[jai-uno-t]

time waits for no man, nor does a heavily pregnant wife, and the resulting little bundle of joy...small turbo charged hatchbacks, 2 seater sports coupes, 2 door mini SUVs, all well and good when it's just the two of you, less so when baby wants to come along, or you absolutely, postively have to guarentee you will arrive without the drama of a breakdown or tantrum from your ride.

with this in mind i set about looking to add to the fleet, yes i know i'm up to six cars, but the plan is to drop the pajero and x1/9, so...no you're right, 4 cars and 2 drivers is wrong. anyways, the search, japanese, middle aged boredom beckoned previas, frvs, crvs, nissan something or others, pfft.

time to head back to my automotive homeland, a country that knows how to get it's people moving cheaply, and with style:




yes, i did say style. despite the "challenging" looks, i have always been drawn to the mk1 multipla, 6 seats, 3 front, three rear, small footprint, but upright with a huge glass area. big boot, which gets enormous when you take out the rear row for a totally flat floor.

twin sunroofs, a/c, electric gizmos, 1.9 turbo diesel that pumps out 115bhp as standard, but not for long, oh no. a remap will release another 40 odd ponies, with a tidal wave of torque..

then it'll need new wheel and rubber, some touring car style multispokes i think, with upgraded spring and brakes, yes, it's a bit much for a daddy wagon, but then baby misha needs to get used to driving, world champions are made early

so what's it like to drive? well just four hours after picking up the frog, the wife went into labour, over the next week, the multipla did about 600 odd miles, not missing a beast, carrying us in comfort, with quite a bit of speed to and from the hospital, bringing baby home, then acting as a family airport taxi.

the space is a revelation in packaging, so nice to see the road ahead clearly without needing a suv, inside a full house of 6 footers would be fine, and the centre chair dropping to a table/armrest is just plain cool.

the final photo, opposite the wifes panda, shows the massive difference in size, the multi isn't that huge compared to other cars in its class, but still dwarfs the diddy panda.

[iFuel]

I'm sure you must have seen a lot of value for money and comfort in this vehicle, and going by what you did mention it seems like a good comfort traveler as well. However (just a personal opinion and I mean no harm to any one, lest of all to you) the design of this vehicle is a disaster, one of those kinds where the manufacturer didn't seem to have a clue what they were trying to build.
I had read somewhere about the most badly designed vehicles ever, and to me this one should feature in the top 5.
But then again, the space it offers and the 1.9 turbo diesel pumping out 115bhp which you plan to remap and add another 40 to it and the twin sunroofs certainly sound scrumptious to me.

[VeluM]

Originally Posted by jai-uno-t

yes, i did say style. despite the "challenging" looks, i have always been drawn to the mk1 multipla, 6 seats, 3 front, three rear, small footprint, but upright with a huge glass area. big boot, which gets enormous when you take out the rear row for a totally flat floor.

Glad you said it first! It definitely looks practical, with the huge boot space and 6 seats. But what exactly were the designers thinking - about both the inside and out!

Any details about the age, mileage, and cost?

PS. Loved the "Wait until you see the front" sticker at the back!

[cranky]

not missing a beast

So, what's for lunch?

Congratulations on the car. You sure it won't scare the baby? It's probably very comfortable and practical though and that's what matters at this point.

[jai-uno-t]

it's a 2002, 2 previous owners, 63k miles, cost £1200.

i think rather than design, which incorporates a lot of features to make life easier for family and moving then around, its more the styling that causes the public to reach for the sickbags.

honda had a go at the same layout, coming up with the frv, ok it's inoffensive, a minivan if you will, but so boring looking with no standout feature, it may as well not exist.

the multipla was watered down in the 2004 facelift, also becoming anonymous on the road. the mk1 frog though, scares children at 100m, curdles milk, and worries livestock, whilst wafting me about in diesel sipping comfort.

[sharma_sanjeevi]

@Jai-Uno-T, Fantastic Quirky looking acquisition of yours

Interiors, especially the Dashboard design looks out of this world. Never seen anything like this before. Do post some detailed pictures of the Interiors including the Dashboard.

