Fiat · 1932–1937

Fiat 508

The Fiat 508 Balilla was a compact car designed and produced by Fiat from 1932 to 1937. It was, effectively, the replacement of the Fiat 509, although production of the earlier model had ceased back in 1929. It had a three-speed transmission (increased to four in 1934), seated four, and had a top speed of about 50 mph (80 km/h). It sold for 10,800 lire (or 8,300 2005 euro). About 113,000 were produced. The car was also assembled by Walter Motors in Czechoslovakia, in the Państwowe Zakłady Inżynierii passenger vehicle factory in Poland, by NSU-Fiat in Germany, and by SAFAF (rebranded in 1934 as "Simca-Fiat") in France.

Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Predecessor: Fiat 509 · Successor: Fiat 1100

All Fiat 508 data: UK builds, safety, recalls, model years →

Background

The car was developed by some of the leading Italian automotive engineers of the day, including Nebbia, Fessia and Tranquillo Zerbi. The goal was to incorporate some of the qualities of a high class automobile into a modestly priced vehicle. The car had its unveiling on 12 April 1932 at a motor show being held on the Fiera Milano trade fair site.

Etymology

The popular 508 baby Fiat small automobile, one of the early people's cars designed by Dante Giacosa and launched at the 1932 Milan automobile show was christened Fiat Balilla. Many believe that the "Balilla" name was connected with Italian Fascism, but Fiat later insisted that the car was named after the 1746 Genoa boy-hero, not the fascist youth organisation Opera Nazionale Balilla. The provenance of the name was actually far older than the Italian Fascist movement. "Balilla" was the dialect-nickname of a Genovese boy called Giovanni Battista Perasso, who back in 1746 threw a stone - according to one report several stones - at an Austrian officer in protest over the Austrian military occupation. The action triggered a Genoese revolt against the Austrians and for this Balilla was celebrated as a local hero in Northern Italy through the intervening two centuries. The story of "Balilla" is nevertheless one of many popular heroic tales from history to have gained in prominence in the early decades of the twentieth century, given the heightened nationalistic characteristic of the period. Previously, a class of light Regia Marina submarines of the Royal Italian Navy, and a pony tractor by Milan-based firm Motomeccanica had also been christened Balilla, and Fiat themselves had earlier used the name on the small Fiat-Ansaldo A1 biplane aircraft of World War I.

Fiats 508A (1932–1934) and 508B (1934–1937)

The first 508 came with a front-mounted four-cylinder petrol side-valve engine of 995cc. Maximum power was listed as 20 hp (15 kW) at 3500 rpm, providing for a top speed of approximately 80 km/h (50 mph). Power passed to the rear wheels through a 3-speed manual gear box without the assistance of synchromesh on any of the ratios. Stopping power was provided by drum brakes on all four wheels. At the end of 1933 power was increased to 24 hp (18 kW) at 3500 rpm, and the maximum speed went up to 85 km/h (53 mph). Transmission was upgraded to a four speed gear box. For 1934 the car now came with a slightly more aerodynamic looking "berlina" (saloon/sedan) body, available with either two or four doors. This version was identified as the Fiat 508B, and the original 1932 model was now, retrospectively, became the Fiat 508A.

Body versions

=== Berlina === The first 508A, introduced in 1932, was a 2-door "Berlina" (saloon/sedan) with four seats and a three speed "crash" gearbox. The front seats could be slid forwards and the backrests tilted in order to facilitate access to the back seat in what was a relatively small car. Unusually, the windows in the doors could be wound down by turning a crank handle fitted to the door, while the windscreen was hinged at the top and could be opened, while two windscreen wipers were powered by their own electric motor, positioned inside just above the windscreen. The interior used rubber mats while the seats were cloth covered. Accessories offered included a dash-mounted rear-view mirror, an interior light mounted on the centre of the roof and an externally mounted luggage platform at the back which, when specified, came with the spare wheel repositioned to a mounting point on the side of the car between the left-side door and the front wing. A "Lusso" ("de Luxe") version also featured a better type of cloth covering for the seats as well as extra bright work around the lights, front grille, wheels and door handles. With the 508B, introduced early in 1934, the body was described as "more aerodynamic" although from the perspective of later developments in car styling, the 508B still followed the rather boxy lines associated with cheap cars from the early 1930s. The gear box was upgraded, now offering four forward speeds, and while the a 2-door "Berlina" remained on offer for a few more months, a 4-door "Berlina" was now added. In June of the same year the 2-door "Berlina" was delisted for Italy and there was a further face-lift for the 4-door bodied car, which now received a modified front grille and a windscreen, previously vertical, that was slightly raked, hinting at t

