Retaining the car's mechanical layout, floor-pan/platform concept, stability and safety, it uses the motorcycle's system of sitting a-stride a long saddle and offers the sensation of riding in the open air. Giugiaro tried to combine the strong points of a motorcycle with the advantages of cars. Critics claimed the opposite: he summed up the shortcomings of both in a single vehicle. With youths as his target, Giugiaro sought to devise a vehicle that might help young people get together: not the customary two seats (or the euphemistic 2+2) of the dune-buggies, but comfortable accomodations for six or, squeezing tight, even up to nine passengers. Machimoto is the outcome of extensive and painstaking research. At its official presentation at the 1986 Turin Motor Show, the Machimoto met with praise as well as lots of criticism. Some said that this time Giugiaro had really gone too far and missed the target. On the contrary, Machimoto achieved two important effects. Shaking off some of the "mental laziness" that afflicts the automotive world by demonstrating that there is still some room for unconventional, highly innovative, even exaggerated vehicles. And showing that Giugiaro, now nearly fifty, still possesses a refreshingly creative mind that puts him at the forefront of avant-garde car design.

In April 1986 the two-door version, called Elba, was launched in Brazil; in January 1987 the four-door, dubbed Duna Weekend, went on sale in Italy. More balanced and streamlined than the respective sedans, the two cars fit well into their market segment where there is a certain lack of choice, especially of cars bearing modern design and good aerodynamics. The Uno station-wagon version highlights the general architecture of the sedan from which it stems: the considerable height of the passenger compartment translates into a loading capacity that has no comparison, not even in bigger station-wagons.

The first model commissioned to Giugiaro by president Bernard Hanon was an evolution of the Medusa but in a more compact size. Faced with this proposal, the French manufacturer's management turned back, deeming it too innovative and abandoning it in favor of a more classic three-box concept reminiscent of the Audi look of the 1980s. Giugiaro therefore laid out a three-box, three-windowed car that, although having a squarish shape, came up with a good aerodynamic factor. The new Renault sedan was elegant and well-proportioned. Giugiaro had a strange love-hate relationship with this car: while finding the final result satisfying, he would have preferred the first model to have gone into production, the one "in the image and likeness"' of the Medusa.

By now the Saab 9000 and Lancia Thema had been finalized and in early 1981 the research was begun into what was to become the interpretation for FIAT. The new car had the difficult job of bringing the Turin manufacturer back into the limelight for the medium to large sedan market segment. The original brief called for a three-box car more compact than the Thema.

The first model was a three-box concept that differed from the Thema in the small rear overhang and more upright rear window. FIAT's management held this proposal to be too similar to the Thema. Consequently it was decided all round to proceed towards a two-and-a-half-box concept. The Croma was undoubtedly successful and afforded FIAT's image a notable quality jump in its upper range. The success of the new car was not only thanks to the designer but also to the superb mechanical assembly, closely related to the Thema's.