Fiat 500L 1.4 – A Five-Door Mini MPV

Like Pinocchio’s nose, it just grew and grew…

The Fiat 500L has had me vexed for a while. I needed to see it in the metal in order to get my head around its dimensions, and now I have. It isn’t a five-door 500, it’s one that’s been mutated into a compact MPV. Like its Panda sibling then, but bigger and posher with the 500′s Pokemon face grafted onto it. It’s cutesy to the max, with a boxy stance and airy cabin awash with sunlight thanks to a 1.5m-long panoramic sunroof.

Another thing that had me scratching my head was the ‘L’ in its name. Large? Light? Lounge? The answer of course is a marketing department’s wet dream – “all of the above”. Alluding to its great proportions and aforementioned greenhouse effect.

Eventually, its moniker was explained to us, the L signifying the gesture you make with your index finger and thumb when maximizing (a pinch would minimize) things on a modern mobile touchscreen device such as an iPad. At no point was it mentioned that the same gesture when affixed to one’s forehead implies something quite derogatory. So I won’t mention it now (except for just then).

We were invited to experience the L on some of Cape Town’s most enjoyable driving roads, including Chapman’s Peak, De Waal Drive and Ou Kaapse Weg. Which we promptly did, with much rowing of cogs contained in the solitary six-speed manual transmission on offer. This was connected to your choice of 1.4-litre petrol (70kW) and 1.6-litre turbo diesel (77kW). Sadly I was in the torque-barren petrol model, which at 1245kg had its work cut it out. Koni shocks were doing duty at each corner of a McPherson front, torsion beam rear suspension and the result was super compliant, with a super light helm taking care of twirling duties. Not light enough? Thumb the CITY button on the dash and the steering wheel spins like a hula hoop made out of feathers. If you like that sort of thing.

On-board kit includes a six-speaker audio and multimedia system with a five-inch touch-screen interface enabling Bluetooth connectivity as well as USB and AUX. And then there’s the raft of safety kit, with acronyms such as ABS, EBD, ASR/MSR (traction and stability) and even a new one called ERM – otherwise scarily known as Electronic Rollover Mitigation. They’ve really named everything they could here, including the electronic steering, here-after known as DST or Drive Steering Torque. There’s also a Hill Holder function, but sadly it isn’t called HH. Add to that the full complement of six airbags and I reckon that 5-Star NCAP is well deserved. It’s as safe as a 500L-shaped house, but with a 3-year/100 000km maintenance plan thrown in.

Verdict

500L is to the 500 what the Countryman is to the Mini. Similar back story too, but cheaper.