It's funny some commenters complain about engine noise. That is what some of us Fiat 500 lovers call a very satisfying engine note. I would not have it any other way. And for those that say it is ugly, maybe you just are not in the market for this segment. If you don't like the Countryman, Kia Soul or Scion XB aesthetics either which I would assume you don't if you think this Fiat is ugly, then you probably aren't in the target audience anyway. I love the looks, the airiness, headroom and outside view of this car. Perfect car for my Ubering.
An Italian guy, talking about cars, Fiats specifically and saying "Take it easy" w/ the hand gestures was by the far the most epic moment of this week for me.
We Canadians usually prefer front wheel drive for winter driving, or part time all-wheel drive. The driven wheels are under the heavy engine. Thanks for the video! It's kind of nice to see an inflated 500
It is funny that you put that kind of old-fashioned italian music underground. In italy when somebody make a video review of an american car we always put some banjo wild west old-fashioned american music LOL
500L is a model on its own (sincom codes starting with 330), with 5 trims available in EU: Pop, Pop Star, Easy, Lounge, Trekking. 500L Living is different model (+20cm, same wheelbase length), with a different sincom family and available in 2 trims (Pop Star and Lounge). The L in 500L stands for Large (meaning larger than the standard 500)
I really like the lines of these cars. I'm not into the sharp stealth look of a lot of the cars now. Looking to take one for a test drive. I also like manual transmissions.
palebeachbum there's bluetooth for that,or aux cable which can go into the glove box,or usb flash storage which also goes to the glove box,you don't need your cell in front of you distracting you from driving.
palebeachbum i have bluetooth in my car and stream music from my phone,so 5 years ago it was for talking now you can stream music over bluetooth,and a lot more
heres in interesting thin. he is in Baltimore (very close to me me) and they actually shipped the ones sold around here on 1 MASSIVE ship. when it arrived at the harbor people were there. some followed the trucks and bought them when they rolled off at the dealer. so they all came together and sold very quickly. now we wait for the next ship.
No, we generally don't drink while driving, unless it is a quite long trip. And we normally bring bottles, not cans or cups. If we drink, it is generally water, sometimes softdrinks/soda, almost never coffee.
Riccardo when Fiat builds a Suburban like Chevy, we'll be happy to review it with country music. ;-) We used the music because it fits with the cute nature of the car and not because it is French (not Italian music).
Actually Living is a sincom, not a trim. So you will have the possibility to order a 500L Living Lounge or a 500L Living Pop Star. XL was the first option, we deleted it since it was too close to X and it was creating confusion with the future 500X. Then we switched to 500L+ but Altavilla and Francois disliked it and turned to 500L Living
Yea Baltimore, my hometown :) I like this 500L better than the regular 500. Should sell really well. I especially like the fact that it's a small family people/stuff hauler, and has that raspy sounding little turbo engine. Win win. However, zero to 60....mmmm not expecting much, but looks fun to drive.
Actually I think Alfa Romeos might be available in the US soon, I've been seeing Giuliettas around LA recently, probably testing it before production perhaps.
It all depends on the color with this car as it is with some others. The yellow I believe it was car they used for the debut wasn't its best color. Otherwise, good job guys, know you might of mentioned it before, but are you guys going to be doing a full test of the Verano Turbo or was that coverage of the release it?
As wrote just a comment before: this is true but only regarding 3 Lancia models (Thema, Voyager, Flavia) representing around 8% of Lancia yearly registrations. For instance, in 2012 these 3 models sold 7.434 units. The total number of Lancia registrations was a little bit more than 91.000
91 octane is optional in the US. Using 87 won't harm the car, but will give reduced performance and fuel economy. Doesn't sound like a big deal to me, at least.
Funny he mentioned empty nesters. My Mom is in her early 60's and considering cars such as the Kia Soul, Fiat 500L, and Subaru XV. She likes the higher positioned seat because it's easier to get in and out of and gives a better view of the road than a regular car. Plus, the price is lower than any small SUV and the fuel economy is better.
yes please drive while worrying about your cell phone!!! very safe! also i think fiat is very Chrysler in interior design and build quality. great review as always.
If snows , just put on some winter tires . I have FWD car , it snows 3 moths in year and I never had a single problem . Actualy , I was bit of an idiot , so I drove it over creeks , dirt roads and fields and never got stuck with winter tires (label M+S means mud and snow) .
Actually the countryman has vertical tail lights. In the end, if you se them both live, one next to the other, you quite notice that they belong to different segments (using the EU segmentation)
Cute car for metro areas, hard to see it as successful where the roads are open, long and fast traffic is the rule. Will be curious to see if you can even get this to get to the top of Lickskillet road let alone 0-60 at one mile up. I have lived in the Northeast since birth (don't ask how long ago that was) and for most of my life got along just fine with RWD cars and proper snow tires. With the advent of FWD cars and good snow tires the only real risk in winter was high-centering on snow.
I manage much better mileage on average driving manual, 7kp100L or 33mpg in city, and i drove it conservatively for about 375miles driving over the rockies from my parents place back home and got 6.5kp100L/37mpg, so not too shabby. My only real real gripes are how far away the door is from the passenger and the driver you cant really rest on it, and the head lights are really disappointing, they don't cast enough light but aftermarket kit should fix that. oh and you cant drive with the windows open because they buffet and hammer like crazy ( there may be a trim i can use to fix that but we will see.) but aside from that i love it, yeah there's turbo lag but once its up there it goes like hell :) i call it my Italian minivan.
