How This Couple Turned ‘The Ugliest Car In The World’ Into An Absurdly Cute Expedition Vehicle For $4,000

Expedition vehicles sit at the most extreme end of RVs. They tend to be colossal, cost incredible amounts of money, and promise to get you to the ends of the Earth. But you don’t need anything near that to travel the world. Bratislava newlyweds Ivan and Jana Buštor have done something unexpected. They took the car that has been repeatedly called the ‘ugliest’ in the world, a Fiat Multipla, and on a shoestring budget they turned it into a continent-conquering expedition vehicle. The couple took their ‘Ugly Duck’ on a 6,800-mile trek a couple of years ago and now, the upgraded DIY Westfalia-style vehicle is currently driving through every country in South America to answer one question. Here’s how they did it.

The Fiat Multipla is a vehicle known for many traits, some more endearing than others. It, more than most other cars, perhaps prioritized practicality well above aesthetics. Sure, the Multipla had a polarizing design, but it’s hard to deny its worth as a family hauler. Sadly, putting practicality behind an ugly duckling face was not a winning sales strategy and even a major facelift couldn’t save it.

But one thing the Multipla isn’t known for is its globe-trotting off-road capability. That didn’t stop the Buštors, who are on a mission not just to explore the world, but to find out if the Multipla really is as ugly as the world thinks it is.

What Makes The Multipla So Weird

As our resident car designer, Adrian Clarke explains, the minivan revolution started by America reached Europe in the mid-1980s. Little by little, the practical minivan began to overtake the station wagon. However, going into the mid-1990s, these vans got bigger with more luxurious features and that became a problem.

Eventually, the minivan became too expensive and too large for European roads, which meant that a course correction was in order. Fiat was going to bring back the Multipla, the car considered to be the world’s first MPV, from Adrian:

The initial idea for nuova Multipla was not for a production car at all, but a concept. Managing director of Fiat Paolo Cantarella issued a disarmingly simple research brief: “How to comfortably accommodate six people and their luggage in a car no more than four meters (157”) long?” According to Auto & Design magazine:

Roberto Giolito was appointed project manager, while Peter Jansen took care of the interior design. Mauro Basso handled the initial phase of the exterior. “As the research progressed,” says Nevio Di Giusto, head of Style/Design, Innovation and Ergonomics for the Fiat brands, “the concept seemed more and more interesting to us, so much so that we were led to hypothesize the birth of a production product.

Initially, three rows of two seats were considered for the interior layout, but this would have been impossible to package within the 4-meter length constraint, limiting the cargo area and compromising the crush zones at the front. According to engineer Guiseppe Piritore: “The result was invariably a narrow, tall vehicle with a compact nose, disadvantageous in terms of engine positioning and impact absorption areas, while the boot was extremely sacrificed with the 6 seats in use and very irregularly shaped”

How did Fiat solve this problem? As Adrian continues, Fiat kept the shorter length but went wider, from Adrian:

Fiat realized the only way to fit six people was to make the car wider and seat them in two rows of three seats. Everything about the exterior design followed that revelation. Revealed at the Turin Motor Show in 1998, the production Multipla had an enlarged passenger cabin with extensive glazing that was inspired by the bulging canopy of an Augusta A109 helicopter. The low beltline gave a feeling of airiness to a crowded interior and gave occupants a panoramic view of the outside world. To keep the windscreen a sensible size the exterior shape of the Multipla ended up not as a monovolume or two-box, but something in between – a sort of one-and-a-half box; a short but tall and wide passenger cabin with a vestigial engine compartment tacked on the front. Just how stubby did the Multipla end up being? At 157” (4 meters) long and 74” (1.9 meters) wide it’s a staggering 7” (150 mm) shorter and the same amount wider than the Renault Scenic. According to Hagerty it was the widest car on the market apart from the Rolls Royce Seraph. And the Fiat had more legroom.

