THE AUTO PAGE
By John Heilig
- MODEL: 2017 Fiat 500X
- ENGINE: 2.4-liter I-4
- TRANSMISSION: 9-speed automatic
- HORSEPOWER/TORQUE: 160 hp @ 5,500 rpm/184 lb.-ft. @ 2,500-4,000 rpm
- WHEELBASE: 101.2 in.
- LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT: 167.2 x 75.5 x 69.7 in.
- TIRES: P215/60R17
- CARGO CAPACITY: 12.2/19.9 cu. ft. (rear seat backs up/down)
- ECONOMY: 21 mpg city/29 mpg highway/24.5 mpg test
- FUEL TANK: 12 gal. (est)
- CURB WEIGHT: 3,305 lbs.
- TOWING CAPACITY: Not recommended
- COMPETITIVE CLASS: Chevrolet Trax, Ford Escape, Honda CR-V
- STICKER: $31,720 (includes $995 delivery, $3,690 options)
- BOTTOM LINE: The Fiat 500X is by far the best looking of the many Fiat 500 models. While it is an okay CUV, it is hampered by a buzzy engine and poor fuel economy for its size.
It seems everyone has seen the Fiat 500 “Viagra”
commercial, where a humble two-door 500 is transformed by the addition of a
blue pill to the gas tank into the 500X crossover sport utility vehicle. The
pill did a wonderful job of transforming the 500X into the best looking of the
many 500 variants. The exterior styling is cute. In many cases, that’s where
the appeal ends.
The 500X is a sister vehicle to the Jeep Renegade. It is
two feet longer than the base 500, and the same length as the 500L The X’s
101-inch wheelbase is 10 inches longer than the base 500.
Inside, the front passengers are faced with a metal dash
that is painted body color, in our tester it was bright red. Upper dash
surfaces are soft touch.
Seat upholstery in our tester was a nice deep brown.
While the color was striking, it certainly didn’t go with the red dash. Now if
they painted the dash a nice matte black, it would have looked a lot better.
Front seats are also firm and don’t have a lot of side support. They were
comfortable on long rides, and they were heated. Rear seat upholstery matches
the front, but there is minimum legroom. One neat feature of the rear seats is
that they have their own sunroof, with the front seats having another. The
front sunroof moves in all the standards ways, while the rear is fixed.
Ride quality is not great. We took the 500X on a long
road trip and probably felt every road nonconformity over 300 miles. With a
relatively stiff suspension, one would think handling would be good to very
good, but it is less than that.
My biggest complaint is with the engine. Our tester was
equipped with the 2.4-liter I-4 rated at 160 horsepower. A 1.4-liter turbo four
is available. The engine had decent power and acceleration was good. For
example, the 500X did a good job on highway entry ramps and merging was never a
problem. However, the engine tended to be buzzy most of the time. It was less
buzzy on long Interstate runs, but it was always there to some extent.
I felt that our test fuel economy of 24.5 mpg was
unacceptable for a vehicle of this size. And this included hundreds of
Interstate miles. We have a large 16-year-old American sedan in our garage that
gets more than 30 mpg on the highway with a V6 engine.
There are three transmission settings: sport, normal
(automatic), and snow and rain. Sport mode increases steering feedback and
changes the transmission shift schedules, for example.
Cargo capacity is about what you’d expect from a small
CUV. We had more than enough room for our luggage and a few extras even without
flipping the rear seat backs. For empty nesters like ourselves, cargo capacity
was what we would need more than 90 percent of the time.
The instrument panel consists of a central digital
speedometer that can be con figured other ways, an analog speedometer to the
left and a tachometer on the right. The centrally mounted infotainment screen
contains an easy-to-program navigation system that picked up our intended
destination easily.
The audio system is okay, but because of small speakers
and the noisy engine, it was sometimes hard to hear. The HVAC system did its
job as we traversed from freezing temperatures to those in the 80s.
Interior storage consists of two glove boxes, one in the
red metal section and one below. There’s a cubby at the base of the center
stack that has 12-volt, USB and AUX plugs. The small center console/arm rest
also has a USB plug. There’s room for water bottles in all four doors.
We were impressed with the number of safety features. The
500X has a blind spot monitor, rear cross traffic alert, lane departure warning
and back up camera. With the blind spot monitor, if you engage the turn signal
while there is a vehicle in the blind spot (even if you can see it) you get a
very loud alarm.
The 500X is disappointing because it has a lot of very
good features. The engine isn’t one of them, because it’s noisy and has very
poor economy. Maybe Fiat would have been better served if they had used a Fiat
engine, rather than the Jeep engine.
(c) 2017 The Auto Page
Syndicate
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