GM’s Epsilon platform was used by a vast array of vehicles, including the Chevrolet Malibu, Saab 9-3 and Opel Vectra. As part of Fiat’s ill-fated tie-up with GM, the resurrected Fiat Croma used this platform too. It also had something else in common with a few of its GM cousins. Like the Chevrolet Malibu Maxx and Opel Signum, the Croma was both a strangely-shaped hatchback/wagon and a commercial failure.
Perhaps if this idea of an upper-medium hatchback had taken off, GM and Fiat would have been seen as pioneers and trendsetters. One can’t blame them for trying something different, particularly when the concept itself had merit. Take a regular sedan, make it a bit longer and/or taller, give it some extra versatility and voila!
The Opel/Vauxhall Signum was identical to the Vectra from the A-pillars forward. It was also the sleekest of these three chimeras. The Chevrolet Malibu Maxx afforded the Malibu with a second body style and, again, was identical to its sedan counterpart from the A-pillars forward. The Croma, however, had no Epsilon counterparts within the Fiat range and was Fiat’s first D-segment product since the first-generation Croma expired in 1996 (the intervening Marea was little more than a sedan and wagon version of the C-segment Bravo and Brava). Perhaps Fiat realized the European D-segment was dominated by the Volkswagen Passat and other established models and so they had to do something a little different.
Why, then, did they choose to call it Croma? The first series of Croma had sold relatively well in Italy but was a slow seller in other European markets like the UK. Although that Croma had been a hatchback, too, it had a much more conventional silhouette than this Croma. And yet, despite the Croma’s unorthodox shape, it was all rather boring to behold.
Giorgetto Giugario was clearly having an off day when he penned the Croma. It’s bland and droopy and utterly forgettable. In the early-mid 2000s, Fiat was experimenting with inoffensive styling like on the compact Stilo and second-generation Punto, handsome yet derivative designs lacking in Fiat’s characteristic Italian brio. Their replacements, the 2005 Punto and 2007 Bravo, were much more chic but, clearly, the Croma’s design was signed off before this design renaissance.
The Croma wasn’t even fun-to-drive. With overly light steering and soft suspension tuning, it was generally considered a good cruiser but lacking in the handling department – a shame considering what Fiat engineers had accomplished in the past. It did use some genuinely good Fiat diesel engines, however – 1.9 and 2.4 MultiJet diesel fours, producing between 118 and 197 hp and 207 and 295 ft-lbs of torque. Petrol engines were borrowed from GM – 1.8 and 2.2 Ecotec fours, with 138 hp and 129 ft-lbs and 145 hp and 150 ft-lbs, respectively. Manual transmissions were standard across the range with six-speed automatics available only with some of the engines.
Compared to established rivals, all the Croma had going for it was its spacious interior and even that was a let-down. For starters, it lacked the trick rear seats of the mechanically-related Opel Signum or the Chevrolet Malibu Maxx across the pond. In those cars, the rear seats slid on tracks and could be folded flat. That wasn’t the case for the Croma. Seats down, the Croma also fell short of rivals like the Opel Vectra estate in cargo volume.
While the Malibu Maxx had few wagons to do battle with in the North American market, the Croma was going up against station wagon variants of almost every D-segment car. For reference, the Croma was 2.3 inches shorter in the wheelbase than the Malibu Maxx and half an inch shorter overall; a Vectra estate, in comparison, was about two inches longer than the Croma with an inch-longer wheelbase. At least the Croma was quite upright, being four inches taller than a Vectra estate. Cromas equipped with the SkyDome full-length glass roof were even more airy inside.
Not even trick angles and the Golden Hour can make this look interesting.
It was such a flop that Fiat UK withdrew it from showrooms after just two years. Overall, the Croma sold better than the more expensive Signum did but sales tapered off pretty quickly. It was never a threat to the mid-size establishment.
A 2008 facelift went some way toward addressing the Croma’s stylistic challenges, the Nuova Croma adopting a front fascia similar to that of the shapely new Bravo. Alas, it couldn’t arrest the car’s sales slide. The Croma was discontinued in 2010, eventually to be replaced within the Fiat range by the Freemont, a rebadged Dodge Journey.
