• Home
• About Us
• Advertise
• Featured Road Test Reports
• Popular Road Test Reports
• Submit A Report
• Test Drive Guide
• News

Fiat

Tuesday, 6th of January 2009

Polls

With 120bhp, good torque and less weight than most similarly-sized MPVs, the 1.9-litre MultiJet powered model provides eager performance. As with so many modern turbodiesels, the Multipla’s on-the-road performance isn’t properly reflected in its 0-62 and top speed performance figures; in this case 12.2secs and 111mph. However, in the real world this Fiat has all the urge, flexibility and driveability that a family MPV driver could reasonably expect. Assuming you haven’t too a heavy payload, then it can zoom a way from the lights, slog uphill without shuffling gears and comfortably cruise at near three-figure speeds.

With its unusual, rigid ‘spaceframe’ chassis, the Multipla is lighter on its feet and more nimble than your average MPV. And because it has a wider track than most with minimal body overhang, there’s loads of grip and less body roll when cornering than is the norm. Being able to seat six adults (plus luggage) means the Multipla’s suspension has to be able to handle significant weight so its suspension can sometimes feel a little firm when unladen, but with unusually responsive steering, the Multipla is much more of a driver’s car than its looks might suggest.

Having owned a Multipla from nearly new, I have substantially more experience here than with almost all of the hundreds of other cars I’ve tested (most of which have been new, immaculately prepared press test cars), and I have to report that my Multipla has not proved as robust and dependable as I’d have wished. Having said that, my various press test Multiplas have been faultless while my car has had an exceptionally hard life. I know that a number of issues have been addressed and improved on post ‘06 models and, in my experience, Fiat dealers’ customer care has improved greatly in recent years.

As we all know, it’s best not to have an accident in the first place, and the Multipla helps significantly in this respect by having a raised driving position coupled with a huge glass area which provides unusually good all round outward vision, while large, ‘bi-focal’ electric rear view mirrors also help. The Eleganza version comes with six airbags as standard, and all models come with three front seatbelts with pre-tensioners and load limiters, three 3-point inertia reel belts in the rear, Isofix child seat mountings and a fire prevention system which automatically cuts fuel supply in the event of an accident. ABS with EBD is also standard, as is remote central locking, an alarm and engine immobiliser.

Surprisingly, the Multipla’s very clever 3+3 seating arrangement wasn’t thought up by a family man with a wife and four kids, but by a young cello player with musician friends and no wife or kids. But whatever, the net result is quite simply the cleverest, most useful and most versatile piece of MPV design since…, well, ever. Its six seats are compact but no less comfortable than any other similarly-sized MPV’s, and the Multipla’s interior is vast. The huge rear tailgate and opening reveals a flat-floor loadspace of 430 litres, rising to 1,300 litres with rear seats folded and tumbled forward, rising again to a massive 1,900 litres with all three rear seats removed. In short, nothing comparable even comes close, 6-seater Honda HRV included.

Some Multipla owners use their car as a utilitarian minibus-cum-van, while others might opt for the more luxurious trappings such as a twin screen DVD player, Bluetooth phone connectivity and a fridge in place of the middle front seat. Whichever, even the top-of-the-range Eleganza 1.9 doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to run with group 10 insurance, 164g/km CO2 emissions and 45.6mpg (combined). And its looks? Well, form should follow function, not the other way round, so the Multipla looks like it does, not through poor design or shallow pretense, but because for its size it’s still far and away the most space-efficient and practical car on the market.

• Chrysler Grand Voyager road test
• Citroen C4 Picasso 2.0 Hdi road test
• Volkswagen Sharan road test
• Ford Focus C-MAX road test
• Ford Galaxy road test
• SEAT Altea road test
• Nissan Qashqai+2 road test
• Volkswagen Golf Plus road test
• Mercedes-Benz R-Class road test
• Ford S-MAX road test

• Fiat 500 road test
• Fiat Bravo Eco 1.6 Multijet 105 road test
• Fiat Grande Punto road test
• Fiat Panda 4x4 road test

Submit a Road Test Report

* First Name :

Surname :

* County / Country : Select county / country England Bedfordshire Berkshire Buckinghamshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cornwall Cumberland Derbyshire Devon Dorset Durham Essex Gloucestershire Hampshire Herefordshire Hertfordshire Huntingdonshire Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire London Middlesex Norfolk Northamptonshire Northumberland Nottinghamshire Oxfordshire Rutland Shropshire Somerset Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Sussex Warwickshire Westmoorland Wiltshire Worcestershire Yorkshire   Scotland Aberdeenshire Angus (Forfarshire) Argyllshire Ayrshire Banffshire Berwickshire Bute Caithness Clackmannanshire Dumbartonshire Dumfriesshire East Lothian (Haddingtonshire) Fife and Kinross Shires Hebrides Inverness-shire Kincardineshire Kirkcudbrightshire Lanarkshire Lothians Mid-Lothian (Edinburghshire) Moray (Elgin) and Nairn Shire Orkney Islands Peebles-shire Perthshire Renfrewshire Ross and Cromarty Shires Roxburghshire Selkirkshire Shetland Islands Stirlingshire Sutherland West Lothian (Linlithgowshire) Wigtownshire   Wales Blaenau Gwent Bridgend Caerphilly Cardiff Carmarthenshire Ceredigion Conwy Denbighshire Flintshire Gwynedd Isle of Anglesey Merthyr Tydfil Monmouthshire Neath Port Talbot Newport Pembrokeshire Powys Rhondda Cynon Taff Swansea Torfaen Vale of Glamorgan Wrexham   Northern Ireland County Antrim County Armagh County Down County Fermanagh County Londonderry County Tyrone

* Make :

* Model :

Year Of Make : Select year of make 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950

Variant :

* Star Rating : Select star rating 1 2 3 4 5

Write your report here...

* Required