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2015 Fiat 500L Road Test | Edmunds.com

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited March 2015 in FIAT
image2015 Fiat 500L Road Test | Edmunds.com

Fiat's 500L adds space and practicality over the smaller 500. We test-drive it to see how practical it really is compared to the competition.

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    throwbackthrowback Member Posts: 445
    This car has some awkward angles. Also, who comes up with these names? " Trekking Collection 5 package"
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    bankerdannybankerdanny Member Posts: 1,021
    The Mini Cooper 4-door is the most obvious competitor, not the Countryman.
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    kokomojoekokomojoe Member Posts: 150
    Lets not forget it is at the top of lest reliable cars in the US. FIAT still has problems with this issue it has haunted them for decades and was the many reason they left the US in the first place.
    So until they improve the quality of their cars including Chrysler/Dodge I would not buy and thing from this companyy
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    squarefoursquarefour Member Posts: 24
    So, basically, this is meant to be a larger, more practical 500, yet it has none of the 500's defining positive characteristics. Instead of cute, it's pretty ugly. Rather than tossable and zippy, it's sloppy. What that means, then, is simply that Fiat is more interested in quick sales than they are in providing a good product. Anyone who buys one of these over a Cooper 4-door is an idiot.
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    emajoremajor Member Posts: 332
    When I see the cargo capacity, horsepower figure, and $21K starting price, my first thoughts are Jetta Sportwagen as the most natural competitor to this. $21K will buy you a 5 cylinder Sportwagen that will shame this Fiat in just about any metric you care to throw at it. Soon it will be the new model with the 1.8T and the gap widens. Move up to the $29K range and you're looking at a well-equipped TDI. I'm having a hard time envisioning a situation where the Fiat wins here.
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    roiscubaroiscuba Member Posts: 4
    I actually love this car. My wife and I first bought a '14 Trekking model w/ manual trans, which was later wrecked (wife ran a red light and T-boned another car at an intersection and walked away without injury) and that car was replaced with a '14 Lounge model fully loaded with the automated manual. Yes, the car has it's quirks but I don't find it any more distracting or annoying than any other car on the market. We cross shopped the Kia Soul and , the Fit, and the Scion and found that with the factory incentives, we got much more car for the money. We needed a wagon but that market has been abandoned. Yes, there were the Volvo, BMW, and MB wagons but those were wwwwaaaayyy out of my price range. For $20-$25k, we simply couldn't find another similiarly equipped car. The VW was the closest competition and while you can theoretically get a VW Sportwagen for approx $25K, good luck finding one on the dealer lots. They just didn't exist in my area. I couldn't find one VW less than $30k. I actually like the seating position, and I have no idea what people are talking about with the steering wheel position. The ride is a bit choppier than I like but it's acceptable, when on boost the car actually feels pretty sporty. It's smooth on the hiway and the electric steering is actually one of the better ones I've driven. Keep in the mind the 2 biggest hits against the 500L has been the automated manual when it first hit the market but that issue has been addressed with programming updates and the infotainment center was wonky when it first was released. Both those issues have been fixed. In combined 30K miles between the 2 cars, we've had ZERO issues. The only issue I have with the car is on the Lounge, steering slightly pulls to the right when the road has even a slight crown (our Trekking didn't do that so it's particular to this car) and the switchgears feels a little cheap, but otherwise these cars have fulfilled our needs perfectly and I wouldn't hesitate to buy another one. I also have a pristine '86 Bertone X1/9 that outside of normal maintenance, has been trouble free. I was also in a rental 500 and was rear ended by a Nissan Altima. I walked away from the wreck without injury, the Altima dropped it's engine on the road. If it wasn't for a bit of rear bumper wrapped around a rear wheel, I could have drove the 500 away from the accident. FIAT, in my opinion, doesn't deserve the reputation they have here in the states. They've improved quite a bit since the FIAT American's know from the 70's and 80's. They don't become one of the largest car makers in the world by being as crappy as everyone makes them out to be. There are good cars, and I am very happy with mine. Your mileage may vary.
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    unhappyfiat63unhappyfiat63 Member Posts: 1
    We have the 2014 Fiat 500L Sport. Love the car, the customer service sucks big time. The car has developed a knocking noise in the front end when going over bumps. We do not have a dealer in the area and when we purchased the car the dealer said we could use Chrysler for both service and warranty work. 8832 Kilometers on our car, called for warranty and Chrysler will not even look at it. Do your homework if you are in an area where there is no Fiat dealers. Fiat has a knee bag module update and they want us to drive 10 hours away, nearest dealer to have the air bag knee module installed. Guess we will be selling our Fiat and back to Toyota we go. Thanks for all the help Fiat, nice of you to leave a customer that drove 2800 kilometers to buy your car, out in the cold.
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