Forget the Ferrari fantasy—the car that actually runs Italy is the FIAT Panda. A box on wheels, the automotive equivalent of the Nokia 3310, the durable, unfussy Panda is impossible to escape here.
Launched in 1980 at the Geneva Motor Show and designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Panda was Italy’s no-frills car for anyone and everyone. Giugiaro claims that he was inspired by military helicopters—light, rational machines built purely for function—and famously compared his design to “a pair of jeans: simple, practical, unpretentious.” (Giugiaro would go on to be named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and added into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.)
