General 1.4 engine in 500L

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General 1.4 engine in 500L

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Afternoon all,

I was wondering if anyone had test driven/bought the 500L with the 1.4 engine and what they thought of it?

The initial reaction on here is that people generally seem to think it will be too slow, but I wonder whether it will be like the 1.2 in the 500 and Panda, i.e. IMO it's fine as long as you know how to get the best out of it!(y)

Grateful for any thoughts.
 
As I've posted elsewhere I haven't driven the 1.4, but as I say, I have written it off I'm afraid. It doesn't even have the virtue of economy, doubtless because it is constantly working so hard, and performance figures are poor too.

The 500 is a different car so I'm not going to make a comparison, except to say that I have driven the Panda TA and I found it to be an absolute hoot. But then the Panda is a different car too, and the turbo makes a big difference. But I concede that the 1.2 is enough in the Panda and 500 and doesn't cause annoyance in either of these small cars.

PS. I've just found this, from an Autocar test of the long (seven seater) 500L...

"...with 1.4-litre turbo petrol and 1.6 Multijet diesels, both giving 118bhp, to come towards the end of the year."

So there we are, Fiat is introducing adequately powerful engines later in the year. Good.
 
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Just purchased a 500L with the 1.4 Turbo in Florida, USA. A little slow to get of the line, but once going smooth and quick acceleration. I must mention that it is equiped with the twin clutch semi-auto. In short no complaints in this department.
 
Well done, and lucky you.

A great car, and an interesting one. I hope all goes well.

The most powerful engines we get, as yet, are the 105 bhp TA (twin cylinder) and the 105 bhp 1.6 Diesel. Both good engines, but not offering the 160 bhp that is taken for granted in the US.

Of course Fiat like the rest has to get corporate CO2 emissions down to an average of 95 gm/km by 2020, so producing thirstier cars is not really a runner. However, we are promised the 1.4 you get, in a lower state of tune, later in the year, so there is hope ;)
 
I live in Canada and have a 2014 Fiat 500L Trekking, signature yellow with the white roof. It is a 1.4 Turbo with 160 hp. Mine is 6 speed manual transmission. It has plenty of pick up and go power and in my opinion it can be better utilized with the manual transmission.
 
Afternoon all,

I was wondering if anyone had test driven/bought the 500L with the 1.4 engine and what they thought of it?

The initial reaction on here is that people generally seem to think it will be too slow, but I wonder whether it will be like the 1.2 in the 500 and Panda, i.e. IMO it's fine as long as you know how to get the best out of it!(y)

Grateful for any thoughts.

We test drove the 1.4 and subsequently ordered one which we pick up on Sunday:D

It is true it is not going to set any land speed records and has to be revved fairly soundly if you want to make rapid progress.

But it suits us, If I was to compare it based on the test drive I would say it is slightly less spritely than the 1.2 in our 500, given the Power to weight ration I guess this can be expected.

The car buyer revue on You Tube goes for the 1.6 diesel as the best engine but we didn't test drive one of these and I'm not a big fan of diesels anyway.



I will be able to give more info. next week after we pick ours up.
 
I live in Canada and have a 2014 Fiat 500L Trekking, signature yellow with the white roof. It is a 1.4 Turbo with 160 hp. Mine is 6 speed manual transmission. It has plenty of pick up and go power and in my opinion it can be better utilized with the manual transmission.

Sadly we don't currently get the turbo on the 1.4 in the UK which is a shame.
 
OK having had the 500L 24 hours and driven it much more than we did on the test drive I can say that the 1.4 is certainly 'peppy' enough for us.

It is also surprisingly 'torquey' and will pull the L around bends in third that required the 1.2 500 to be dropped into second.

The chief co-pilot who has a more 'press on' type driving style than I do reckons it's nippier than the 1.2 in the smaller and lighter the 500.

So we are happy.

Clearly fuel economy is not going to be as good as the 500 but we have to sacrifice some things for the extra room.

.... and as expected the gear change however is 'vague' when compared to that little stick shift in the 500, that was always going to be an obvious difference. But we knew that from the test drive.
 
How do you find the steering wheel with regards to it obscuring the speedo?

Well I didn't notice it - till you mentioned it. :cool:

I am of course joking but yes it definitely does partly obscure it you do have to move your head slightly lower to see the full speedo. Even adjusting the steering wheel doesn't help. Annoyingly it's the 30 mph bit that is most obscured.

The rev counter isn't obscured at all though and IMHO the problem could be sorted by FIAT swapping the locations of the two dials as seeing the rev counter is not as crucial.

My wife who is a lot shorter than me does not have a problem and can see clean through the wheel.
 
Thanks for giving some early feedback on the engine, sounds promising!

Shame about the gearstick but as you say it was never going to be as nice as the 500. I just wish the designers could have somehow incorporated the design from the Panda/500, surely they must have known how good it was?

