Fiat 850 Vanessa by Ghia

The reality is obvious: people from all genders like and love cars.

I’d known this since birth. Cars can be hella cool. You can then imagine my disappointment when, upon growing up, I’d learned that socioeconomic conditions and various cultural, market, and ‘act of god’ forces meant that by the time I was born, the pyramid had ‘Car Guy’ as its peak.

This has changed little in 40 years. :/

Considered individually, concepts such as the Fiat 850 Vanessa by Ghia are quirky and fun. Really, it is just a car with unique features a purple interior. Nothing to see here. Nothing to infer.

When considering Vanessa on a scale between fully women-led concepts such as the seemingly ageless Volvo YCC — to trim, paint, purse, and raincoat models like the Dodge La Femme made because the ‘Car Guys’ approved it (read: it was bound to make them money!) — this little Ghia seems closer to the Dodge approach than Volvo’s.

As you may have guessed from its name, the Vanessa was designed for women of that era, and includes enough woman-coded kit inside as if to pretend that both genders haven’t always worn makeup, raised children, or appreciated the convenience of an automatic transmission. 

It’s simply that here, in car land, the vibe I get is that Vanessa’s features could never be applied to a male-coded nameplate.

In addition to a semi-automatic IDROMATIC transmission (see below), the Vanessa concept had: 

• Integrated baby seats
• An opening side hatch to aid with loading shopping — take that, Hyundai Veloster and Saturn Ion Coupe
• Swiveling seats (to avoid awkwardly leaving the Vanessa while wearing a miniskirt!)
• "Safety backrests" for the front seats
• Padded drawers and cubicles in the dashboard for makeup and other accessories
• Carpet-lined front trunk
• All gauges removed; instead the speedometer is just a series of square lights that illuminate to indicate speed — making its dash look like a single row from a bingo card…
• A cigar lighter with ‘warning bell’
• A fire extinguisher that will also pump a flat tire
• Removable roof panel — a sunroof, baby!
• Interior fabric sourced from a single Grimace pelt