I agree that it's more "niche"ish than maybe other brands out there, but Fiat doesn't have really just "one vehicle". They have (as I'm sure you know) the Abarth and the 500. And they're NOT the same. The Abarth is much sportier. The biggest difference from a performance standpoint is that the Abarth comes with a bigger engine (60hp more). Also, as far as the 500L is considerably bigger than the regular 500. Fiat has at least a couple of models, is the point. Not just one.
About the phone - I rarely have a drink in the cup holder or in the car for that matter. Granted none of my journeys require human refueling checkpoints, but that just frees up the cup holders for cell phone storage. Cup holders are excellent storage compartments.
Good review, only complaining about needing your phone close to you while driving should never be a con. Phones should be out of sight or on Bluetooth. Also having driven my 500 up here in Canada during the winter with no problems, I'm sure you Southern North States shouldn't have a problem. XD
Glass Pillars? I think if you put that 500L on the small overlap crash test it might get a "Poor" rating, unless the glass pillars are reinforced with high strength steel.
My point was: BOTH companies are owned by Fiat. In order to SAVE money from designing, they share same design as I previously mentioned: German designed Opel Insignia but Americans use it as Buick regal (both GM owned) Aussies designed Holden Monaro which was sold as Vauhall Monaro in U.K. or later as Pontiac GTO in U.S. There are a lot of examples like that and I do not want to change the subject but the main point is: Fiat is the Boss whatever people say. Fiat makes the final decision.
The pillars are not glass. It's more of a three segment windshield, a common design in Europe in people-mover type vehicles like this. Americans however hated it when GM used the idea in the 1990-96 minivans and that's the last we saw of it. I can however attest that as an owner of one of those minivans it's fine. In a lot of cars I now feel like the windshield is too close!
I have the 2015 model, it only has 85 horsepower, and it's a 5 speed auto, terrible on the motorway, no power in the city, but a pretty car. Even though its an automatic, the clutch is now starting to go, apparently its a common thing with this car, around the 8-10 year mark, the auto clutch bearing starts slipping and costs a grand to repair third party, or 5k+ with main dealers
I like everything about the L, except for one thing: premium fuel only. Everything else is great - lots of room, sunroof, big windows, and like the smaller 500, every single detail is great to look at. Kind of like a Vespa. Oh, I haven't sat in one, and I would be a little worried about those hard seats. The seats in a car are pretty personal becase they have to work for you for hours at a time and sometimes they just don't.
You have to blame greenpeace ;-) Beside kidding, many countries outside UK (NL, DK, and IT too) have some nasty new taxation rules that screw gas engines on some segments. So a 160HP unit option was erased from the range since the beginning. But both diesel and gas 120HP units may come on the EU version with the introduction of the 500L Living (called 500L MPW in UK)
Actually Fiat already owns a few other "styling departments": Chrysler Group, Maserati, Ferrari, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Magneti Marelli. Dude, did you heard of any of these companies? In some cases they do not have 100% of ownership, but Fiat is the Boss.
Just go to some of the Fiat 500 USA forums (you can type that in Google) and see what owners have to say. As i see most of them are satisfied but there were some flaws in some first series of Fiat 500 (mostly water in front badge, some crackling noise, computer problems and things like that). Nothing serious as i know.
This car does not compete with the Scion XB, it competes with the Scion XD, the Scion XB has a 2.4 Engine, while the XD has a 1.8 both of which have a lot more to offer...
Topolino in Italian literally means "baby mouse". There is no dispute of that fact. Yes, "Mickey Mouse" is also a derivative of the same word, but the two are not exclusive to the name of the car. Both terms are used, but "baby mouse" is a more precise and literal translation of the cars nickname.
I think they decided to go with very unique cars since their mainstream stuff is generally at this point not new and a bit below average. This strategy gives them a unique boutique image in the US to replace the old unreliable average cars image. Clearly a lot like Mini Cooper.
FIAT used to stand for "Fix It Again Tony." I'm not sure this latest wave of cars is afflicted the same way or not. I know that American cars from that same era weren't very reliable either.
i'm not a fan of the car but the remark on the lack of space to put your phone is a little offset.You will not buy a car if you don't have a place to put your phone that's close to you for ease of acces to it?It's also ilegal to use the phone while driving...
When you go to Europe, you'll very quickly notice how few cars there have cup holders. In fact, when VW was first brought over to America, the owner of VW was against it because he couldn't understand why you'd bring a drink into the car. Cup holders are very much a USA thing.
Bro FYI, GM donates a tons of money to US government to ban Peugeot,Citroen,Alfa,Skoda, Seat (etc.) and some other models of cars NOT to be sold in US.Example: Would you like to drive a car 57mpg city/65mpg hwy and it is AWD?I bet people in MN, ND, SD, MT or UT would love it because of harsh winters, right?I am speaking of Citroen DS5 (200 awhp Diesel+Hybrid). Simple explanation:If cars like that are sold in US, then who will buy Tahoe 15mpg city or Escalade 12-13mpg or whatever.Get the point?
Well yeah, which is perfectly normal in car industry. Sharing designs between companies. Another example would be Opel Insignia and Buick Regal. Germans designed it, but Americans use it as well.
Well maybe two color but single color is much nicer designed than regular 500 hundred which have same design flaws (just smaller) as new Punto, Linea and even Grande Punto.
There is. In our capital Santo Domingo you will find official dealerships like: Maserati, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce, plus the more vulgar brands like Jaguar, Porsche, Audi, Acura, Infinity, Lexus and other. Cadillac is recovering well as a brand. Hummer's are very popular and Merceds Benz is very commun. Plus all Japanese brands and lately BIY and other Chinese cars. The # of SUV's is astonishing considering that there are luxury taxes applied to the base prices up to 60%.
