The Fiat 500X, the original Italian crossover, has been updated inside and out with new looks and technology to satisfy a driver’s every needs. It’s available with a choice of three trim levels, Urban, City Cross and Cross Plus, three petrol engines, including two brand new more efficient turbo petrol engines, and now comes with a host of safety assistance systems as standard across the range. The new Fiat 500X is on sale now priced from £16,995 OTR.
Refreshed functionality and more 500 personality
The new Fiat 500X has evolved to become even more modern and functional as it introduces new comfort and safety features, while adding even more 500 family style.
New daylight running lights and LED rear light clusters are standard across the range, bring it even closer to the look of the rest of the 500 family. Standard on the Cross Plus, and optionally available on other trims, are the new LED headlights, made in partnership with Magneti Marelli. The LED daytime running lights give the front of the new Fiat 500X a clear, distinctive visual identity, while at the rear LED light clusters make the car even more recognisable, as well as increasing its visibility and safety on the road. As well as adding unmistakable 500 style, the LED headlights offer more powerful lighting, improving visibility, consume five times less energy than traditional halogens and reduce eye fatigue thanks to daylight-like illumination and covering a wider area. At a speed of 56mph obstacles can be spotted up to four seconds sooner – which is a distance of 100m –than with the standard halogen units.
Reasserting their distinct identities, the new exterior design highlights the two personalities of the model – the new Urban look features an all-new front and rear bumper design to make tackling city traffic chic, while the new Cross look adds new-look protective skid plates for taking on adventures.
Compact outside and roomy inside, its spacious and protective environment is embellished with the use of premium materials, high-quality finishes and handy storage compartments. The comfortable interior is unmistakably Italian in its style, and comes with a choice of seven different finishes in a choice of fabrics and colours, a wide range of seat settings and a roomy boot. The completely restyled cockpit features a new instrument cluster, with graphics that are now even easier to read, together with a new steering wheel which is contoured to ensure better positioning of the driver’s hands, provides perfect grip in Techno-leather upholstery and includes integrated radio controls. The instrument panel maintains its arrangement into three circular elements, in familiar 500 style, blending vintage looks with modern technology. Two analogue dials with speedometer and tachometers are arranged on the sides, while the 3.5-inch TFT display in the middle provides key information to the driver.
Next-generation FireFly petrol engines
The new Fiat 500X is the first Fiat model to fit the latest innovative family of turbo engines, designed to strike the right balance for customers between the driving performance and economy. Euro 6D compliant and fitted with Gasoline Particle Filter (GPF), the new turbo engines are the result of over 75,000 hours of virtual tests, 60,000 hours of real-life off-vehicle tests and 5 million kilometres clocked up on roads worldwide to confirm their robustness and reliability.
Developed on a modular structure with 0.33 litre cylinder unit, the new front-wheel drive turbo petrol engine line-up includes a three-cylinder 1.0-litre powerplant that delivers 120hp and 190Nm of torque and is paired with a six-speed manual transmission, as well as a four-cylinder 1.3-litre engine with 150hp and 270Nm of torque, in this case combined with six-speed dual clutch automatic transmission (DCT).
Their architecture guarantees efficiency, modularity, a high degree of component and production process standardisation, flexibility and openness to future evolutions. The new engines are made entirely from aluminium alloy, ensuring unbeatable lightness (the three-cylinder version weighs just 93kg), while the cylinder block, developed in partnership with Teksid, is in high-pressure die-cast aluminium alloy, with a bedplate architecture for the best combination of ride, weight and structural performance.
The use of many innovative technical characteristics contribute to improving performance and maximising driving comfort, such as direct fuel injection to maximise volumetric efficiency and the low inertia turbocharger controlled by an electrically operated wastegate actuator which, combined with a supercharger module water-cooled directly in the intake manifold, ensures a faster response and swift acceleration. The new turbo engines also optimise combustion efficiency through continual control of intake valve opening and timing. The specific intake and exhaust cam profiles improve low load efficiency by recycling exhaust gas through advance opening of the intake valves. When higher power is required, the engine reduces the real compression ratio by delaying valve closure, controlling knock and substantially improving fuel efficiency, even at the highest loads.
The range of petrol engines in the new Fiat 500X is completed by the entry level 110hp 1.6 E-Torq, combined with manual transmission and front-wheel drive, which is now upgraded to meet the Euro 6D pollution reduction standard and now features Start & Stop as standard.
