When Function Simply Can't Overcome Bad Fashion

Those of you who have visited me here in Italy, have had me point out and rail against what I deem to be the UGLIEST car ever built, the late 1990's version of the Fiat Multipla.

When I see the car, I can spot it even from the rear, it sends shivers down my spine.....because I have to look at the front, even if I don't want to, I am simply unable to NOT look at what you are about to see.....

The front of the Fiat Multipla has not two, but THREE sets of lights.  The lower two, aren't so bad, but it's that set right below the windshield that makes the car look like fat man with three chins.  Plus the top set of lights are slightly pointed to the outside, making it look even more "not normal"

I saw four Mulitpla's within 30 minutes today and I took pictures of all of them.  Here, looking from the side, I think gives a better idea of what's going on.  It is as if Fiat took a previously designed top and bottom parts of different cars and plopped them together.  They didn't in anyway help bring the two sections together.  For a country SO obsessed by the "bella figura", Italy's leading car maker produced and "EPIC FAIL"

Yes, the answer is yes, I've actually ridden in a Fiat Multipla.  Because of their size and spaciousness inside, they are often the choice of taxi cabs in Rome.  The car seats six comfortably, but even the door handles, so bulky and seemingly like safety bars in a shower, are unattractive.

Another of the Multipla's I saw, gives the FULL effect of the heinousness of this car.  I'm not sure if this car was a different year/model, but it gives the complete "shivers down the spine" effect for me. 

Lastly, I did an internet search on the Fiat Multipla and it came up as Time Magazine's 50 Worst Cars of all-time.  Here's the write-up:


"Multipla" is a time-honored name for Fiat. The company made an adorable microvan by that name in the '50s and '60s, based on the Fiat 600. The Multipla that appeared in 1998 was anything but adorable. With its strange high-beam lenses situated at the bottom of the A-pillars (base of the windshield), the Multipla looked like it had several sets of eyes, like an irradiated tadpole. It had this weird proboscis out front and a bulky, glass cabin in back, and the whole thing was situated on dwarfish wheels. I rented one of these in Europe and it worked beautifully, but it was just so tragic to look at. The Multipla (and the Aztek and the Consulier GTP) reminds us that cars cannot just work beautifully. They have to be beautiful. At least they can't look like this."

I could not have said it any better!