The Fiat 518 is a 4-door Sedan (car) / saloon / 4-door Torpedo (car) / torpedo / 4-door Sports sedan / sports saloon from Fiat, built from 1933 to 1938, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: 1,758 cc I4.
How it came about
The Fiat 518, also called Fiat Ardita, was a model of car produced by Italian car manufacturer Fiat between 1933 and 1938. The name "Ardita" was also used on the six-cylinder engined and more expensive Fiat Ardita 2500 or 527. In total 8,794 518s were produced by Fiat. Additionally the 518 was produced outside Italy: in France by Simca as Simca-Fiat 11 CV, and in Poland by Polski Fiat as well as by PZInż under licence.
The hardware
Power comes from 1,758 cc I4; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 1185 – (518 . It shifts through a 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2700 mm (518 C) / 3000 mm (518 L). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Fiat 514; its successor was the Fiat 1500. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Suburban, the Bugatti Type 57, the Bugatti type 49 coupé — show what else the money bought that year. Its Fiat stablemates include the FIAT 702 and the Fiat 1.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Fiat 518 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.