Let's Do Multipla

It was ten years ago when the motoring journalists broke into a collective grin and voted the Fiat Multipla their car of the year. There were more attractive vehicles out there, some astounding bits of engineering, glamour and status. But the Multipla was amusing and functional and it was made for legendary drives with the family.

The designers had placed the gear stick on the dashboard, allowing space for a third seat at the front. That's six seats in only two rows and all of them were cantilevered and swish, allowing them to turn into ad hoc tables or to be removed completely. Meantime the top of the car was bulging ourwards, letting the passengers gaze out of this mobile fish bowl. The Multipla was the Captain Beefheart of people carriers, peculiar and bold and not fussed about winning the next beauty contest.

We saw our first Multipla in Spain around the summer of 2000 and we were infatuated. It was like a giant Mister Man car, And the face (which all great cars posess) was wholely convivial. So a few years later we saved up for our first version, a gleaming black model that was unfortunately mistaken for a taxi on several late night journeys back from the BBC. So now we have a blue one that's frankly getting a bit shabby, but which still brings good humour to the team.

Sadly, the Multipla was redesigned a few years ago, and now it looks like it wants to be cool. It's vaguely streamlined and I'm not so impressed. Meantime, prices for the old versions are plummeting, which would suggest that demand has lessened. Still, I hear there's a Chinese production model out there, and I sincerely hope that they all enjoy the ride.

Some day I will get the MG in racing green and a tweed cap to complete the Leslie Philips ensemble. Not sure that I'm exactly ready yet...