(first posted 8/28/2016) What a great shot: the Ur-minivan Fiat 600 Multipla along with America’s Ur-minivan, the Dodge Caravan. And where is a ratty but running 600 Multipla to be found curbside? In Berkeley, of course. Nicky D. shot it there on July 30th. The last time I saw a 600 Multipla curbside was in San Francisco; it might even have been the same one. But then SF and Berkely appreciated the Multipla for the oddity it was long before just about anyone else.
I did a full CC on a fully-restored Multipla here a few years back. But I had always rather hoped to find a ratty one on the curb like this. Like just about anything else, these vintage Fiats now bring big bucks and are very much worth restoring. Joe Potter, who restored the one I shot in my CC, specializes in rear engine Fiats.
The spare, which sits under the dash in front of the passenger’s legs, is missing here.
These were sold in the US, and in two versions no less; a three-row 6 seater, and a two-row 4-5 seater.
This one is obviously the three-row version, with the middle row seats removed. Makes for great leg room, or place to store junk.
Just the ticket for the multi-generational household, and their luggage.
I had a serious crush on these in my younger days; I so could have seen myself behind the wheel, with no seats in the back and a bed instead. Minimalist camper-mobile; one to make a VW bus look extravagant. I’d still be glad to have one now, as a vintage predecessor to my xB.
Of course, one would have to have a healthy 903cc engine back there, with dual exhaust pipes. Just like this one.
I assume the “600 all service” means you have to service it all the time! 🙂
And these are the cars that keep me coming back to this site every morning. Absolutely wonderful.
And it’s funny you mentioning a Fiat and the xB in the same article. Two weeks ago I traded in the mouse car (’05 xB) for a ’13 Fiat 500c Abarth. Did my first cars and coffee with it yesterday morning, and have already fallen in with the local Fiat/Abarth club.
First impressions are, “Maybe now I’ll finally quit wining about having traded in my 924S.” Yeah, it’s that good.
For some reason looking at this makes me want to write “mini van” with the words distinctly different. The Fiat and Chrysler pictured together reminds me of when minivan was truly smaller and lighter weight than the full-size behemoths they were supplanting.
Today’s crop of minivans are mini in prefix only.
Spot on. I chanced on a 1st gen Voyager yesterday; I was jogging hence not even a mobile phone to document how small it is in comparison with a lot of current cars, never mind minivans – an I’m in Europe…
Here in Australia we’ve never called them ‘minivans’, just vans. Of course, we never had your ‘full size’ vans to compare them to.
People mover was the term I remember from Aussie referring to Taragos and such vans.
An MPV – that’s what I’ve always read. Depending on its size a B-segment-, C-segment- or D-segment MPV.
In Britain a Minivan means one thing only…. The van version of the BMC / Leyland Mini.
West Berkeley is a gold mine for CC’s. So is the “jingletown” and 5th ave. neighborhoods of Oakland, along with the industrial areas of Richmond. The best of all is the entire island town of Alameda.
Grab your camera and good hunting east bay CC’ers.
About 10 years ago Murilee Martin documented numerous Alameda classic cars on Jalopnik.
I’m afraid I’ve never seen a Fiat 600 Multipla. I’ve seen pictures of the Multipla, but I’ve never seen one in person.
Gig Harbor WA right? I know someone who lives near YMCA Camp Seymour and they are still outside of the emissions testing zone as of 2013.
I remember seeing quite a few of these in Italy, summer of 69. The car like steering wheel angle is just right on this van, where you’d normally expect it to be more bus like as on a VW van. This van would be more space efficient if the back and front were switched around .You’d have a front engine, front wheel drive aerodynamic front, and a squared off rear with more luggage space and rear hatch. But at the time, Fiat probably wanted to save on production costs and share the rear end with the 500 sedan.
Woops , I meant to say the 600 Multipla shares the rear end with the 600 sedan, not the 500.
Interesting…grubby little car but the wheels look freshly painted. I’d hate to get hit by a Suburban while driving that car…
I just clicked on the restored/hotrodded one and I find this one SO much more appealing for some reason.
What would you like to get hit by a Suburban in?
