Technical Looking for 2015-2022 Maxi (long edition) with 7 seats. Or 5 seater conversion to 7 possible?

[pogib]

Dear All,

I would like to buy a 7 seater 2015-2022 Fiat Doblo Maxi (long edition) in Europe (preferably 120 hp 1.6 diesel). Does that version even exist?

There are few maxi versions with 5 seats, so an alternative would be to convert from 5 to 7.
Anybody has managed to do that legally? Are the 6th-7th seat/seatbelt mounting points available in the 5 seaters?

Thanks in advance,

 

[the green vanper]

Hello,

While looking for the Ducato I came across 2 Iveco Dailies with one seat only. One of them had a cabin completely rebuilt by the converter (no B-pillar, so no fixing points for the passenger's seatbelt) - there was no possibility to revert this change in a costly reasonable manner (they would request a crashtest after the rebuild...). The other one had only the passenger seat + seatbelt removed and covered to make access to the cab from the right hand side much easier. So in theory it should be possible to easily revert to the factory state. However both vans were homologated for 1 person only. And that was the problem.

In such cases the homologation has more than one stage. The factory issues the primary homologation (with 2 or 3 seats in the case of those Dailies), then the converter modifies the van and rehomologates the vehicle. For 1 person in that case. It's a secondary homologation. Every substantial change requires next homologation by a certified company.

The local authorities told me that I'd need to buy a new seat + seatbelt at the dealership, make the conversion (install them) at an authorized workshop, and make a third homologation. Or at least some kind of basic check by an authorized automotive expert confirming the changes were done according to official rules. Plus of course all changes needed to be documented by invoices, so no own work, like installing the seat would be some kind of rocket science...

So, I bought a 3 seat Ducato

And then I bought a single passenger seat, as lowering the number of seat is much easier.

I've heard that there are companies that can do such modifications in Germany or Czechia (or perhaps Slovakia), but the vehicle need to be registered there, so again, not a cheap option.

I'd personally look for a van with a 7 seat homologation, might be wihout the seats in the 3rd row. But the paperwork should be correct for 7 persons. So you could install the 3rd raw seats before the first technical control in Hungary.

However the regulations in Hungary might be different, but only slightly, as you're still the part of the EU.

 

[porta]

Hello,

While looking for the Ducato I came across 2 Iveco Dailies with one seat only. One of them had a cabin completely rebuilt by the converter (no B-pillar, so no fixing points for the passenger's seatbelt) - there was no possibility to revert this change in a costly reasonable manner (they would request a crashtest after the rebuild...). The other one had only the passenger seat + seatbelt removed and covered to make access to the cab from the right hand side much easier. So in theory it should be possible to easily revert to the factory state. However both vans were homologated for 1 person only. And that was the problem.

In such cases the homologation has more than one stage. The factory issues the primary homologation (with 2 or 3 seats in the case of those Dailies), then the converter modifies the van and rehomologates the vehicle. For 1 person in that case. It's a secondary homologation. Every substantial change requires next homologation by a certified company.

The local authorities told me that I'd need to buy a new seat + seatbelt at the dealership, make the conversion (install them) at an authorized workshop, and make a third homologation. Or at least some kind of basic check by an authorized automotive expert confirming the changes were done according to official rules. Plus of course all changes needed to be documented by invoices, so no own work, like installing the seat would be some kind of rocket science...

So, I bought a 3 seat Ducato

And then I bought a single passenger seat, as lowering the number of seat is much easier.

I've heard that there are companies that can do such modifications in Germany or Czechia (or perhaps Slovakia), but the vehicle need to be registered there, so again, not a cheap option.

I'd personally look for a van with a 7 seat homologation, might be wihout the seats in the 3rd row. But the paperwork should be correct for 7 persons. So you could install the 3rd raw seats before the first technical control in Hungary.

However the regulations in Hungary might be different, but only slightly, as you're still the part of the EU.

Think he wants what we, in the uk, never got, 7 seat doblo not a ducato

 

[the green vanper]

Think he wants what we, in the uk, never got, 7 seat doblo not a ducato

Yes, OP wants a doblo, but the regulations are the same for all vehicles. You cannot exceed the number of seats homologated for any vehicle.

As for the 7 seats doblos, there's one on mobile.de:

https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=416833593

It's 2 liter diesel and I'm not sure if it's the maxi version, however 1st owner and very low mileage There are a couple of them from before the 2015 facelifting and a lot of last year's, so almost new ones available.

 

[pogib]

Thanks for the replies!

Yes, I'm looking for a 7 seater Fiat Doblo, preferably the long version.

I'm surprised that I find 7 seaters only in the regular (short) version, which doesn't have too big luggage if 7 ppl are using it.

One example about a 5 seater maxi (long) version:

https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=414118514&dam=false&fr=2015%3A2021&isSearchRequest=true&ms=8800%3B18%3B%3Bmaxi&ref=srp&refId=33a18a2a-7c37-fad7-138a-abc9d49e3797&s=Car&sb=rel&sc=5%3A&searchId=33a18a2a-7c37-fad7-138a-abc9d49e3797&vc=Car

Ideal would be to find a maxi (long) 7 seater. I was thinking about the 5->7 conversion, if the mounting points are available in a maxi (long) 7 seater. In that case you can probably get a permission to "modify" your car and re-register it as a 7 seater.

 

[the green vanper]

I'm surprised that I find 7 seaters only in the regular (short) version, which doesn't have too big luggage if 7 ppl are using it.

That might be related to weight limitations (the vehicle has to have some loading capacity, the maxi version is heavier, 7 persons + luggage might be too much for the GMW).

And it seems that's the fact:

The 5 door Kombi Van Maxi with the 2 liter diesel engine weighs 1510 kg. The 3rd raw seats and side trims also have some weight? 30 / 40 kg I think. With the GMW of 2270 kg, 75 kg for the driver and 65 kg per passenger (which are the numbers used in Poland in such cases), it makes around 250 kg of load capacity. I don't know if it's enough.

I've found the above numbers on the van on the internet, so might not be 100% reliable. Try finding FIAT commercial leaflets or ask the FIAT hotline, if such versions were produced / homologated / sold.

 

[the green vanper]

I was thinking about the 5->7 conversion, if the mounting points are available in a maxi (long) 7 seater. In that case you can probably get a permission to "modify" your car and re-register it as a 7 seater.

As written in my 1st post, that might not be possible. Unless you can drive non-EU homologated vehicles in Hungary.