In 1998, contemporary reviewers hailed the multi-purpose Fiat’s flexibility, the visibility from the driver’s seat and its three seats in the front row, allowing parents to shuttle one more than the usual maximum of three kids. Photos: dpa/Fiat
The Fiat Multipla has the dubious honour of being the world’s ugliest car, yet 25 years after its bulging, bug-eyed front end jolted the automotive world, fans are rallying round.
What was once the butt of jokes from the showroom floor to the scrapyard is on the way to becoming a cult classic. It seems the Multipla has gotten better with age, like so many once- maligned models.
Only two years ago Germany’s huge ADAC motoring club put it top of the list of the world’s 20 ugliest cars, noting unkindly: “It has nevertheless found a place in the hearts of those with no taste.”
In 2018, Britain’s Sunday Times named it on a list of ugliest cars, saying, “the tragedy of the Multipla is that its Elephant Man-esque exterior enclosed a genuinely clever and spacious interior, and it wasn’t bad to drive, either. It’s a shame, then, that you’d rather walk than be seen in it.”
Since then, there seems to have been a change of heart as motoring pundits take a fresh look at the Multipla amid a flood of modern car designs, many of which are far from pretty.
“This is a car that was doomed because it looked weird, and, fundamentally, I think that’s unfair,” wrote Jason Torchinksy on the Jalopnik car website.
“Weird isn’t necessarily ugly, and, even more so, this was a car that wasn’t weird just for its own sake, but was weird-looking because it prioritised interior volume and utility. It was weird for a reason, and, it embraced its own weirdness without shame,” said the writer.
‘Wait until you see the front’ was the marketing slogan directed at people looking at the Multipla’s unusual rear.
For the record, the ungainly Pontiac Aztek from the TV series Breaking Bad nearly rivals the Multipla at No.2 in the ugliest car stakes, but it never received as much publicity.
Rewind back 25 years to 1998 and contemporary reviewers hailed the multi-purpose Fiat’s flexibility. It had full-sized seating for six adults in two rows of three abreast. Added to that was loads of luggage space in a surprisingly compact package, measuring just over 4m in length.
Some far-sighted critics said back then that one should never judge a book by its cover and even the irreverent British TV programme Top Gear recently concluded: “Ordinary is boring, and the Fiat Multipla was anything but that.”
The Multipla also won plenty of plaudits from the automotive media, and was pronounced Top Gear’s Car of the Year 2000.
Images of the car were even displayed at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York during its “Different Roads – Automobiles for the Next Century” exhibition in 1999.
However, the public voted with their wallets and spent their money elsewhere, which led to a full facial restyle in 2004.
The restrained result was as humdrum-looking as every other MPV and the model was dropped six years later. It lived on in China until 2013 as the Zotye M300 Langyue.
Multipla’s designer Roberto Giolito recently defended his work in an interview with British-based car mag Auto Italia. The car was named after the egg-shaped Fiat Multipla original which first appeared in 1956.
“Giving the car a unique appearance was as important as its functionality,” he told the mag. “The best designs are the one that are truest to a vehicle’s purpose. Take the Land Rover. It doesn’t do anything it doesn’t need to and is perfect as a result. An old 2CV is just the same.”
Giolito, who heads Fiat’s heritage department, said secondhand Multipla were still popular with students on road trips, with flea market sellers and admirers of its bold styling. They are also cheap to buy.
“In the longer term, it is one of my favourite designs to have worked on and shows Fiat at its very best. We got noticed, we caused a stir, we got a lot of attention and we created a headline-grabbing car that was great at what it did. I’m proud of that!”
German Multipla owner Matthias Malmedie has made some YouTube videos about his experiences with a used Multipla, but has mixed feelings about the image it projects.
The Multipla turns heads but sometimes for all the wrong reasons. He recounts an incident when a car in the Netherlands overtook him and he could see the occupants laughing their heads off and slapping their thighs in mirth.
“That had never happened to me before,” said Malmedie. “I mean, it’s humiliating!” – dpa/Martin Bensley
