WOULD you drive a car called Gardener?

Well, in the 1960s many Europeans were happy to do so because the gardener in question was the Fiat Giardiniera, a neat little station wagon based on the minimal, but oh-so-fashionable Fiat 500, a vehicle which answered the family transport needs of thousands.

And it was not just limited to mainland Europe. A stroll around the 1960 London Motor Show would have revealed the Giardiniera sitting proudly on the Fiat stand along its car counterpart and much more grand models like the Fiat 1500 sports car.

The Giardiniera may be regarded as a cheap car for its time, even though its £585 pricetag in the UK was not far short of the rakish Ford Anglia. But the Giardiniera's main claim to fame is that it was one of the closest efforts to predicting the city car of today.

In this day and agecity-mobiles are mainly powered by thoroughly modern three-cylinder engines which use precious little fuel and emit only fairy burps of CO2.

But the Giardiniera went one better with an air-cooled two-cylinder petrol unit of just over 499cc. I have no idea of its emissions figure, but do know that it was capable of a good honest 60mph with an economy readout of 55mpg. Maybe not speedwise, but in terms of economy it was not far short of today's standards even though you may have needed a calendar to measure its 0-60mph sprint factor.

Longer than the 500 saloon, the Giardiniera offered seats for four adults, and featured a folding roof plus rear seats which fold away giving access to the loadspace through a single rear door.

The engine lay on its side under the rear floor and was fed with air through grilles alongside the rear windows.

Its suspension was beefed up to cope with carrying loads through Rome's narrow cobbled streets but in later years, preserved versions, especially the later Autobianchicars in the USA became the smallest surfboard transporters in the world,.

They were to be seen with expensive ocean-skimming merchandise poking up through the rolled back roof, standing tall against some awesome American metal in places like Laguna beach. All in all one of the greats of the 1960s.