Abarth 695, with just modest annual sales accruing.

Those products are direct descendants of the Fiat 500, aka Bambina, that was the only Fiat car assembled in this country, during the 1960s and became highly popular. The make’s involvement here goes back much further, with Fiat cars being imported from the early 1900s.

When the decision for Australia was announce, Fiat pledged to “evaluate future product opportunities for the local market”.

The new car market being in saturated state and the challenges that presents for distributors was outlined by MotoringNZ two days ago.