Identify This European Car

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But practical
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Originally Posted By: antonmnster
Top Gear did a somewhat funny episode on them. Saw a bunch of them on vacation.


IIRC, along with the predictable crack at its looks, they (or maybe just Clarkson) said it was the most (or even only) practical people carrier available.
 
If you can past the looks its actually a decent people mover, my neighbor had one that ran on CNG, talk about long OCI.
It ran amazingly well on CNG and was allowed in zero emissions area's. After 08 or 09 IIRC it is made in China.
 
my aunt had a 2000 Fiat Multipla JTD - wheres as I refused to be seen in that car it was indeed the most practical car I've ever seen.

As far as I remember shorter than a Golf IV, but it had 6 full size seats (3 seats in 2 rows) including decent luggage space.

Engine wise, the JTD survived 500.000km with neglected minimal maintenance without any issues. During that half a million km it never left my aunt stranded anywhere and other than the usual consumables nothing else had to be replaced. At the end you could see the mileage on the exterior which was never been cared for and the drivers seat which had a small hole. The dashboard got tacky after 450.000 km, but I can't rule out that cleaning with household cleaning supllies was the cause.

At the end, after 500.000km every button in this car worked, the automatic windows worked (never replaced anything) and the AC worked too.

So whenever I think about a rock solid car - then my aunts Multipla comes to my mind.

When it was sold it still ran fine - the only reason for selling it was simply my aunt wanted a newer car. With a little investment in the exterior, fixing the front seat and getting a second hand good condition dashboard as well as a clutch replacement I think that car would have been great for a lot more miles.

From what I've heard from my aunts mechanic, the car is still somewhere in the area, has a new clutch, the paint has been touched up and polished , a replaced dashboard with a low mileage second hand one and has a little over 800.000km on it now. Compression still above average, well above the limit. I'm sure that car will reach a million kilometres.

Oil changes were usually done late, oil used was whatever was readily available cheap. These engines are almost indestructible. I once had a 3 door red Fiat Stilo with the same engine when I made my drivers license - but I sold it because it had no air-conditioning. I still miss that car.
 
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Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Fiat Multipla.
One of my neighbors has one and i have to endure seeing it every day
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About 2001/2002, I said to my wife, European cars are ugly. I was sitting at a small hotel on the shore of Lake Annecy, counting the ugly vs good looking cars. Only the Mercedes, Peugeot 607, Renault Laguna, a few Alfa's and VW's (sedans with trunks) were good looking.
In 2006, I returned from a European trip and said, "European cars not as ugly as they were". Then it dawned on me, it's not that their cars got better looking, but that our cars now look like their cars. Ugly. Look at the Juke, Soul, even domestic SUV's.

I guess it's true, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". I
 
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