The Croma had great safety credentials, a comfortable and well-presented cabin, a competent chassis and some competitive engines. But Fiat was re-entering a segment it had abandoned almost a decade prior and which was full of well-rounded competitors. Against them, the Croma’s dull styling, questionable packaging and poor resale value made it a less than compelling option for buyers. Now, maybe if Fiat had put some flared wheelarches on it and some plastic cladding, they might have really been successful trendsetters.
Croma photographed in Vienna, Austria in September 2018.
Related Reading:
CC Capsule: 1988-89 Fiat Croma – Croma Flair
CC Outtake: 2006-07 Chevrolet Malibu Maxx SS – A Very, Very Different Malibu
Curbside Classic: 2003-05 Holden ZC Vectra – A High Flyer Stuck At Baggage Check
CC/Driving Impressions: 2003, 2009, & 2011 Saab 9-3 – Born From Jets?
I keep forgetting about that brief GM-Fiat tie-up. It was in an era where I wasn’t really paying attention to Fiat and had pretty much stopped paying attention to GM too.
Fun-to-drive was not really one of the duties of this platform, was it? It seemed like during that era GM could do FTD if it really, really had to, but most of the time the company would shrug its shoulders and go “meh” on that metric. I recall driving both a Malibu Maxx and a Saturn Aura (that I believe was an Epsilon as well) as rentals and neither me nor my Mrs. was very keen on the driving experience even though I really wanted to like them.
GM stylists of the time were really keen on that line that sloped upward as it moved from the rear wheel towards the back of the car. I knew about the Malibu and the Colorado pickup, and see that this car did the same thing. Or perhaps Fiat was in charge of these looks. I never thought that idea looked good when Brooks Stevens did it on the 1962-66 Lark and I don’t like it on these modern cars either.
Euroblob
I think GM had a tie up with Fiat in the ’70’s as well. GM may have owned the importer of Fiat here in North America. My ’79 Strada had a GM battery and alternator.
I just saw a really cherry Malibu Maxx with SS badges today. Clearly an enthusiast. Did they come that way new?
Yes, there was a Maxx SS.
It’s hard to get that something so disharmonious came out from Giugiaro as that Croma. The swollen rear fenders and a nose with front lights and grille lost in espace… however if taking in account the Daewoos he created at that time…
My immediate reaction to the first photo was “It looks like a shoe!” Just draw some laces across the windshield…..
Like JPC I was totally unaware of this car. It reads like there wasn’t much to be aware of.
Those are really nice night photos. My camera, a Canon IXUS, can´t handle night time at all, no matter what the setting.
Google Pixel 2 XL, my friend. I just had to brighten the lead photo later but the rest are unedited.
I know the feeling re: night photos. Most phones I’ve had and even my hybrid D-SLR camera are just garbage at night shots. With the camera, it clearly needs to be kept perfectly still on a tripod but I don’t exactly carry a tripod around. The camera’s so good on my Pixel that I barely use my proper camera anymore. I don’t think I even took it on my trip last year…
If there’s any car that makes a Dodge Journey look exciting, this is it.
I kind of like the looks of it.
In the mid-00s I worked in a grocery store, half the DSD merchandisers (those who had company cars) drove Malibu Maxxes; the other half (who bought their own cars) drove Mazda 6 hatchbacks.
Another car that had been purged from my memory banks, not surprisingly. Now it’s back, but probably not for long. 🙂
Fun fact: the Croma had the ignition between the front seats, like the platform-sharing Swedish counterpart Saab 9-3
Timely article, I saw one today and now I know what it was thanx, the Fiat badge was obvious but the car I simply couldnt place.
None of the contemporary Fiats were handlers. Stilo, Grande Punto, Croma, Bravo, 500 – all of them lookers with disappointingly dull road manners.
The tallboy shape makes much more sense today, with segment borders fading. The Croma was a good 10 years early but even now – and with the all-important SUV cladding – it would have failed. Big Fiats were never popular.