While the urban environment required small-sized vehicles, the customers asked for large enough cars where four adult-sized occupants could sit in comfort.
That was a tough one.

When Fiat built the Multipla, everyone complained about its design, and the car managed to rank as the second-placed ugliest car in the world after Pontiac Aztek. In Europe, it was the ugliest car ever! No one cared about its ability to carry up to six people in a vehicle short enough to park everywhere. Fiat learned its lesson and developed the Idea, an MPV built on top of a small-segment platform.

Fiat tried again to offer a spacious car in a small-sized vehicle, and this time the Idea was right. Even though it was tall, it didn’t look like a pile of smoothed bricks placed on top of the other. The tall front fascia with Punto-like headlights and grille was followed by a short hood and a big windshield. On the sides, the tall door panels took more than half of the doors’ height. Fiat installed vertically mounted taillights in the back, but not placed as high as in a regular Punto.

Inside, there was joy and happiness thanks to the high seating position that allowed plenty of legroom even for six-footers (over 1.8 m high). The instrument cluster found its way in the middle of the dashboard, which featured a dual-tone design. Thus, even the rear-seat passengers could have read the speedometer. There was room for three adults in the back, but the car was designed with a pair of wide individual seats and a folding armrest.

Under the hood, the Italian carmaker carried-over the engines from the Punto. There were six engines available, with a maximum power output ranged between 70 hp and 101 hp.