Large: functional space
- 500 Style: the made in Italy icon has grown with 5 doors and lots more space
- Efficiency: the best ratio between external dimensions and interior space in its segment
- 3.17 cubic metres: the best passenger volume index in the segment
- Versatility: 1500 configurations to meet all needs
After 800,000 cars have been sold in 110 countries worldwide, today the 500 has grown up to accommodate new experiences and needs once more. If the 500 is the super-compact car perfect for young people and the city, the Fiat 500L is the first car of the 500 family able to contain the small pleasures and life's greatest emotions all together: children, friends, journeys, music and community.
There is a core topic in Fiat's history which links different moments and experiences, a route along which personalities moved by a profound sensitivity and ability to interpret the car's evolution have given their contribution. An ongoing commitment in defining products sharing a vast wealth of technical and design experiences, above all aimed at protecting that distinctive "inventive aptitude" recognised as one of the reasons for the success of Italian design worldwide, can be traced from Dante Giacosa to the new path Fiat Design has undertaken.
A succession of "records", genuine cornerstones of the Fiat brand's identity, clearly emerge from the 600 Multipla of 1956 - with respect to which the 500L project is placed in dialectical terms due to the recovery of several "archetypal" elements under the aegis of its multifunctional use and its particular morphological root - to the 500 of 1957, the 127 of 1972, the Panda of 1980, the Uno of 1983 and the Multipla of 1998 so we can understand the most radical and innovative car tuning.
The Fiat 500L is the result of a path along which Fiat designers had to tackle issues of technological feasibility, brand strategies and studies that set out to understand in advance what relationship we will have with the car in the future. An approach that attempts to go beyond the form-function connection to focus attention on the user and his needs.
500 Style: the icon of Italian style is growing
Besides being comfortable and functional, the Fiat 500L is cool. It expresses the taste of Italian style with a distinctive look and interprets Fiat's unique ability to conceive and design cars which are innovative in substance and in form. Substance turns into the concept of "space-efficiency" that distinguishes all of the most innovative Fiats in history.
Just as the 600 Multipla was the forerunner of the concept of compact people carrier, the 500L is the new Fiat interpretation of the Simply More philosophy applied to the Multispace concept. The 500L reformulates the category of compact cars for the modern family in an emotional vein by developing some of the 500's stylistic details in unprecedented forms.
The recognisable features of the Fiat 500L, marked by a body design that excludes edges and taut lines to favour "gentler" forms, refers to a "placid", non-aggressive object that conveys charm and foretells a more harmonious layout for the urban landscape and environment.
When looking at the new 500L, we realize that the iconic nature, namely the force and personality of the car's design, forms a real matrix of the entire project. Developed within the context of the new Fiat B segment platform, the 500L is an innovative car that addresses a more diversified and broader customer base and that aims at setting higher standards in terms of available on-board space and comfort. The result is a highly functional car able to "converse" with the user and offer quality to appreciate over the years.
One of the 500L's peculiarities pursued since the earliest packaging planning stages is greater interior volume, obtained by the meticulous compacting of the mechanical elements shared by designers and engineers alike. If the general lines of the vehicle's architecture follows the "cab forward" principles, from which reduction of the body and bonnet section up front is derived to the benefit of more available interior space - especially at the height of the waistline and roof - it is above all the "empathetic" vocation of the 500L's design that exalts the overall vehicle ergonomics. The Fiat 500L also boasts an extensive view of the outside and the greatest brightness of its category as it has the largest roof of its segment - 1.5 square metres of glass surface - and its windscreen pillars have been cleverly divided and tapered to offer clear advantages in terms of active and passive safety as well.
The Color & Material area of Fiat Group Automobiles specifically carried out a study aimed at classifying possible reference scenarios for the 500L, conducted to give appropriate formulations back to the sensorial experience. This research has allowed technologies and production processes such as to further increase the quality level and value of the physical, tactile and visual properties of the materials, single details and finishes to be applied, in addition to a wide range of body, roof and rim paintwork colour options.
Efficiency: the best ratio between external dimensions and interior space in its segment
According to the latest research, 4.1 metres is the average length of cars sold in Europe. It is a standard size that allows you to travel and easily move around in traffic. What is the length of the Fiat 500L? 4 metres and 15 centimetres.
But its real competitive advantage is that with only 7 cm more than a Fiat Punto, the Fiat 500L easily accommodates five passengers 2 meters tall with their five suitcases, without ever compromising passenger room. Suffice it to say that the Fiat 500L boasts the best passenger volume index in the segment: with front and rear volumes combined, passengers have a space of 3.17 cubic metres available.
The new model is leader in its category in terms of ratio between external dimensions - 415 cm long, 178 cm wide, 166 cm high and 261 wheelbase - and interior space understood both as passenger compartment and luggage compartment, which boasts a capacity of almost 400 litres, which means being able to transport up to five roller suitcases. With the Cargo Magic Space system, the load platform can also be adjusted on three levels separating fragile objects from heavy ones, clean objects from dirty ones, bulky objects from small ones. The load compartment is also filled with pockets and hooks in order to transport any object in total safety and tidiness.
Versatility: 1,500 possible configurations to meet all needs
The Fiat 500L is Large also in terms of functionality, as demonstrated by the 1,500 configurations of interior space combined with the 22 compartments of different sizes and the dashboard, suitably studied to group the instrument panel and main controls of the audio and IT devices into two distinct but adjacent zones. It is a totally liveable passenger compartment, as some interior dimensions sizes demonstrate: for example, the maximum width of the front part is 1456 mm (measured at the shoulders) while the height, from seat to roof, is 1034 mm (in the rear part the measurements are 1387 mm and 993 mm, respectively).
The numerous adjustments of the seats also contribute to top-level on board comfort. They can be adjusted on every axis using 8 different modes, starting from that of the driver that offers, as standard, a longitudinal configuration and reclining backrest while, on request, it can be electrically heated and adjusted both in height and at the lumbar level. The front passenger seat, on the other hand, can be fitted with a folding table backrest. In this latter case, you can have a handy support surface both for common objects, such as a handbag or a laptop, and for unusual items. When the rear seats are also folded down using the Fold&Tumble function, the customer can obtain a flat loading surface for the entire length of the passenger compartment (2.4 metres), in this way being able to make maximum use of the interior space.
The rear seat ensures the same versatility. It has a 60/40 split folding backrest that can be adjusted longitudinally and separately in 12 positions, with the third central head restraint and armrest offered as optional.
