Fiat 500L Beats Edition 2014 Review

Fiat has had a surprise hit with the 500L, which is due on sale in Australia by 2015. It has nothing in common with the cult-car 500 hatch, but Fiat is pushing the naming and visual links as hard as it can to convince the world that they’re a coherent model family. Now the almost SUV, almost people-mover has two new engines and a great sound system, but are they enough to mask its commercial-van origins?

First Fiat made its all-new 500 as charming as it could and to hell with practicality. Practicality is for Panda buyers and those that want charm instead, Fiat argues, will come over to the 500. Either way, they’re both essentially the same car underneath.

And come over they did, with the 500 (or Cinquecento, as it’s more beautifully called in its homeland) winning over as many converts in Europe last year as it did in its first year of operation, way back in 2008.

Fiat is many things, but it’s not completely gormless. Recognising it didn’t have a CR-V, Qashqai, Q3 or any other type of small SUV architecture at its disposal, it did the next best thing: it grabbed a commercial-vehicle chassis and stuck an SUV-style body on it.

Then, it figured, why not ride the 500 bus all the way to the beach and make the nose look remotely like the 500’s from certain angles and give it a 500-ish name? You know, something unmistakably 500, like 500L? And so it did and, to the surprise of many, it’s working reasonably well.

So well, in fact, that the 500L is the first Fiat to get the brand’s two newest engines: the upgraded 1.4-litre T-Jet turbo-petrol engine and the overhauled 1.6-litre MultiJet II 1.6-litre turbo-diesel.

It hasn’t stopped there, with Fiat fitting the two new powerplants in front of a cabin filled with 520 Watts of audio by Dr Dre’s Beats Audio outfit to create the 500L Beats Edition.

Combining the style of the Trekking with more audio power and actual power might not seem the stuff of facelifts, but that’s what works at Fiat and the parts they’ve fiddled with have turned out to be pretty good.

For starters, at the heart of the Beats Edition bit of the name is an eight-channel DSP-equipped amplifier and seven speakers, all said to be located after careful collaboration with the Beats Audio people but looking suspiciously like they’re plugged into existing speaker locations.

The result is the only car on sale in Europe (well, as of March 1) offering the Beats system. And if you don’t know what the Beats system is, Fiat’s Head of Brand for Europe, Gianluca Italia (no, seriously), suggests you should “Google it or ask your kids”.

Oddly, Fiat didn’t give the test cars any set audio programs or provide comparison cars without the system at the launch, so we can only tell you it sounded reasonably crisp when listening to Italian radio. And that you can plug most other audio devices into it via a jack or USB stick or Bluetooth, but that’s about all we can tell you.

Then there’s the engine fiddles. Both engines will be available across the 500L family (but debut in the Beats Edition) and both make 88kW of power, but in very different ways.

The petrol version is based around the T-Jet, which is an odd decision in itself. Fiat didn’t consider basing the upgrade around a MultiAir version of the engine, which comes with direct injection and the very clever variable valve lift system, because the T-Jet’s multi-point fuel-injection system was easier to convert for bi-fuel (LPG or CNG) work.

Still, while it carries a lower inherent technical base level, it still gets out 215Nm of torque at 2500rpm from its 1.4 litres, while its power peak arrives at 5000rpm.

In the 1290kg 500L Beats Edition, that’s good for a 189km/h top speed and a 0-100km/h sprint (if you can call it that) in 10.2 seconds.

It’s a nice little engine, feeling smooth and stronger than the numbers suggest. Engine Technology Director, Paolo Pallotti insists it has 200Nm of that 215Nm already cranking at 1750rpm, which explains its flexibility, and it has counter-rotating balancing shafts, which explains its smoothness, at least at low revs.

It still gets a little thrashy at higher revs as the Fire block no longer hides its historic GM origins under pressure and 6.9L/100km is hardly where you’d expect it to be on consumption.

The diesel is more convincing, with tweaks delivering 320Nm of torque at 1750rpm and 88kW of power at 3750. Not much of a revver, then.

It’s also considerably heavier than the T-Jet, with the extra engine mass and everything that goes with it lifting its dry weight to 1370kg (it’s another 80kg, for those who can’t be bothered scrolling back up).

It doesn’t bode well that its 0-100km/h sprint takes the modern eternity of 11.5 seconds, but the machine never feels that slow. It’s far more flexible than its petrol-powered cousin and its happiness at being rowed along in tall gears with the tacho needle wallowing in the lower half of its range is obvious.

You don’t need a lot of gear shifting in the 500L MultiJet II, because it’s gives you everything it’s got all the time, almost without regard to how many revs it’s got on board at any given throttle dab.

It’s also more convincing than the petrol version in its management of coarseness and vibration, too, because what composure it has is retained at all throttle openings and all revs.

A big chunk of the engine’s improvement over the existing 77kW version of the 1.6-litre turbo-diesel is its new Honeywell variable-geometry turbocharger, plus some software fiddles. Both engines retain the same 320Nm torque output, but the new jobbie gets another 11kW, and it stretches the power peak up from 3000rpm to 3750rpm.

Sadly, Fiat sees no need to deliver an automatic transmission or even a version of its own dual-clutch transmission (a light-weight thing using dry clutches instead of the normal wet clutches) to swap cogs. Italia insists there is no market demand for a self-shifter, which Australian models will come with, but the manual-auto sales split from some of its rivals suggests otherwise.

All 500L models are, therefore, three-pedal operations with six-speed gearboxes and they have long throws, but accurate slotting.

The interior equipment isn’t bad, either, with a five-inch touch-screen MMI system (that can be a little slow to load), auto headlights, dual-zone climate-control and electric front and rear windows.

Outside, it’s got 17-inch alloys, wheel-arch flares, mud-and-snow tyres, side skirts and a very-slightly helpful Traction mode to make the front-driver feel marginally less like a front-driver in mixed conditions.

While the interior practicality of the 500L’s generous luggage area, improved dash materials and rear seating will be enough to sway plenty, its ride and handling package is a long way removed from the class leaders.

It feels as if its chassis DNA bears little relationship to the 500 it borrows its name from and does its level best to keep the driver isolated from the consequences of any driver inputs.

Your steering inputs are initially ignored by the front wheels and then, grudgingly, the car’s course alters, though you’d never mistake it for being an enthusiastic alteration. Neither does it tell you anything about the underlying grip levels or the potential grip left in the car.

It rides as though the rear springs are far too heavy for the load and, what’s more, they’re under-damped and the whole thing rolls far more than usual these days. You also feel a bit like you’re sitting a long, long way above the roll centre.

But, if those things don’t concern you and you don’t mind changing gear – a lot, given the diesel’s limited rev range – then the style might sway you, because there’s little wrong with the new powerplants.

2014 Fiat 500L Beats Edition price and specs:
Price: TBA
Engine: 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 88kW/320Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual (so far)
Fuel: 4.8L/100km
CO2: 125g/km
Safety Rating: Five-star NCAP

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...

Don't forget to register to comment on this article.