A friend had a 126, each morning he would load the four schoolchildren by the door and then roll-back the canvas top and pass-in their schoolbags.

It was also quicker to reverse by putting a foot out the door than flapping the stick around the mushy gearbox trying to find reverse gear.

Standard accessory with those was a stick to poke the starter relay under the car :)

My parents met because my father wanted to do sort of a Grand Tour(well, not so grand given the vehicle) and my mother wanted to get to France, because she landed a job as an au pair, but she wanted to save on transport.

How they managed to get there(through Hungary) in this little two-stroke boggles the mind.

>in this little two-stroke boggles the mind.

Actually four-stroke (but two cyinders and air cooled, later a different water cooled version with a bigger and different engine was made in Poland).

The FIAT 126 is the "evolution" of the more famous (and older) FIAT 500 and uses almost exactly the same engine, with capacity increased from 500 cm3 to 600 or 650 cm3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_126

Better than a Trabant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8idecb8Ek

<spoiler>A similar thing happened to a Mini on a Top Gear episode filmed in India.</spoiler>