Fiat Multiplay: the 3-in-1 car

Erm… what is it?

It’s ostensibly a six-seat people carrier that can transform into a four-seat lifestyle pick-up truck on a whim, all flavoured with SUV overtones.

Nope, us neither.

Right. So what details have you got?

Precious few. Fiat itself has a somewhat vague and unhelpful statement, which says: “Multiplay reimagines mobility for a new era, exploring how a vehicle can adapt seamlessly to the evolving needs of modern life.

“Combining the versatility of a pickup with the comfort and flexibility of an SUV, it challenges traditional automotive categories through a configurable architecture designed around people and shared experiences.”

That adds nothing. Care to hazard a few guesses?

Right, well the Multiplay’s name is obviously a direct riff on the Multipla MPV of 1996-2010, which in turn was named after a variant of the old Fiat 600 from the 1950s and ‘60s.

That more-recent car was a startlingly, astoundingly ugly thing in its original guise, although we soon came to appreciate its revolting, ‘dolphin-nose’ aesthetic in a kind of rooting-for-the-underdog manner – until Fiat disgracefully sanitised it in 2004 with a facelift that introduced the blandest of the bland front ends.

Anyway, the Multipla’s trick was that it was a six-seater, and so is the Multiplay concept shown in Paris. Ignore Fiat trying to say the new one is a ‘6+1’ – there’s no way you’d get seven people in here, unless at least three of them were Borrowers.

The difference is, the 2026 show car has its seats arranged in three rows of two, while the old gargoyle of an MPV had them arranged in two rows of three.

The reason for the Multiplay’s more line-astern configuration comes with its configurable rear module.

A whole section of the roof can slide forward, shortening the cabin to a four-seat layout and, with the rear-most chairs tucked into an underfloor area beneath the boot/load bed, thus convert the Fiat into a pick-up truck.

Into this area, you can then load any number of lifestyle accoutrements, like e-bikes or surfboards, or alternatively you can just clag it up with a load of household waste you lug to the tip – because little anti-slip devices rotate up out of the floor in pick-up mode.

You mentioned a Citroen earlier. Why?

If you can’t remember the C3 Pluriel, it’s probably for the best. That was the last time any manufacturer tried to offer three vehicles in one, and nobody took to it.

Mainly because, to get it into one of its configurations, the stupid Citroen required you removing two huge arch-like edifices from either side of the car, which could then not be carried with you. And so the whole thing was highly susceptible to crap weather.

We’re still not sure where Fiat gets ‘three’ vehicles for the Multiplay from, as its roof doesn’t open up to make it a convertible, but we’ll give the Italians the benefit of the doubt here.

We think they’re desperately trying to denote the show car as an SUV and a pick-up as two separate entities.

Don’t you like the Multiplay?

Aah, it’s all right, we suppose. We’re quite taken with its blocky form and, while nowhere near as hideous as the 1996 Multipla, it’s certainly no smoothed-off attempt at a looker on the outside either.

Meanwhile, the interior is pretty funky and has a clean front interface, clearly inspired by the joyous cabin you’d find in the current Fiat Grande Panda.

But this Multiplay machine is about as likely to make production as… as… well, as we are to head onto Carzone.ie and look up a decent C3 Pluriel to buy.