Possibly a misbuild then?
I don't know about Fiat but VW have a habit of misbuilding cars, they 'forgot' to fit aircon to a number of 2000 New Beetles, so they were sold at a reduced price, and just last year they 'forgot' to fit the electric roof mechanism to a number of Beetle cabs, these were also sold at a discount.
Perhaps yours is something like that?