Fiat Multipla

Fiat Multipla at a glance

The Multipla sits in our Fiat catalogue next to the Bravo and Brava it was built from.

Design and concept

Roberto Giolito and the Fiat design centre started from an unusual brief: six seats, a short body and a wide cabin. The answer was a car 1,871 mm wide, almost as wide as a large executive saloon, but shorter than the three-door Bravo it was based on. The famous "step" below the windscreen, with a second row of lights at its base, is the visual result of a tall glasshouse placed on a low, wide body.

Fiat showed the concept at the Paris Motor Show in October 1996 and the production car at the IAA in Frankfurt in autumn 1997. Italian sales began in November 1998; most other markets followed about a year later. The name came from the 1950s Fiat 600 Multipla, a six-seat people carrier on the 600 platform.

At launch the press praised the cabin rather than the looks. Top Gear gave the Multipla its Car of the Year award in 2000, and Jeremy Clarkson's "Car Years" programme named it Family Car of the Moment in July 2000. In 1999 the Museum of Modern Art in New York included it in the exhibition "Different Roads: Automobiles for the Next Century".

Generations and model history

There was only one Multipla generation. Fiat kept the Type 186 in production for twelve years and changed its face once.

The 2004 facelift gave the Multipla a more conventional front end, meant to tone down the original styling and attract more buyers; Italian sales had been strong, sales elsewhere weaker. Length grew from 3,994 to 4,080 mm. Critics did not praise the new face either. The original SX and ELX trims were replaced by Dynamic, Dynamic Family and Dynamic Plus in June 2004.

In China, Zotye Auto assembled the Multipla from kits as the Multiplan from December 2008 to September 2010, then built a more localised version called the Langyue (M300) from October 2010. An electric M300 EV with a 35.2 kWh battery and about 201 km of range was used as a taxi; Zotye sold 220 of them.

Engines, transmissions and performance

Every Multipla has front-wheel drive and a five-speed manual gearbox. The common-rail 1.9 JTD delivers its 200 Nm from 1,500 rpm, which suits a car that often carries six people. The 1.6 petrol engine needs revs, with peak torque at 4,000 rpm.

The Multipla is also a footnote in alternative fuels. The Blupower version, launched with the car, was described as the first production car to run only on compressed natural gas: it had no petrol system at all, four cylinders held a nominal 35 kg of gas, and the range was about 670 km. The later Bipower could run on petrol or CNG, and Fiat also offered a petrol/LPG version (Gpower). These gas versions were built at Arese.

Dimensions, space and boot

The 3+3 layout is the whole point of the car. Rival compact MPVs of the time had two front seats; the Multipla had three across the front. All three rear seats could be folded, or taken out to turn the car into a van with 1,900 litres of space. With six seats in use the boot still holds 430 litres.

The width that makes this possible also has a cost in narrow streets and parking garages. Before buying, check a space with our garage fit tool.

Fuel economy and running costs

Our sources give no official fuel consumption figures for the Multipla, so we do not quote any. The useful published figure is the range of the CNG-only Blupower: about 670 km on its four gas cylinders. Running costs of a Multipla today depend mostly on the condition of the individual car and on local fuel and gas prices.

Trims and equipment

At launch the range had two trims. The SX was the basic model with petrol or diesel engines. The ELX added air conditioning, twin electric sunroofs, alloy wheels, electric rear windows and wipe-clean coloured seat fabrics. In June 2004, with the facelift, Fiat replaced them with Dynamic, Dynamic Family and Dynamic Plus.

Safety

Euro NCAP tested the Multipla in 2001. Our sources do not give the detailed scores, so we do not quote a star rating here; the result is in the Euro NCAP archive. Remember that a 2001 rating is not comparable with today's tests, which add pedestrian protection, active safety and many more crash configurations. For current figures, see our safety ratings section.

Reliability and known issues

We found no sourced data on specific faults of the Multipla, so we list none. As with any car built between 1998 and 2010, condition matters more than model year: look for service records, especially on the diesels, and inspect the gas tanks and certification on Bipower and Blupower cars.

Rivals

The table names the usual compact MPV competitors of the period without figures: our sources for this article cover only the Multipla. None of them offered three seats in the front row. You can put the Multipla next to any of them in our comparison tool.

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