Fiat 500X, car review: Pricing is on the high side, could they know something we don’t?

The 2.0 MultiJet 140 Cross Plus AWD model will cost you £25,840 – and that’s where it’s getting harder to justify

Maybe you have to be an old dinosaur to find the notion of a Fiat 500 SUV ridiculous. SUVs are big things, aren’t they, and the 500 is, well, not.

But this is the 500X, and that’s not the same thing. It’s been many years since 4x4s started shrinking, anyway, so maybe this is actually a car with the zeitgeist on its side.

It certainly has a groovy image on its side, if nothing else, with an up-for-it attitude that’s bigger than its actual proportions.

Its prices are a little larger than life too, however, especially if you want an appropriately full kit list. You can find yourself paying closer to thirty than twenty grand – which for a Fiat 500, however far removed from the original it might be, is kind of confounding.

The range includes three engines. There’s a 1.4 petrol, which is the quietest of the lot, and a choice of 1.6 and 2.0-litre diesels.


 All models get cruise, air-con, a USB socket and a touch-screen display

Of these, the latter alone drives all four wheels. It does so through a nine-speed auto box, but the price you pay for all this is likely to send a lot of buyers scurrying back down the range.

They won’t mind what’s there. The 1.4, which is aided by a turbo, gets the thing moving quite nicely, and the entry-level diesel does its job just as effectively if a little more noisily.

Not that the cabin ever really loses its air of refinement. It’s not Audi standard, but you won’t be disappointed by the quality of the materials all around you and nobody will grumble about the room they’ve got in their seat. You’re unlikely to feel short changed by the boot, either.

In terms of trim, Fiat has long had a level called Popular which was forever being shortened to Pop. So now they’re just calling it Pop, and the one above it is… Pop Star. Oh dear.

All models get cruise, air-con, a USB socket and a touch-screen display. But Pop Star adds rear parking sensors as well as must-have styling in the form of alloys and body-colour bumpers. So it’s the one to have.

Spend more and you can get things like nav and xenons, or set off down the road to options heaven. All of which will add to those prices.

It’s worth fighting for a discount, though, because Fiat’s dealers are normally ready to talk turkey. And once you’ve got your hands on a 500X, you’ll find it cheap to run, slow to depreciate – and, no small thing, enjoyable enough to drive. It’s no Abarth, with soft-sprung body lean and rather lifeless steering, but it’ll cope with most things you care to throw at it.

Though first, of course, what you need to throw at is is money. Prices start at £17,995 for the 1.4 MultiAir 140 Pop Star, which isn’t bad considering our view on the petrol engine. At top of the range, though, the 2.0 MultiJet 140 Cross Plus AWD model will cost you £25,840 – and that’s where it’s getting harder to justify