WASHINGTON — The Fiat’s return to the U.S. market is still relatively recent. The small 500 two-door model and the strange-looking 500L didn’t enjoy great sales until a bump from the Pope’s U.S. visit last year.
Sure I saw a few on the road, but Fiat really needed a vehicle more people would want to buy. There’s no better market to enter right now than the up-and-coming compact crossover class. The Fiat 500X, a front-wheel drive base model, has an attractive starting price — around $20,000.
The Fiat 500X is a fashionable car and a stylish ride. This compact crossover shares a lot with the Jeep Renegade, and both are built together in Italy. Although it doesn’t look like the Jeep, you can still tell it’s a Fiat.
While the Fiat 500L looks a little bulbous, the 500X’s styling is on point with the correct proportions. It looks like a taller and larger four-door Fiat 500, but it appears smaller than it really is. The larger 18-inch wheels help shrink the rest of the body size. The front and rear styling also looks like the smaller, stylish Fiat 500.
I drove the top trim level, Lounge, so those larger wheels are standard on the loaded AWD $30,000 compact crossover. There is some chrome trim around the windows and door handles, and it stands out a bit against the Blanco Gelato paint color. (This is an Italian car, so why say “white,” right?) The black lower trim also helps break up the size of the 500X, and it plays well with the white paint.
The interior is a step up for Fiat vehicles in general. The materials are nicer and closer to the competition in this new and growing class of little crossovers. The leather seats are comfortable enough for road trips or the daily commute. The soft touch materials on the dash and the strange, but stylish instrument cluster that sticks up high on the dash are nice. The two-tone scheme is welcome; the white plastic insert stands out.
There is a surprising amount of space in this small package. There was room for two car seats and a booster (something some larger vehicles can’t say). The tech and sound system are easy to use. Thanks to the Uconnect system with voice recognition, radio and NAV are easy to use on the road. The dual-zone climate control is simple to use, too.
The Fiat 500X Lounge has the larger 2.4L 4-cylinder engine with 180 hp and a 9-speed automatic transmission. On lower-level models, a smaller turbocharged engine is the base.
The horsepower is welcome and decent in most situations, but it does get a bit buzzy at higher RPMs. The automatic is sometimes lazy to downshift when power is needed, and it takes a bit to catch up. That being said, the ride is pretty good. It dispatches most bumps without much fuss; only the bigger ones and rough roads upset the ride a bit.
The Fiat 500X is pretty quiet on the road for its class, with only a slight amount of wind noise. It did pretty well on gas, too. I averaged 26 mpg for the week of mixed driving, a little better than the sticker, on regular fuel.
The Fiat 500X is a small and stylish crossover that’s really competitive in this white-hot little crossover market. Now, with the help of Jeep, Fiat moves a bit more mainstream. But with that Italian flair and style, that helps set itself apart from the other little crossovers looking for your hard-earned money.
