Gadgetory

this is the 2014 Fiat 500l though it is a Fiat 500 a name it's a totally different vehicle in every other respects it's wider it's bigger and heavier it's taller there's more interior space there's nothing small about this 500 L but it still got the heart of a tiny car under the hood let's pull over and I'll show you what I mean now under the hood you'll find one of the few things that the 500 L shares with the standard Fiat 500 and that is its 1.4 liter multi air turbo engine now that 1.4 liter engine is the same engine that you'll find under the hood of the Fiat 500 turbo and the 500 Abarth here we're looking at about 160 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque which is not half bad for it a vehicle that weighs at about 3,200 pounds now that weight puts it a little bit heavier than for example the Mazda cx-5 but it's got a little bit more power as well so we're expecting better acceleration from this vehicle maybe not as good handling power is either gonna go through a manual transmission or in this case a 6-speed DCT transmission that's a dual clutch automated manual so you're gonna get manual efficiency with automatic convenience the EPA reckons that in this configuration the 500l is good for 24 miles per gallon city 33 on the highway and a combined average of about 27 miles per gallon that's not bad for a big old vehicle like this let's hop into that and see exactly how spacious it is now when you hop in the driver's seat of the Fiat 500l you realize that well there's a lot of space in here and there's also a lot of visibility one of the best features of this vehicle is that you get a lot of greenhouse glass big wide windshield these sort of between the a pillar windows and this huge $1100 power sunroof all of that's gonna work together to create a bright and airy feeling and that's kind of the whole point of this vehicle you got a lot of space for people and your junk now we're talking about cabin tech you kind of know that out of the box is gonna be a pretty sparsely equipped vehicle when on fiat website they're talking about how great the power locks are fortunately we do have cabin tech that's been upgraded with the $1700 UConnect infotainment system now this is straight out of the Chrysler parts bin it's something that the Fiat Chrysler partnership kind of brings to this brand our navigation is going to be powered by Garmin even though you won't see a Garmin logo anywhere on the infotainment system but the way that the maps look and the way the menu structure is organized is straight out of Garmin portable navigation device as far as audio sources we've got USB connectivity we've got an SD card slot an auxilary input right down here at the bottom of the dashboard you've also got radio and satellite radio with available audio sources one thing that you will not find in this vehicle is a CD or DVD player slot fee and Chrysler have completely digital pickle drives though if you've got physical discs lying around you're gonna want to rip those to a USB Drive or something before you hit the road audio is gonna come through in this case an optional beat audio system that's the same beats by dre that you see on everyone's headphones the system's also been optimized to work with digital audio so those of you who are worried about losing that CD drive can know that the stereo system has been optimized for compressed digital audio also part of that UConnect system is going to be bluetooth connectivity if we pop in here we can see that we're paired with our phone that's gonna also include audio streaming from a paired device and if you get a text message you can actually view the message on the system right here and if you're driving you'll get a pop-up that ask if you want to listen to it take the speech and then reply with a can response courtney parem word to the wise don't rent a car in the hood now it's got a small cars engine and small car power 160 horsepower in a vehicle this big isn't really a ton to have a lot of fun with the big vehicle also has a lot more weight and mass to kind of move around but from where I'm sitting in the cabin a lot of the 500l size is just empty space that you can fill with people and things the suspensions gonna be a McPherson front situation up front and a torsion bar suspension in the rear with Coney shocks that's the name brand it's kind of interesting to see that in a vehicle without any sort of performance cred but the Fiat 500l doesn't really feel like a performance car as you go around corners there's a lot of body roll because the mass is really high and I'm pretty sure that all this glass up top isn't doing anything to help that okay let's price this 2014 Fiat 500l the 500l is gonna start at nineteen thousand one hundred ninety five dollars at the entry point but this trekking model has a couple of additional creature comforts and styling upgrades it's gonna bring the price up to about $22,000 however as tested we're at twenty six thousand eight hundred and forty five dollars and that's because we've got a couple of options that you're gonna want to consider when choosing your 500l the first is this $1100 power sunroof and let me tell you if you're looking at the 500l and you don't get this sunroof why are you even bothering it's one of the best features on this car we've also got the Beats Audio system that's a $700 option on this trekking model and that's going to give you really bass heavy audio if you're into that sort of thing and for early adopters fee it's gonna toss in its premiere package that normally runs you one thousand seven hundred and forty five bucks now that package is going to include the touchscreen UConnect navigation system the rear view camera and Park Distance system it's included here at no additional charge but even if you don't get it for the freebie it's definitely worth the money