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RPM TV Website | March 22, 2024

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One-day test: Fiat 500L

Fiat 500L Fiat 500L Fiat 500L
Adam Schoeman

I sometimes think that car manufactures don’t really know what they want, or that they have a very short industry memory.

Not too long ago, large cars were all the rage. Then it became apparent that owning one was quite difficult in a city environment, and keeping it filled with fuel was expensive. So consumers stopped buying them, and being a demand-supply orientated economy, car manufacturers started focusing on smaller cars.

This is the age of the Audi A1, Mini Cooper and Fiat 500. Cars that are luxurious, or quirky in their own right, but still small, light on fuel and city orientated.

Now, it seems that every manufacturer is clamouring to build a bigger version of its smaller cars: Mini has two larger Coopers in the form of the Countryman and the Paceman, while Audi is on the verge of releasing a Q1. But topping it all off is today’s test car, the Fiat 500L.

Maybe then it is not the car manufacturers that have a short memory, but the motorists who are actually demanding larger small cars.

If you are familiar with BMW and Audi’s use of the letter L on a car, you would expect the 500L to be a longer version of the ultra-mini urban commuter, but in this case the L is not for Long, but rather for Large.

And not just a little bit L’er, as in adding in door number four and five to the back, and maybe stretching the car’s platform a tad so that it will seat two adults in the back. No, when Fiat props up a badge with an ‘L’ it makes sure the process is democratic and that every panel gets the same treatment.

The stats actually speak for themselves: the L is 60 cm longer, 45 cm wider and 17 cm taller than the 500. That’s more than half a metre longer and almost the same wider – and you feel it.

Fiat should take a leaf out of the Mitsubishi Evo naming system and maybe call this the 500VL, or FL even…

The 500L doesn’t try to disguise its size either: sitting inside, the shoulder room is in such abundance that it feels as if you could squash in a third person between the driver and passenger. The rear can easily accommodate three adults, or 1 300 litres of cargo if you fold down all the seats.

Fiat 500L

Fiat 500L

You might be asking then, if the L is so Large, whether Fiat has managed to retain the 500’s character? What makes the 500 so special is that you can spend a small amount of money on a car that is very small, but has been styled so beautifully inside that it doesn’t feel small and cheap.

Unfortunately, Fiat seems to have forgotten what makes the 500 special, and has carried over very little form the small commuter. The interior is just not what you would expect from the 500. The dash colouring is not close to as bold as the 500, and the same can be said for most of the layout.

In actual fact, the 500L doesn’t feel bold or different at all; where Fiat was pushing the envelope with the 500, the L just feels way too safe, too conservative.

Apart from the rounded exterior lights that have been taken directly from the 500, the L comes across more like a Grand Panda than a larger 500.

Our test unit came equipped with the range-topping 1,6-litre MultiJet II diesel engine, which produces 77 kW and 320 Nm of torque and feels punchy and eager, as long as you don’t expect too much power after 3 750 rpm. It is also fairly efficient once you remember that you are actually driving a lorry and not an urban taxi, with a stated combined consumption of 4.5 l/100km.

Fiat 500L

Fiat 500L

The 500L is not a bad car, and with an asking price of R299 490 for the well-equipped diesel unit (in Lounge specification) there is a lot of value, and space, for the money. I just think that Fiat didn’t do enough to make the L feel like a 500. And that’s an opportunity missed …

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