Fiat’s New Car Sounds Like A Combination Of The ‘World’s Ugliest Car’ And Subaru’s Weirdest Truck

I contain multitudes, or Multiplatudes. In my multi-platitude, I both love the Fiat Multipla and consider it one of the ugliest cars ever made. It might well be the ugliest car ever, but the proof is in the pudding, and its beauty and virtue are in its packaging. If you want to comfortably seat six people and their luggage in a car that’s considerably shorter than, say, a full-sized American wagon, there will have to be compromises in the way the thing looks. The original, reversing-teardrop-shaped Multipla from the 1950s and 1960s just packs people on the platform of a very small car, and the 1990s multi-purpose vehicle does the same, with a bulging design that’s based on a conceptually modular setup. Looking at it from the side, there’s a wheeled platform, and then there’s this glasshouse with headlights just sitting on top of it, with straight sides and large glass area.

Since the Multipla name is forever associated with weird design that puts packaging first, and which tops these Ugliest Cars lists, Fiat is sensibly betting on the brand and model name recognition. A while ago, the company announced the Topolino quadricycle would spawn a longer variant called the Multiplina, and an upcoming Paris Motor Show concept will now be called the Multiplay. The possible name variants are endless!

Let’s de-skew that:

In its short teaser-length statement, Fiat says it is “once again challenging convention” with the Multiplay concept, which combines the open load space and outdoor versatility of a pickup with the comfort and flexibility of an SUV. “An ingenious mechanism enables the vehicle to switch from one configuration to the other in just a few movements.”

Now, since no other image has yet been released other than the above teaser shot that shows the 1998 Multipla shape overlayed with the 1950s car, we’re free to think about this concept without restriction. If it is a passenger car with a load bed, that’s certainly something that’s been seen before, even with a variable configuration.

1998 Skoda Felicia Fun

The first thing that comes to mind is the similarly jolly Skoda Felicia Fun. One of the wackiest Eastern European cars ever, the Felicia Fun was basically a ute version of a front-wheel-drive Skoda hatchback, equipped with a movable rear wall and window that included jump seats.

You would simply move the wall towards the bed and lock the seats in place, and the car would now have space for rear passengers – as long as they didn’t mind being out in the open. Some canvas top setups were made, but those look fantastically ugly.

The Felicia Fun was only a sports utility vehicle in the lightest sense, in that it had some body-colored adventure plastics and a fake bull bar up front – but it was definitely fun. Just look at this guy having a blast assembling it at the Skoda factory.

Originally, Skoda had only planned to build 300 of them, but there was enough demand that over 4000 were produced in the end, between 1997 and 2001.

Apparently, the body kits could even be ordered in green or orange, creating something that really brings the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to mind. However, the spirit animal of the Felicia Fun was actually the crown prince frog from an old fairy tale. You know, kiss it, and it’ll turn into a yellow pickup.

2001 Toyota bB Open Deck

The other vehicle that immediately springs to mind is the Toyota bB Open Deck. At its heart, it was a Scion xB with a very short bed, but it also had a large degree of versatility. To be able to transport longer objects, the Open Deck’s tailgate could be lowered, and the rear wall opened, with the rear window opening up and the back panel dropping down into the bed.

By folding the rear seat and the passenger seat, a load area roughly the length of the closed-up car could be created, with chrome roof rails extending all the way to the bed corners. The Open Deck was only sold from 2001 to 2003, and they are quite rare. No LHD examples were produced, but some examples sometimes pop up outside Japan.

2002 Subaru Baja

Conceptually, the wording in the Stellantis teaser also reminds me of the Subaru Baja. Based on the early-2000s Subaru Outback, it was one of the more recent four-door utes with a usable 3.5-foot bed, which could also be extended to the passenger compartment thanks to the openable rear wall. The opening in the Baja isn’t huge, as it’s smaller than the folding rear seat usually created in sedans, but it gives versatility far beyond the load bed length. A cargo cover could also be fitted, to turn the Baja into … a sedan. Looks a bit SUS to me. 

With the Baja, you could also lower the tailgate and still secure your cargo using removable rails on top of the tailgate. With the rail setup, the bed was lengthened to five feet, and with the pass-through setup, it could accept some very long items. The Baja was designed in America, and while it didn’t sell spectacularly well (33,000 units between 2002 and 2008), it’s something that’s easily remembered when it comes to weirdly versatile SUV-based pickups.

The thing that’s shared with all these vehicles, apart from being offered in yellow, is that they are all from around 25 years ago. I really think this sort of free-spirited, modular, versatile design should be brought back, especially considering that “skateboard” EV designs should make crazier vehicle designs possible. And if you’re going to make a crossover, make it properly weird instead of something white with a taller ride height.

So, in your mind’s eye, you’re free to create something between the bulging, bulbous Fiat Multipla and the Subaru Baja, before Stellantis releases some actual images. Will it be pretty? Not likely. Will it be produced for sale? Not very likely either. Will it somehow look like the Fiat 500? Very likely. I can’t wait to see the final thing.

Top graphic images: Subaru; Adrian Clarke