Regarding the obscured speedo - that is exactly what I noticed when I had a good look round a 500L on Saturday. However, after having a play around with the steering wheel height and adjusting the driver's seat height accordingly, I found that it was alright in the end.
 
Currently have a 1.6 Diesel 500L as a loan car and have to say it is quite impressive, pulls well and feels quite nippy.

Seems very refined too for a diesel - is it worth the price premium?? I don't know TBH but I would advise anybody to try one before making a final decision as I was pleasantly surprised.
 
Test drove the 1.4 on launch (it was fine) but had to wait 2 months for my dealer to get a Twin Air (preferred choice) for me to test drive.
Fell for the Twin Air totally
Incredible engine. Joy to drive always
 
Test drove the 1.4 NA engine. Far too slow for a car of this size, feels absolutely pedestrian compared to the 500 1.4 as it is so much heavier.
 
Which is why they don't fit it in the MPW version, or whatever it's called.

Looked at an ad for a Vauxhall Omega yesterday, with the 2L Diesel. The stated - I know! - mpg is 76, with 0-60 in 10.5!! CO2 of 99!!!

Yes, I know! But that's a big car, and they want only c.£20K for it!

Fiat's biggest challenge as I see it is to get their performance/consumption ratio improved.
 
Which is why they don't fit it in the MPW version, or whatever it's called.

Looked at an ad for a Vauxhall Omega yesterday, with the 2L Diesel. The stated - I know! - mpg is 76, with 0-60 in 10.5!! CO2 of 99!!!

Yes, I know! But that's a big car, and they want only c.£20K for it!

Fiat's biggest challenge as I see it is to get their performance/consumption ratio improved.

Sorry to pee on your parade and all, but the 500XL has got the 1.4 engine in it; take a look at the online configurator.

If that's what you meant anyway!:D
 
No, you're not peeing on my parade, as you put it, because I'm not on parade :p

But somebody wrote that the seven seater wasn't available with the 1.4, so I'm going by that. Such a low powered engine to lug about seven people and luggage would never be properly economical, or fast, so I'll stick to my basic premise that Fiat needs to work hard on the economy/performance equation.

I drove a petrol 1.6 Renault scenic once and that too was hampered by the lack of power, and the engine noise at speed, which was was awful, as was the consumption. Joining a motorway on an incline was positively dangerous so slow was the car.

I can see that if somebody only ever wanted to pootle about the countryside at forty and wasn't interested in driving, the small engine might just do, but in the cut and thrust of everyday suburban and distance motoring having to thrash the engine just to barely keep up isn't good enough.
 
No, you're not peeing on my parade, as you put it, because I'm not on parade :p

But somebody wrote that the seven seater wasn't available with the 1.4, so I'm going by that. Such a low powered engine to lug about seven people and luggage would never be properly economical, or fast, so I'll stick to my basic premise that Fiat needs to work hard on the economy/performance equation.

I drove a petrol 1.6 Renault scenic once and that too was hampered by the lack of power, and the engine noise at speed, which was was awful, as was the consumption. Joining a motorway on an incline was positively dangerous so slow was the car.

I can see that if somebody only ever wanted to pootle about the countryside at forty and wasn't interested in driving, the small engine might just do, but in the cut and thrust of everyday suburban and distance motoring having to thrash the engine just to barely keep up isn't good enough.

Haha! No you're quite right, you're not on parade are you!:D

Well I am only going by what the configurator says. To be honest, it's often wrong with many things, but I would be surprised if they were offering an engine that simply isn't for sale in a particular model.

Anyway, going back to ahmett's point about the 1.4 500L feeling pedestrian compared to his 1.4 500. Whilst I don't doubt that for one second, I think it's a bit unfair to compare his car with the 1.4 engine in the 500L.

A fairer comparison IMO would be with the 1.2 in the 500 as it is the entry level engine - as MJG says above, it does seem to be alright in that respect. But of course the trade off is poorer fuel economy and higher emissions/tax band...swings and roundabouts eh!
 
A fairer comparison IMO would be with the 1.2 in the 500 as it is the entry level engine - as MJG says above, it does seem to be alright in that respect. But of course the trade off is poorer fuel economy and higher emissions/tax band...swings and roundabouts eh!

This in my view is a much fairer comparison.

We have just completed a 900 mile trip to Cornwall and back with 4 adults (no lightweights) 1 Jack Russell and all the associated paraphernalia that four adults going on holiday need.

The 500L never at any point felt pedestrian. Yes we had to drop from 6th to 5th on a few long motorway gradients to maintain speed but given most cars don't have a 6th gear anyway this was academic. We managed to keep up with the prevailing speeds at all times and only the idiots wanting to go stupidly fast and well over the limit passed us - I don't think you can ask for more than that.

A very rough mpg I worked out was around 48 mpg - which whilst not brilliant is not outrageously bad either, for such a big car with a relatively small petrol engine.

But yes the road fund licence is a lot more for a 1.4 500L than it is for a 1.2 500. Interestingly though the insurance premium was almost identical in our case, when I expected that to be a bit more too.
 
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