Fiat Multipla 1.9 JTD ELX Review

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Fiat Multipla 1.9 JTD ELX
3.9 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.9 out of 5

From 0 ratings and 7 reviews

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cyrilsj's Review of Fiat Multipla 1.9 JTD ELX

23rd Nov 2008

Overall Rating

4 stars
  • Value for money
    4 stars
  • Length of ownership
    5
  • Performance
    3.5 stars
  • Reliability
    3.5 stars
  • Year Manufactured
    2003
  • Doors
    5
  • Practicality
    4.5 stars
Good Points

Styling is unique (shame about the new one)
Superbly practical overall design
Fun (honest) handling
Surprising luggage space even with all the seats in use
Decently economical and reliable


Bad Points

Dealer is scarily bad
Electrics are erratic
Rear seats are heavy and a pain to remove
Wide (I've scratched mine in car parks twice)
Missing some of the practicality details
Too light!
Poor quality seat fabrics


General Comments

The Fiat Multipla is a design classic - no other car that I have driven fulfils the need to transport up to 6 people + luggage in quite the same way. For example, the vertical sides give plenty of shoulder room and stop drips from landing on the seats in the rain. The 3x3 seating gives a short car that, width allowing, is easy to manoevre. The space frame chassis gives a low centre of gravity, and the firm suspension and the width add up surprisingly fun handling. And while minor bits have broken down it has never left me on the roadside.
My main gripe is with our local Fiat dealer. For each repair I noiw book it in three times; once so they can fail to bodge a quick repair, once so they can order the wrong part and once to actually fix it. Otherwise, the rear electric boot release has not worked since I bought it (dealer repair attempts pointless), the seat fabrics wore very quickly and it lack s some of the clever family touches of, say, a C4 Picasso such as easy rear seats and enough cubby holes.
However, overall it has been my favourite car of the past 20 years. Put it this way, twice we have bought cars to "replace" the Multipla as our main family car, and the Multipla is still here while the replacements are gone. We have just bought a much newer and posher CRV because we are looking to buy a caravan (the Multipla is too light to tow a family sized 'van -hence my point above), but no prizes for guessing which keys I reach for in the morning.

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