That Fiat is worse than a VW van for safety. At least the VW is taller. If I had the Fiat , I’d install a roll cage inside
Kenworth or Freightliner would be my choice
We had quite a few wheezing around in Israel when I was growing up and, if I recall correctly, they were hardly thought of as something to aspire to; rather something you bought if you had a large family and could not stretch to a “proper” car like a Peugeot 403 or 403 station wagon (or an Opel Rekord, if you must). Also, even back then the chances of survival in a frontal accident with one of these were at the back of most people (they were notorious death traps). I understand good examples change hands here in Europe for €20K-€25K these days. Oh well.
We had some in Australia too. They weren’t common, but neither were they so rare you’d wonder what they were. A family around the corner had one, which replaced an early-fifties 1100.
Amazing, with the distances you have downunder. A trip from Melbourne to Sydney in one of those with Grey Ghosts charging by at 80-90 MPH is a terrifying thought…
Speed limit is much lower than that more like 65mph and Aussie cops are a humourless bunch they will nail you to a wall for 1or2kms over the posted limit
These were much in use in Italy as taxi-cabs, small on the outside but roomy on the inside.
And the great thing Paul rightly states is that indeed the 903cc Fiat 850 Special engine will easily fit.
Why would an American buy a small car like this when the US was dominated by hughe cars then?
I mean back in the days when de Soto’s, Edsels, Hudsons and Packards dominated the streets, I can imagine you’d not feel at ease in this little mousy!
We had its successor, the on tge 850 based T 900 as a panel van.
Cute, slow but an avantgarde Japanese Mini van
America is not just filled with Americans…and some of them like smaller cars too, and not just out of economic necessity. Otherwise VW, BMW, et al never would have gotten started over here.
I wager back in the days when Desotos, Edsels, Hudsons, and Packards dominated the streets, you’d be safer in a little tin can like this than you would nowadays. The average car may be smaller and behave better in the event of a collision, but SUVs and 4×4 pickups weren’t really a thing back in the 50’s and 60’s. At least the old beasts weren’t significantly taller than these Multiplas, whereas in a collision between a Multipla and a lifted F350 the pickup would probably end up running completely over the Fiat.
A recent IIHS study showed even modern, “safe” cars like Camrys do poorly in side-impact collisions with SUVs and pickup trucks.
https://www.iihs.org/news/detail/few-midsize-cars-excel-in-updated-side-crash-test
Thia car’s been featured elsewhere on the webs before, it seems to be a ’58 and belongs to a very well-known Alfa Romeo restorer. Should have peeked over the fence! And yeah, the East Bay is very fertile hunting ground for CC’s as mentioned above!
Thanks for the info! That makes a lot of sense, as I actually shot an Alfa wagon in almost the exact same spot last November.
That thing’s fantastic! Love the wagon version. If I’m not mistaken that’s pretty much just down the street from Wolfsport, the watercooled VW/Audi place that often has interesting VAG stuff outside or in their side lot.
That is CC gold!
There are a lot of Ratty Old Cars in Berkeley I see them all the time. I found this a few weeks ago
Yep! Here’s a link to California Streets about the same car:
http://californiastreets.blogspot.com/2014/02/berkeley-street-sighting-1957-fiat-600.html
and here’s an Autoweek feature on it:
http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/hauling-parts-1958-fiat-multipla
Not sure if you mean this fellow…http://www.eddinsmoto.com/index.htm
Even if not, I commend the pages under Engineering to your attention should you have some spare time and interest.
*VERY* cute/cool if a bit rough .
My Friend M. just sold his Multipla , it was Museum Quality and he was deathly worried about getting killed in it so I never got a ride / chance to drive it .
More’s the pity , I love odd ball and tiny vehicles of all stripes *if* they’re capable of actually driving and useful .
-Nate
Back in the ’70s, they were the types of cars one would find rotting in someones backyard, or for $100 in the local classifieds. Never saw a 600 Multipla in person, but back in my high school days, a friend and I used to dream about getting our first cars. My friend and I were with his folks on the way to his parents Eastern-Shore farm for the weekend when we spotted a decaying backyard Fiat 600 from Rt 50. On a later trip, we stopped to ask. “Not for sale!” was the brusque reply.
I’m sure that car was eventually crushed, shredded, and shipped to Korea or Hong Kong to be recycled into cheap tools or kitchen-wares for K-mart!
Am I the only one that realized these two cars are now made by the same company ?
Very awesome catch indeed I am glad to see one of these still on the road. I seriously doubt I will find a Fiat 600 in Portland, OR. I love the vintage Cali plates as well. That is actually a Plymouth Grand Voyager behind the Fiat; Carfax says it is a 1994 which was the first year for dual airbags and side impact beams.
