F***d It Again Tony
Fiat Multipla facelift sketch. Probably

F***d It Again Tony

Turning your unique product into one more like your competitors' won't give you their sales, but it may well lose you yours

Fiat Multipla photo by Andrew Bone

The Fiat Multipla is a divisive car. To many it is an ungainly, weird, monstrosity of a car, but to the initiated it is a work of genius. To those of us who see car design as first and foremost packaging, the Multipla is brilliant. It had two rows of three seats in a wide airy cabin that allowed the not entirely uncommon 2+4 family to have a compact car with room for all the kids without any of them taking up the luggage space in an inaccessible and often dangerous 3rd row. It allowed a 2+3 family to take a friend or grandparent along, and its cleverly reconfigurable interior was incredibly flexible and practical for both work and leisure. It did everything that people buy SUVs for, with the added bonus that it could actually do those things. The styling was honest and full of character. It didn't try to hide its wide and tall slab-sided proportions, its designers took that and ran with it to the ultimate conclusion. It looked like a Fiat Punto had dropped from the sky and landed on a Mondeo but it was conceived and resolved in a very considered way; the entire car, packaging and styling together, was very deliberate. It wasn't pretty but it wasn't trying to be. And I loved it for that. It drove surprisingly well too, the wide track and low centre-of-gravity giving it a much sportier feel than its appearance suggested.

It did everything that people buy SUVs for, with the added bonus that it could actually do those things


Facelifted Fiat Multipla

But I don't want to talk about the Multipla and explain or justify its brilliance. I want to talk about the mess that Fiat made when they facelifted it. A whole book could be written about how consistently and reliably Fiat ruined every great design they ever made by facelifting it. They did it to the Ritmo/Strada, they did it to the Punto, and they did it perhaps worst of all to the Multipla. And every time it was the same mistake. They took a fresh design, full of character and personality, and tried to tone it down and make it more conservative in a futile attempt to improve sales volumes. They looked around them and saw that more conventional looking alternatives were selling better and mistakenly conjectured that if only their own car was more normal it would sell better too. Their base mistake was in failing to appreciate that one of the reasons people bought it in the first place was because it was different, and not despite it being unconventional. Stripped of everything that gave it character, what you were left with was a still cleverly packaged car, but one even more awkwardly trying to look normal rather than wearing its individuality with pride.

A whole book could be written about how consistently and reliably Fiat ruined every great design they ever made by facelifting it

It is not only Fiat who have been guilty of this. Citro?n did it to the Cactus when they removed the Airbumps. Entire brands, like Saab, have vanished completely after they chased mainstream acceptance at the expense of the very reason that people chose them over their competitors. The fundamental failure was to go down the commodity product route rather than play to their strengths. Apple tried to do it in the 90s, to compete with lower cost lesser products instead of appreciating that people need a reason to buy from you. Apple's great comeback product, the original iMac, really embraced their Think Different ethos, and the company grew massively on that basis.

Their base mistake was in failing to appreciate that one of the reasons people bought it in the first place was because it was different


Original Fiat Ritmo photo by Stribrohorak

The redesigned Multipla of 2004 did not rejuvenate sales, just as putting conventional grilles on the Ritmo and Punto hadn't. This strategy of becoming more mainstream never works. You don't take sales away from the established conservative brands, you just lose the sales that you were making to the people who appreciated your alternative approach. Nobody wants that diluted product, they will buy those from whoever is selling it cheapest, they come to you for what makes you special.

Nobody wants that diluted product, they come to you for what makes you special

This is as true of companies and products as it is of people. If you are different then embrace it. Pretending that you're not and trying to act normal won't fool anyone. Dye your hair, wear those bright socks, and buy cars like the Multipla. Because if you don't they'll stop making them. And we'll all be poorer for that.

Nir Kahn is the Director of Design for?Plasan?and has been responsible for vehicle design in the company for 20 years, including the design of the Navistar MaxxPro MRAP, Oshkosh M-ATV and JLTV, the?Plasan SandCat and Yagu, and many others

Yoel Avisror

Automotive / Industrial / Concept / Advanced design /

2 年
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Stefano Ceppi

Consultant in Industrial & Vehicle Design, Advanced Design, Identifying Market Trends. Also UX designer and ID lecturer.

2 年

I have the pleasure to work with Giolito In Fiat and the "fixed it again Tony" doesn't sound kind or professional. Simply the market was not ready for such car, The "acceptation point" was not reached. This car was designed inside out. People like most conformity things, therefore there are so many similar boring cars around.

Simon Spearman-Oxx

Retired Automotive Senior Designer

2 年

When cars look conventionally exciting it’s the car that gives the dopamine rush but the rush comes from the things the Multipla enables you to do. Sadly , most people don’t want to have to explain why they’ve chosen to buy a particular car from new.

Brian Clough

Former Senior Lecturer and Course Director in Automotive and Transport Design at Coventry University (retired but open to new professional challenges)

2 年

The first Multipla was an holistic and original design influenced by the 'double decker' styling of Guigiaro's 1982 Capsula concept. Multipla Mk1 was quirky but strangely attractive with styling to suit the package. Sticking on a conventional corporate nose and blending this into the windscreen was never going to work with these proportions and made it anonymous. I'm tempted to cite the story of Jennifer Grey (Baby in 'Dirty Dancing') who suffered a similar fate after nose surgery to look more conventional: https://www.nickiswift.com/267046/heres-how-plastic-surgery-damaged-jennifer-greys-career/

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