Big and unarguably useful, the Croma is another of the growing number of attempts to reinvent the family car. Fiat has incorporated lots of cues from MPVs into it, including tall construction and a spacious cabin, but the rest of the driving and ownership experience is profoundly average.
Despite slightly awkward visual proportions, the Croma is a reasonable enough looking car from the outside. Once inside the cabin is spacious and solidly constructed, but lots of the materials feel very cheap when compared to rivals. Rear seat space is decent, but the boot isn't as big as you'd expect - unable to match the VW Passat estate on overall volume.
On the road, the Croma drives very well - providing you're not anticipating white-knuckle driving dynamics. Soft suspension helps to smooth out bumps, while high-speed refinement is very good. On twisty roads the chassis can't evince much interest for faster progress, though, with big lean angles and poor grip from the front end.
It's hard to make too much of a case for the petrol engines, although the smooth-spinning 2.2 litre unit goes very nicely indeed. But the diesels are the better powerplants by far, especially the entry level 120 bhp 1.9 litre JTD engine. The more potent 150 bhp version gives more urge and pretty much matches the lesser motor's fuel economy, but its noisier and with a peakier power delivery. The range-topping 2.4 litre JTD is thirsty and barely more rapid than the 1.9.