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Comment by beefield | Hacker News Reader

> That is the goddamned ugliest vehicle I've ever seen.

Let me try to beat that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Multipla#/media/File:Fiat...

What I find fascinating is how strong my negative visceral reaction to that thing is. It's a car. Who gives a shit whether it looks "good"? What even is my internal metric for "looks good"? I have no idea, but, God, this thing is revolting.

My hunch is that this is because we use some of the same mental wiring for processing human faces to process the front of a car. (Automotive designers refer to the front of a car as its "face".) So we think it's ugly because some of the same wiring that recoils to disfiguring human faces is kicking in.

I just stumbled onto: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26181746

It looks like two cars on top of eachother and if it's a face then it reminds me of this unsettling face illusion:

https://i.imgur.com/5lslbsJ.jpg

There's also that Chinese baby a few years back who had a severe form of "transverse facial cleft" deformity...

The Fiat Multipla is literally a car with a "muffin-top"!

They were fairly popular 10-ish years ago but I don't think Fiat will ever do that again.

ah, the Homer

https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/The_Homer

Unlike say the Aztec, this truck is “radically functional” design. No paint and simple geometry make it easier to manufacture and more durable.

I don’t think the mandate was “make this look strange” as much as it was “make this thing rugged and fast and powerful and we’re perfectly fine with it looking strange”.

We’ll see if they were successful, but I like the ambition. I’ll be curious, too, to see if some of this more radical thinking comes over to the Tesla Semi.

Also curious to me was the mention of a totally new and customized UI for the truck. Would love to see it!

Radically functional... unless your intention is to use it as a work truck.

What aspects make you think it’s not useful as a work truck? I’ve done construction and see quite a bit of appeal. Fits 6 people, lockable bed cover, good towing capabilities, rugged body construction, no paint job to ruin, onboard power and compressed air...

Unibody construction means it’ll be a write off if the bed is damaged. Compare this with other trucks where the bed is bolted on, allowing for functional modifications to the truck: flat beds, boxes, or even just towing certain types of trailers. And if you damage the bed on those types of trucks, you can replace it for a relatively low cost.

Sure, if you’re just throwing a tool box in the back then you’re fine. Then again you didn’t need a truck to begin with.

Every construction truck I have ever seen had an aftermarket bed liner installed.

Granted, that's not a lot of construction trucks. But quite a few.

First of all, a unibody construction doesn't mean that the complete bed is part of the body, there could be parts on top of a foundation which can be easily removed. Also, steel means, it better repairable than any other car material. You can reasonably easy cut out parts and weld in new sheets. That most of the surfaces of the truck are flat makes this even easier.

> You can reasonably easy cut out parts and weld in new sheets.

That's only going to add to its dystopic future flair.

To me, that’s a feature not a bug

You must have missed the part about how the steel is stainless. And also welding is extremely labor intensive, and time consuming. The flat body panels actually make this harder, because you can't warp the panels or else it will be extremely obvious. And if there's no paint, there's no filling in dents with body filler, it requires absolute precision, and metalworking skills which haven't been around for years in the auto body collision industry. I can't tell if it actually has paint or not, but you should look up how a small dent is fixed in a Delorean.

Sloped bed rails exclude work use requiring any conventional bed-mounted toolboxes.

That design element alone has turned this into primarily a fun/status vehicle IMHO.

yeah the sloped bed is going to be a big problem i think. loading things from the side, ladder racks, tool boxes, etc. lots of issues with that.

the bed cover looks awesome though, and I love the ramp from the tailgate. that's fantastic.

1. How many work trucks have you seen with a toolbox in the bed - almost all of them? How would you access one in this thing without literally climbing into the box?

2. How do you carry a ladder, roof rack, or box on this thing?

3. Where do I tie down the countless odd-shaped items that a work truck carries?

4. How do I mount a deck for bigger equipment on this truck?

5. Is 250 top range enough for a work truck that does field service and likely hauls significant weight?

This thing is less truck than the original Honda Ridgeline and that's saying something. You'll see one at the mall before you see one in the field.

I was discussing this the other day with an automotive designer. Yes Fiat Multipla is ugly, but imagine the courage Roberto Giolito (the designer of Multipla) had when he proposed this to the management of FCA! Almost nobody in modern automotive industry dares to match this outside of the concept cars.

I'd guess about the same amount of courage as Homer Simpson.

Exactly my thought :-)

Reference: https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/The_Homer

Regarding the Multipla, the Cybertruck or both?

Same amount of courage as it took Apple to remove the headphone jack? :)

The Multipla was also very successful, and also happens to be one of the few Fiats that hold their value. A utility vehicle doesn't necessarily need to be attractive to be successful...

The aesthetics of the Multipla didn't look out of place in China, where it was sold as the Zotye Multiplan and Zotye M300 Langyue.

As China's economy grew a number of American truck/van designs started looking more weird to western eyes like the Multipla than anything the likes of Dodge had previously designed. Designs target intended markets first and foremost.

Hey I rented one of these and actually was great, drove well, very practical, loads of space and lots of light.

But that doesn’t make it beautiful.

I think the S-Cargo is uglier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_S-Cargo

Also, it has a pun in the name.

On the rare occasions I see a Multipla in real life, I actually have feeling* of disgust and revulsion - it really is a hideously ugly car.

I think there is something insect-like about the bulbous part that houses the lights - I wonder if perhaps something about the shape is triggering something innate, similar to how we may be hard-wired to fear snakes?

I think the Fiat Multipla is distinct in that it is unlovably ugly.

I can get behind the ugliness of vehicles like the Cybertruck because it just looks absurd, but the Fiat is just grotesque.

I wonder if this is because the curvature of the Multipla makes us interpret it as organic and deformed, like a teratoma; it makes us feel disgust.

The Cybertruck is overtly synthetic and brutalist. It's to be admired for its impressiveness, not its beauty.

Looks like it was manufactured by the soviets. And oh my gosh I was hungry, but looked up teratoma, and am no longer hungry. Not safe for life. Yike.

Lest anyone be (like me) confused at how something about a car could make you want to lose your lunch. TIL teratoma has nothing to do with cars.

I recommend not looking at pictures.

For those still unclear: it's a type of tumor that basically grows things in places they're not normally supposed to be. "Things" including cartilage, hair and teeth.

I like the Fiat Multipla! It is cute, it looks like a beluga. De gustibus...

Only slightly worse:

https://media.wired.com/photos/593252a1edfced5820d0fa07/mast...

What on earth is that! :)

ok the multipla is clearly leftover parts from 2 other car models stitched together in the midline. top one was a van, bottom part was a convertible

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