Adrian continues that the Multipla’s form is one that follows its function and that maybe wasn’t the greatest thing. For example, the Multipla has a tall, funky dashboard. This dashboard prevents the windshield from meeting the hood like in a typical car, so Fiat designed a little shelf in the body. Fiat also figured that headlights would work better when positioned high up, so designers used that shelf for the headlights, too.

I highly recommend reading Adrian’s design breakdown because it goes to incredible levels of detail. The Multipla is goofy in the name of practicality, almost as if it were designed by those extremely logical Vulcans. The press seemed to love the Multipla, with Top Gear bestowing the family hauler with its Car of the Year award in 2000. Top Gear magazine kept the love flowing by nominating the Multipla as its Family Car of the Year for four years in a row from 2001 to 2004. The design of the Multipla even went up as a display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

However, the Multipla appeared to be one of those situations where the buying public didn’t agree with the reviewers. Sales were stale even at launch and its 2004 facelift, which arguably took the character out of the Multipla, didn’t improve the situation.

The Most Heroic Multipla

Yet, the story hasn’t ended for the Multipla. In a way, the Multipla is a lot like the 1999 film The Iron Giant. Critics loved it, but it was a box office bomb. Today, people are beginning to appreciate the film, just like some enthusiasts see the Multipla as charming so many years later.

Newlyweds Jana and Ivan Buštor are two of those people. Jana told me she and Ivan originally bought the Multipla as a joke a couple of years ago for the equivalent of just $1,000. Yes, they actually wanted to drive what even they called “the ugliest car in the world,” albeit ironically. The fact that it was practical was only a bonus. Jana says the joke’s on them because they fell in love with their ugly duckling of a car. In fact, they even call the cutie the Ugly Duck.

Then, the pair came up with the idea of traveling the world. But, they didn’t want to spend a ton of cash buying a dedicated expedition rig. Instead, the couple, who are photographers by trade, figured they could use what they already had on hand.

I don’t need to tell you that a Multipla isn’t exactly the vehicle that comes to mind when someone says “overlander” or “off-roader,” but that didn’t deter the Buštors. First, they took the Multipla on a trip from Slovakia to Kyrgyzstan in 2022. Then, when it came time for the most recent trip, the couple got their hands dirty making the ultimate Multipla.

Jana tells me they spent a few months working in a cold garage at home preparing the Multipla for the tough journey ahead. Ivan designed the Multipla’s interior in software and together, they put the living space together with their own hands.

What the pair achieved is impressive. The Multipla features a fold-out bed, a working kitchen, and even a toilet. But perhaps the coolest part is the clever way the pair added height to the Multipla’s interior. Attached to the roof of the Multipla is a roof tent, but this isn’t a typical setup.

The couple cut a giant hole in the roof tent and in the Multipla to essentially make something of a DIY Westfalia.

Ivan describes how the roof tent is made and attached to the vehicle:

There’s aluminum extrusion subframe between the roof and the tent, that is bolted to the chassis. Then there’s VHB tape between the subframe and tent + a ton of special Sikaflex glue, that also seals the passthrough between the roof and the tent. So far, very solid and zero leaks.

Ivan says the roof rack weighs just 22 pounds while the roof tent is another 121 pounds. The couple say they were careful not to weigh down the Multipla. As it is, they were taking a vehicle not really meant for off-roading into far-off lands.

We’ve seen an overland build with a passthrough to a roof tent before, but that was a Jeep Grand Wagoneer concept with a RedTail Overland Skyloft on its roof. That passthrough simply went through a sunroof into a $20,000 roof tent. If you’re doing the math here, the Skyloft alone is more than five times what the Buštors spent on their whole build, including buying the Multipla.

