Manufacturer SEAT Class Large family car (D) Related | Production 1973-1982 Body style 4-door sedan Engine straight-4 | |
 | ||
The SEAT 132 is a four-door rear-wheel drive notchback saloon presented for the first time at the Barcelona Motor Show, assembled in Barcelona's Zona Franca, (Catalonia, Spain) and sold by SEAT between 1973 and 1982.
For the important taxi market, the 132 filled the niche vacated with the withdrawal in 1970 of the diesel-engined SEAT 1500, the 132 being usefully larger than the SEAT 124 which was SEAT's largest model during the early 1970s.
SEAT's new car shared its body with the Fiat 132, but when launched in May 1973 it featured its own engine options:
In 1976 an automatic transmission option was offered, which may have been a response to the success in Spain of the locally assembled and similarly enhanced Chrysler 2-litre.
From 1979 a SEAT 132 2000 became available, with a four-cylinder 1920 cc engine of 109 bhp (81 kW; 111 PS) : in due course a larger 2.2-litre four-cylinder Mercedes diesel version was also offered.
In the early 1980s extensive discussions concerning funding and control took place between the major share holder, the Spanish government, and Fiat: SEAT needed major capital investment which Fiat was not prepared to inject. The outcome, by 1982, was an end after nearly 30 years, to the relationship with Fiat. Already in 1981, Fiat having by now switched to their new Argenta model, production of the SEAT 132 ceased, after approximately 100 000 examples had been produced. No direct replacement in this class was, till recently, offered by the company. The SEAT Exeo can be seen as a belated replacement, however.