Fiat Qubo 1.4 (M) Review

Turning vans into passenger-vehicles was an obsession of the motor industry long before the mass-family people-mover era. We just never got any of those brilliant car(a)vans.

In the UK, the Citroen Berlingo Multispace made a huge impact back in the late nineties, featuring itself as a gaudy, windowed-van that was marketed to the young, or at least young-at-heart. In reality, it really was no different from your typical light-goods vehicle with seats at the back, as well as with car-like trimmings and the usual array of “van-ities.”

Ten years down the road and Fiat’s still doing it. First with the Panda, Doblo combination, and now with its latest Qubo. The similarity with these cars? They were based on a Fiat Grande Punto platform. So it doesn’t take a genius to tell you that it bridges a huge gap between a clunker and a car.

Big deal, some of you might say. And to those who do so, I pose an important question to you – have you ever driven a van? Those familiar with Renault Kangoos, Citroen Berlingo and Volkswagen Caddys of past will know what we mean.

You’re always going to feel as if you’re about to topple over even when going in a straight line – a result of a less-than-tight chassis with leaf-springs at the back, coupled with cross-ply tyres, all good and hardy choices for a heavy payload, but not in the least bit comfortable for driver and passenger.

Styling and Interior

But more on that later. For now, we’ll concentrate on how the Qubo isn’t the least bit van-like. It has a very well designed, shark-like nose that’s rather friendly looking and side panels that appear to have been blown inwards and upwards with the help of God’s giant hairdryer.
Those are key elements that differentiate the Qubo from any of its rivals, and if you’ve never been attracted to this type of vehicle in your life, then you may need to understand the importance of planned elasticity in it’s execution of interior passenger and cargo space and how it correlates to the external panels of the car.

There’s a huge amount of space available at the back, as well as in the luggage compartment. The back seats part ways in 60/40 fashion, and when double-folded up against the backrests of the front seats, reveal almost as much space as one would get in the cargo-purpose-only Fiorino.

But this seems to have come at a price – the front seats are rather cramped, and the driving position leaves legroom to be greatly desired. If you’re above 1.7 metres in height, be prepared for a cram-session, and not in the way of university textbooks!

The twin side-sliding doors have mega-benefits when addressing rear seat access in confined spaces like HDB parking lots. Add children to the equation in a normal car, and suddenly those small nicks and dents start to make sense.

But we found another down-side to these sliding doors – rear windows that do not wind down. Instead, they open outwards very slightly.

At the level of trimmings, one will not find any soft-touch dashboard, door panels and other “exotic” materials found in recent family car models that appear to have tried hard. However, it doesn’t mean that the Qubo’s cabin has been made drearier in that sense. There’s still a full set of airbags, and the white mesh-fibre cloth chosen in conjunction with white on black stitching works beautifully, to say the least.

The Fiat’s seats are supportive and comfortable by family car standards, and despite the minimal amount of legroom in front, everything else is very much car-like, from a proper set of speedometers and tachometers, a rake and reach adjustable steering wheel and other car-like aspects that you’ll be familiar with.

Driving Impressions

Recall its Puny Punto base (pun intended), and you are going to realise that the engines are probably equally puny in capacity. Spot on. In Singapore, the passenger car-attractive 1.4-litre 73bhp petrol variant will probably be the main-selling model for those wanting it for private consumption.

73bhp at 5,200rpm and 118Nm at 2,600rpm isn’t much to scream about, especially when coupled to a normal 5-speed manual gearbox. It pales in comparison to the 1.3-litre, 75bhp Multijet turbodiesel that most commercial-registered vehicles will probably leave the showroom with.Blessed with 190Nm of torque from 1,750rpm, it wholly belies the quoted 0-100 km/h acceleration figures of 16 seconds. It does lack the revvy, top-ended nature of its 1.4-litre petrol cousin, which we spent a considerable amount of the day with.

The diesel preference in European cars is an ever-present phenomenon, with carbon dioxide emissions figures of 119g per km of CO2 ejected from its exhaust pipes. The petrol variant loses out with a rating of 165 g per km. So to the land transport authority and their heinous diesel tax structures, we hope you’re reading this!

The petrol engine also felt sluggish and slow off the line because of its natural lack of torque, although a brilliant top end means that it also reaches 100 km/h from rest in 16 seconds flat – not quick, but 5^th gear at 90 km/h sees the tachometer tick at just over 2,500 rpm, which is quite alright over short-to-medium distance forays through Malaysia. Combine that with non van-like quantities of noise, vibration and harshness levels, and you’ll probably be doing so fairly often. We were most impressed with the Fiat’s 16-inch wheels, which came shod in 205/55 Continental Premium Contact tyres. They offered lots of grip during the course of our test drive, both in hard corners and in the rain.

Elsewhere, Fiat offers customers a unique “eco:drive” USB device that downloads and analyses driving performance in order to better driving practices when it comes to fuel economy. Not that any of us will need it in Singapore – the Qubo averages real-world figures of just 7 litres per 100 km, and we greatly attest to this figure based on our experience with it.

Would you buy one?

For $68,900, the closest thing that crosses the Qubo’s path in a different category altogether would be the Daihatsu Terios and Materia choices. It’s either those or the mainstream choices such as the Honda City, Jazz and so on.

Those cars have more “oomph” in their engines, as well as sedan-like levels of comfort for driver and passenger, but don’t expect them to have the quirky character of the Fiat. But even then, distance yourself from anything related to the car's appearance, and you’ll still find an efficient, comfortable, well-equipped and handy, albeit egalitarian run-around.