There’s a guy in Portland that specializes in rescuing, rehabbing & collecting small orphan imports of the ’50s and ’60s. His videos are all over You-Tube. I’ve seen the ones for his Renault Dauphine, Subaru 360 and DKW. I’ll check to see if he has any Fiats.
Incredible find! I never knew these were sold stateside.
The only thing better than a genuine curbside classic is a beater extra-rare curbside classic like this. Great find.
I think you won the Beater CC trophy with that Alpine A310, Don.
The only one of these Ive seen in the metal was restored and mint, most of them seem to have been rescued though one in basket case condition turned up or trade me recently.
I went to elementary school with a kid whose dad drove a 600 Multipla. I suspect I rode in it once or twice. This would have been about 1962 or 1963. In Oakland.
I never saw a 600 in the states, but I did see several of them in the Canal Zone of Panama. My Dad’s go to work car there was an 850 Spyder until it became unsafe from rust (no floor pan left). He then switched to an old scooter.
Paul,both my Fiat Multipla people movers were the two bench seat models and in those you didn’t need a mattress in the back.Undo two sliding bolts on the rear seat back and it folded towards the rear.Similarly unbolt the front seat backrest,lift it slightly and it also folded to the rear and making a fully upholstered bed almost the length of the interior.I slept in mine many times.The rear seat backrest could also be folded forwards to create a perfectly flat loadspace. I have researched Multiplas and have not seen any with the clear plexiglass,plastic curved sections which fit over the rear section of the glass in the front doors.The 1963 600D Multipla still had those and years later I read that the sections diverted the airflow so that driver and front passenger did not get cold air coming in around their necks.They worked.I have a copy of Popular Mechanics magazine,July 1958, with a Multipla on the front cover and a headline which reads “Fiat Station Wagon-The Shape of Cars to Come?”.The price in US dollars was $1600.Even when fully loaded a Multipla is a vehicle in which you must remain on high alert.All other cars will overtake you because they are slow and families will slow down and drive in the lane adjacent to you to stare at the weird machine.That action means the traffic behind them also has to slow,not much fun in busy Sydney traffic.The worst part was when you were passed by a semi trailer on your right hand side,the volume of air the truck and trailer pushed as it passed would,seriously,push the front of the Multipla to the left.You had to be ready to make a steering correction to the right and to the uninitiated,it was quite scary.In pics the front windscreen almost appears as flat glass,but in reality it had a curve like a fishbowl.Every man woman and child who were passengers in mine loved the experience.They all commented on how such a small car externally could have so much space internally.The children and adults liked the way almost everyone waved,yelled out “you’re going back to front” and usually broad smiles or big laughter.They were fun cars.
Here’s a restored Multipla at the Little Car Show which I posted about yesterday. The sign on the front bumper describes it as the “grandmother of modern minivans”. As I commented above on the original post, I rode in a classmate’s 600 Multipla carpooling a few times in Oakland in the early sixties. And in 2004 I rode in a friend’s modern Multipla in France … in the front center seat, no less.
No way I’d ever ride in the front seat of that car and the same with the VW Bus. The whole time I would be focused on whether I am going to lose my legs.
I had a beatu VW van it had rearended a Valiant taxi previously and not been repaired other than the LH light replaced the LH door didnt work but it had held u really well, they are stronger than you think.
As a fan of tiny unusual cars, this has always been a favourite of mine. One of the TV streaming services just add the original Saint series from 1962, with Roger Moore. I watched the first couple of episodes and the second one is set in Rome and a major character is a taxi driver. Of course he drives a Multipla.
THANX Dman ! .
I love these and tried hard to get a ride in the pristine one my friend had, he said it was too dangerous to drive anywhere and eventually sold it on .
I know w young man who lost his legs below the knees when some random woman (she was no ‘lady’ !) hooked a left in front of his 1957 VW # 211 3/4 ton panel truck I had just made run again .
I drove those air cooled VW Vans all across America many times, yes I was concerned but I believe in defensive driving and so far have never wrecked one .
I’d fill the tank to get a ride in a Multipla .
-Nate
Found this perfectly restored one at the European vintage and classic show in Calgary this July. Size: I’m only 5′ 8″ …
“Best of show” imho.
Resized