Future Classic Friday: Fiat Multipla

Craig Cheetham, contributor
Fri, 09 Aug 2024

There are many adjectives that can be applied to Fiat's 1999 revival of the Multipla name, perhaps the most complimentary of which would be 'brave'.

It certainly beats the Daily Telegraph's comparison of the car to a cartoon duck, or BBC Top Gear's 'Ugliest Car' award, which the fishfaced Fiat won for an astonishing four years in a row, before the Italian firm saw fit to redesign it. And at the same time remove its one USP.

After all, despite its challenging appearance, the Fiat Multipla is the only European car ever to feature in New York's Museum of Modern Art, where it was exhibited as an example of 'transport for the next century' in 1999.

Cast aside any prejudices and the curators had a point. The Fiat Multipla, after all, was a pretty unique concept. Based on the platform of the Fiat Bravo/Brava hatchbacks, it was both shorter and wider than the compact cars on which it was based.

Yet at the same time, it had incredibly useful interior space - seating for six, in two rows of three, with the central passengers on both rows set back to allow legroom and, critically, space for the driver to operate the dash-mounted gear lever and console controls.

Here was an MPV that answered the needs of most. It had the footprint of a small family hatchback, but thanks to high seats and enough headroom to accommodate the guests of a steampunk convention, it was incredibly comfortable and spacious. The ultimate expression, if you will, of function over form.

Fiat knew that the car wasn't going to win any beauty contests. Indeed, it celebrated the fact, with all of the Fiat Multipla press cars wearing a rear window sticker that read 'wait until you see the front'.

It was a car that grabbed attention. But unlike other similarly wacky executions, the Renault Avantime being a perfect example, it was also obscenely practical. Indeed, unless you absolutely needed seven seats, it was hard to beat.

Sales were, as can only be expected with such an ungainly face, steady at best. But those who bought a Fiat Multipla bought them for a reason - and generally loved them, too.

By 2003, just four years after launch, there was an owners' club. And today, the club thrives, with its very own 'Ugly Bug Ball' every year, where Fiat Multipla owners convene and compare the beauty of their, well, anything but their cars.

Sure, the Fiat Multipla is an acquired taste - but the it is also an incredibly brave and purposeful piece of design which more than deserves its place in motoring history. And, indeed, in the Museum of Modern Art...