2021 FIAT 500X

Great things were predicted for the Fiat 500x when it was released in 2015. Unlike its odd-looking, tall sister the 500L or the teeny-tiny 500 city car, the 500x is a properly America-focused crossover. And Americans love crossovers. But the 500x has never had much luck finding an audience and sales peaked in 2016 at 12,599 units. Since then the 500, 500L, and 124 Spider have been dropped from Fiat’s dwindling number of U.S. showrooms, and the 500x sold just 1,428 units in 2020.

The ingredients for success are there. The 500x shares a platform and engine with Jeep’s very popular Renegade, and both are made in the same factory in Melfi, Italy. The Jeep is square-jawed and upright, while the Fiat imbues the same pieces with jaunty Italian flair in the mode of the departed 500. It’s a stylish machine even more than a half-decade after introduction.

The sporty lines, however, cut into both passenger and cargo space. Both the 500x and Renegade have tight back seats even by the standards of subcompact crossovers, but the 500x is especially stingy on cargo space. While the Renegade is some two inches shorter overall, it offers 18.5 cubic-feet of cargo space behind the rear seats, and 50.8 with them folded. The 500x offers only 14.1 and 32 with them folded, though the front passenger seat also folds for some additional room. Although quite stylish, the cheap-feeling interior materials also seem out of step with the 500x’s price.

All 500x models are powered by a 1.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 177 horsepower and 210 pound-feet of torque mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission. This engine is an option on the Jeep, but standard on the Fiat, and it pulls the 500x along quite well. All-wheel drive is standard and the Fiat appropriately sure-footed, though it isn’t the fastest or the most fun to drive of tiny crossovers, especially since the arrival of the Mazda CX-30.

When it first debuted, the 2016 500x earned a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), but the agency hasn’t tested one recently and 2021 models earn only a “good” rating for roof strength and “poor” for headlights. The 500x makes all of its active safety features extra cost options, and none are available on the base Pop trim, a major demerit when much less expensive rivals like the Hyundai Venue make many features like automatic emergency braking and lane keep assist standard.

The 500x’s higher level trims get more equipment, but they also cost more, and the 500x is not particularly cheap. Opting for the higher trims puts this little crossover in competition with even better equipped rivals like the CX-30 and Hyundai Kona, both of which also come with visually appealing styles of their own.