So what was the second model to get jewelled lights?

I often wonder how Corgi decided which colours to use for new models. Did they have a committee where several different examples were presented and voted upon? Did someone actually research the options available for buyers of the vehicles. I remember the real car catalogues often had little rectangles to show the colours of paint, like Dulux probably still provide today.

So often they did, though, seem to choose colours I had never seen on the cars but here, with the plain old Fiat 1800 and 2100 they seem to have got them about right. There are just four variations, three for the 1800 and,a delightfully simple, for us collectors, one for the 2100.

You can find the 1800 in pale blue all over, the same pale blue with a dark blue roof and mustard. The mustard is the scarcest to track down now and the two-tone blue one elusive in good condition. I saw one on an Australian site with the dark blue also on the rear pillars but I am pretty sure that was a repaint.

I haven't yet found a two-tone blue one yet but have both single colour models for sale and each is in excellent condition. The very bright yellow interior is a bit odd but that seems to have been the order of the day with many Corgis. Perhaps bright yellow plastic was cheap for some reason. You can probably think of all, well not all but a good number, of the others with this interior.

The later issue 2100 came in pale pink and a sort of plum colour on the roof. It actually looks very good, better than it might sound. Corgi added jewels to this and a Venetian blind in the rear window, not something you'd often spot on our cars then! The car is otherwise identical, this being an early example of their extending the life of a decent cast for a while.

These Fiats were never particularly popular models or a sight on our roads, especially in that colour! However, I like them a lot and will be sad to see any of the four (when I eventually get the fourth) go. I'll probably get some more.

Incidentally if anyone ever asks you which was the second car to get jewelled headlamps you now know. The Bentley Continental was the first in April 1961. This Fiat 2100 a few months later. I have only just realised that.