Fiat 500L (2012 - 2022) 1.4 Pop Star 5d Owner Review

Car has clever seating arrangement and suits a family of 5 nicely with plenty of boot space and clever "extra" spaces to store stuff. Where this car falls down ( particularly this 1.4 pop star model ) is in the driving. There is enough power to make progress however the torque output is a joke for the weight and body size. Many people do not consider torque when choosing a car and instead focus on the raw horsepower, but fill the car with luggage and take a trip to somewhere sunny with the family and suddenly you begin to understand why torque is important, this car struggles terribly with larger inclines, you can drop 3 gears and have the car nearing red line and still lose speed as it simply cant cope with its own weight especially if you have baggage onboard. We use this car as the family car, i also have another car i use for work and as my own personal ( daddies car ) vehicle, that car is a little renault twingo GT with a small 1.2 litre turbo, and the difference in driveability is huge, ofcourse this isnt a fair comparison of two very very different cars, however its easier to see how poor the 1.4 non t-jet engine is for a car like the 500L. Besides the raw power the feeling behind the wheel is poor, the clutch is incredibly soft with loads of travel, you feel like your driving a bus, every gear change takes a second longer than is should. The steering is pretty good, not incredible amounts of feel but its effortless and quick to steer exactly where you want, the brakes are also excellent, discs all around and they are sharp and stop the car with little effort. Overall the car serves us well as a family vehicle, however i feel we have one of the poorest engines ever fitted to a vehicle of this size in this day and age. Avoid the standard 1.4 at all cost, the 95bhp might seem like enough but the torque is a huge hidden gremlin, oh and its really not great on fuel, again 45mpg may seem pretty average and not too bad but i doubt we get much near that because the car simply requires more gas to make good progress. Car could be very good but you have to get the right spec and engine.