Had a good poke around the 500L LHD the other day.

I love it.

Only one snag is the rear headroom - it is awful.

I am 5'11" and was hitting the roof by a good couple of inches.

I was Ok with the seat fully reclined. I would guess slightly above average and taller travelling in the back will have to do so reclined.

There is BAGS of legroom. Set the drivers seat to my comfort and then sat in the back behind and there was more legroom in the back than the front!!

With the seat reclined and legs fully out I nearly fell asleep.

I can't think of any direct competitors to this car in which case the rear headroom would be more of an issue.

Got the mini brochure and accessories brochure - loads of acessories - kayak carrier anyone!?

Was the glass roof causing the problems?

I think so

It's the glass roof. It makes it imossible for normal sized people to sit in the back: madness on the designers' part.

I like the car too, but obviously without that roof. I also wonder what the pedal space will be like when they move them over; there isn't much width for the LHD passenger's feet as it is.

I also wonder if the gearlever isn't set too low; the beauty of most Fiats is the closeness of the gearstick to the wheel and the ease of control this allows. When I had the wheel and seat seat for my frame I found myself leaning over slightly to access some of the gears... not good.

But: wait and see I guess.

Did you try with the seats reclined?

Good for sleeping, not much good for reading or using the tray tables though.

You can also fit OK if you slouch as there is so much leg room.

For me I thought it was really stupid but I otherwise liked the glass roof. The space and light into the car is fantastic.

Plus, I thought, I will very very rarely have adults in the back (maybe 3 times in 4 years with the Bravo).. Just a baby and I will likely have a different car by the time he is 180cm like me.

WHY though? They put allot of effort into maximising space only to do something stupid like that. Oh well, I do absolutely love it otherwise. A massive improvement over my 2009 Bravo in so many ways.

It's certainly an improvement over the Bravo.

If you slide the rear seat forwards and, as you say, slouch, you might just miss the roof, but this is hardly an ideal solution.

In all the drives I have seen on YouTube the people in the back are small. In fact, whenever I see Fiat engineers/executives etc. talking about their cars they nearly always appear to be below average height. I wonder if this has someting to do with it? There was a tester once who could barely see over the wheel!

Fiat is apparently taking a number of pre-orders for the car so it might just sell. In a world of motoring blandness we need someting that doesn't look like a shark (Japan/Korea) or a same-as same-as white good (Germany).

Re: Re: 500L rear headroom poor

Ulpian said:

It's certainly an improvement over the Bravo.

If you slide the rear seat forwards and, as you say, slouch, you might just miss the roof, but this is hardly an ideal solution.

In all the drives I have seen on YouTube the people in the back are small. In fact, whenever I see Fiat engineers/executives etc. talking about their cars they nearly always appear to be below average height. I wonder if this has someting to do with it? There was a tester once who could barely see over the wheel!

Fiat is apparently taking a number of pre-orders for the car so it might just sell. In a world of motoring blandness we need someting that doesn't look like a shark (Japan/Korea) or a same-as same-as white good (Germany).

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One of the big reasons I decided to change was that I was bored with the Bravo. That certainly wasn't going to be relieved by an i30 for example. You've hit the nail on the head there.