Hows the JTD Engine ? i mean the refinement, performance and the fuel consumption etc. Can you give us some insight on the specifications of the engine.

[jai-uno-t]

i'm quite new to diesel ownership, but here goes..it's a 1.9L 4 cylinder common rail turbo diesel. depending on the trimlevel of you car, you got either 105, 110 or 115bhp, that's right all the same engines, just detuned by the factory, hence the need for a bit of chipping, 180 is doable, but a little too much, most settle for around 150bhp, with a good bit of torque thrown in.

fuel consumption Diesel - Urban: 35.3mpg; Extra Urban: 51.4mpg; Combined: 44.1mpg. CO2 emissions: 170g/km.

at the moment, on my first brim to brim tank, i got about 42mpg, mix of town, traffic, and m-way driving, hopefully some basic servicing will help improve that. including cleaning out the infamous exhaust gas return valve, which with coking up, strangles the engine, giving a little hesitancy in speeding up in the main.

[kaushikr]

@Jai-Uno-T, nice review. I am drawn to the car too! The styling is quirky but in an eye-catchy way. The newer version is pretty boring though.

Drive Safe!

[indivic]

Originally Posted by jai-uno-t

the mk1 frog though, scares children at 100m, curdles milk, and worries livestock, whilst wafting me about in diesel sipping comfort.

This was a car I would have loved to see in India, especially considering the way we travel. I remember Auto India doing a TD , IIRC in India way back.

I would still give an arm and leg to get one, having travelled in one in Europe. The FRV if I remember correctly did not have all full size seats.

Nice addition to T-BHP

Wonder who came up with those pimples on the cheek (lights at the base of the A-pillar)

P.S Its still not too late for Fiat to give it a reskinning and launch it in India...is someone listening

[infotech58]

man!! i must say this is quite a looker (did they take design clues from alien movies?). i just went upon looking at the dashboard. is this car still in production (since you bought a used one)?


apart from that, the specs look impressive. congrats a lot.

is it an AT transmission or a manual box?

[A M]

Ahem!! Ahem!! This is what Crazy Frog would look like if it was a car. This is one car that can feature in the weird and whacky thread in its stock form.

Nonetheless, the practicality and space is applaud-able. 1.9L JTD would be one helluva engine after chipping. How I wish to see this engine in Linea.

BTW, who was the designer?

[jai-uno-t]

this version was produced from 1998-2004, after which the smoothed out convential one was made. this one is a 5 speed manual, i can't remember who designed it, i don;t think it was one of the local design houses, may well have been central stile. the chassis is essentially that of a fiat bravo/a, marea variants.

it's strange as i was driving it around last week, i was thinking this would be the ideal people mover in india, 6 individual seats should take care of most situations. after all we were all there as kids, piled into the back of whatever dad, mum, uncle or family friend had, squashed up like sardines, and begging to be released!

[A M]

Thats true. It would be one of the best MUVs for India if priced right. 6 individual seats and loads of boot space plus a good diesel heart that puts out good performance and decent FE. What else we need. Regarding the looks, post face-lift, it looks average. If Dzire could be a hit in India why can't this.

Wish you a million happy miles with your ride.

[jai-uno-t]

a friend of mine was getting his bravo remapped today, so i decided to pop down to have a look as leigh got his map on...got chatting to the remap bloke, tony, ever friendly and helpful, who had previously rolling roaded my uno and alfa...and it just happened, so 115bhp and 150 lb ft, became 128bhp and 215 lb ft, not earth shattering stump pulling power, but certainly makes the mid range smoother in gears. pulls strong and clean, no hesitation.

although full throttle pegging on the rollers did reveal a bit of clutch slip.....

a little tweaking will be required...

[Blue Thunder]

I used to be in Milan when the Multipla was newly launched with the JTD engine. Actually, I liked this car when I first saw it : for it's practicality. Looks-wise: it was Ok; I was actually admiring the company for the courage in trying out such a radical design.
It was so humongously huge inside, such a wide viewing area and a very good engine. It used to be popular among there : could see entire families travelling in comfort during the weekends. Also, it was reasonably popular with the airport taxis-operators.