Jana told me the whole project was a difficult one, especially given the time constraint of hitting the road before the rainy season in Latin America. As I said, the couple are photographers are they’re great at their craft. So, how do photographers figure out how to build an expedition vehicle? They went to YouTube and taught themselves how to build out their vehicle. Both Ivan and Jana learned a lot of new skills along the way. Still, Jana tells me the hardest part of the build itself was the roof tent. They had to make sure the alignment of the holes was exactly correct because keeping water out was important.

Jana also joked that additional difficulty just came from the fact that the car doesn’t have a straight line in it!

If you look closer, you’ll notice further clever details in the build. The Multipla came from the factory with two rows of three seats. This feature came in handy when it came time to build out the interior. The couple removed the front right seat to fit in a powered cooler and a toilet. However, since the car has two more front seats, Jana has no problem sitting next to Ivan.

The rear seats have been removed and in their place sits the custom-built cabinetry, a bed platform, and storage underneath. They even managed to fit a propane tank inside. Ivan admits that an external fitting for the tank would be better, but for now this tank is vented outside and there’s a gas detector inside as well.

The pop-up roof is also brilliant. The Buštors can sit in their Multipla and work or watch a show without having to worry about headroom. The pop-up tent also adds an airy feeling to the interior.

In spring 2022, the Buštors hit the road, driving through southeastern Europe before reaching Türkiye. The roads started getting rough, so the Buštors employed the help of local mechanics to install a lift kit, oil pan protection, and off-road tires for the adventure ahead. The Multipla’s original 6,800-mile trek saw the MPV off-roading in Turkey and tackling Georgia’s poor roads.

As the Slovak Spectator reported, the couple also had to change their original plans to avoid as much of Ukraine and Russia as possible due to the ongoing war. Reportedly, border agents at a crossing into Russia even tried to take Ivan’s passport. So, the couple turned back, heading into Georgia to battle deep water crossings, terrible roads, and worse weather. Despite the challenges, the couple emerged triumphant, taking a Multipla where no other Multipla had gone before.

As I briefly noted earlier, the roof tent, fold-out bed, kitchen, and bathroom were added before the latest trip. Here’s what the Ugly Duck looked like before the latest upgrades:

Now, they’re back at it. Jana and Ivan are married now and the Ugly Duck is on another adventure with them. They drove the Multipla to Germany, where it was loaded onto a ship and sailed out to Colombia. Shipping alone cost more than the car and took a month, but they made it to South America, where the Buštors have been visiting every country for more than the past seven months.

The Buštors note that the South America trip is even more grueling than the 2022 trip. The Multipla had to be lifted higher with bigger tires fitted and even the bumpers trimmed for more clearance.

Jana says they don’t have four-wheel-drive or lockers, but they’ve gotten impressively far on good ground clearance and knobby tires alone. She tells me the one time the Ugly Duck was truly defeated by terrain was when it was sent through a long section of really soft sand.

As the Slovak Spectator noted, sometimes the challenge doesn’t come from the condition of the roads, or lack thereof, but of dealing with local governments and adapting to the quirks of how people drive in each country. Ivan’s advice is to drive slowly, smile at law enforcement, and don’t get mad at how the locals drive.

What’s next? Well, the Buštors fully intend on visiting every country in South America. They expect the trip to take a whole year and they’ve been funding it by working odd jobs here and there. The best part has been the cost. Ivan figures they spent an additional $2,000 to $3,000 on the Multipla after buying it and amazingly, the trip itself has been cheaper than just living in Bratislava and not traveling. That means at the most, they’re all-in for $4,000, which is phenomenal given how much the Multipla has served them so well. The Buštors get to travel the world and save money doing it. If that doesn’t sound dreamy, I don’t know what is.

Then you remember that, again, this is happening under the tires of a Fiat Multipla, a car known almost entirely for its looks. If the Ugly Duck can teach you anything, I think it’s that there’s a beauty in making a cheap, unloved car into a hero.

If you want to follow the journey of the Buštors and the Ugly Duck, you can follow them on their social media accounts!

All images by Jana and Ivan Buštor unless noted