Foreign assembly

=== Poland === As well as being assembled at Turin in Italy, three successive versions of the car were produced in Poland where it was branded as the "Polski-Fiat 508" and priced at 5,400 Zł. The arrangement was based on an agreement dated 21 September 1932 and provided for the assembly of the car by Centralne Warsztaty Samochodowe in Warsaw. Assembly progressed to full-scale production in 1935 and the 508 became the country's top selling passenger car for a period during the 1930s. There were few paved roads in Poland at this time, and both the chassis and the axles of the car were strengthened, and the suspension was modified, in order to cope with the relatively harsh operating conditions resulting from the quality of the roads and of the Polish winter. 20 hp (15 kW) of power came from the same 995 cc engine as in the Italian car, however, and the Polish cars benefited, in 1935 from the upgrade that in Italy gave birth to the "508B", although the upgraded Polish version was known as the "508 II". Production was abruptly halted by the outbreak of war and precise production statistics do not survive; but it is apparent that the Polish output of Fiat 508s ran to several - probably many - thousand. Germany. In Germany a motor bike manufacturer called NSU Motorenwerke AG had recently been persuaded by the dire state of the economy (and by their bankers) to abandon ambitious plans to become an automobile producer, and to sell their car plant to anyone who could be found to buy it. NSU found Fiat who thereby in 1929 acquired for One Million Marks a nearly new purpose built car plant near Heilbronn. The 508 Balilla was one of the first two models to be built at the plant It was badged as a "Fiat-NSU" between 1934 and 1938, and as an "NSU-Fiat" between 1938 and 1941 (though F

In popular culture

Famous Belgian cartoon author André Franquin's goofy hero-without-employment Gaston Lagaffe, uses a Balilla 508 (some say it is the very similar Fiat 509) as a daily transport. Though the car is "customized" with a checkered flag stripe (laboriously cut out of dozens of crossword puzzles), it is a hopeless piece of junk with a wheezy, smoke belching, misfiring engine. Nevertheless, Gaston doesn't seem to care and even "improves" his car with crackpot inventions, generally leading to some disastrous débacle. He generously offers rides to (generally reluctant) office colleagues who invariably regret their accepting, except Gaston's pointy nosed, pony-tailed, bespectacled love interest, Mademoselle Jeanne. The Balilla 508 was one of the first attempt of mass motorization in Europe, long before the Volkswagen Beetle or the Citroën 2CV though its customers were more lower middle and middle class than working classes, it was a quite desired (and often stolen) item in 1930s Italy. It was such an emblematic car that a specially dedicated song (or better said dozens variations of an initial song) was created at the time of its launch. The song is a burlesque and almost surrealist ballad called "La Balilla"about a small time cottage industrialist who sells soap, bleach and washing powder on town markets and makes a tidy income out of it, enabling him to buy a top of the range Balilla with an exotic option: a special custom upholstery made out of eel skin. He instantly triggers envy and jealousy around him; his sisters, brothers, neighbours, and relatives (and even a picturesque mob of passers-by) start literally to eat the car bit by bit. In the Sicilian and Neapolitan versions the car is rather stolen bit by bit, either by petty thugs or by seemingly respectable people acting j

Sections adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); text is shortened. Read the full article for the complete history and citations.

Specifications

name: Fiat 508
aka: Fiat 508 Balilla, Fiat 6CV (France), NSU-Fiat 508 (Germany), Polski-Fiat 508 (Poland), Walter Junior (Czechoslovakia)
Manufacturer: Fiat
Production: 1932–1937
Assembly: Italy: Lingotto, Czechoslovakia: Jinonice (Walter), Poland: Warsaw (PZInż), Germany: Neckarsulm (NSU), France: Suresnes (SAFAF), France: Nanterre (Simca)
Layout: FR layout
Class: Compact car / Small family car (C)
Body style: 4-door sedan, 2-door sedan, 2-door spider, 4-door torpedo
Engine: 995 cc I4
Transmission: 3-speed manual
Length: 3140 mm
Width: 1400 mm
Height: 1530 mm
Kerb weight: 685 kg
Predecessor: Fiat 509
Successor: Fiat 1100 Balilla (508C)

Specification summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Check the linked sources for citations.

More photos

Sources

Wikidata — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2045753CC0 1.0 · retrieved 2026-10-01
Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_508CC BY-SA 4.0 · Text © Wikipedia contributors; revision 1374886554 · retrieved 2026-10-01
Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fiat_508_rocznik_1934.jpgPublic domain · Photo: KRZYSZTOF at Polish Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-10-01
Car Model Index — https://models.autoculturesociety.com/Compiled record. Sources that do not permit reuse are not copied; this index is credited instead.