General The trip... The Car

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General The trip... The Car

fused

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Finally did the trek from Pittsburgh to Boston and back...

To Boston, hit severe winter weather...
And even though I wished that I had extreme contacts on this car, the stock ones were ok... Not great but got it done...

Rest areas were dicey but taking it very easy, it got traction.. There were a few accidents that stopped traffic for a while each... Average speed was 42 mph... 15 hours for a 12 hour trip...


THE RETURN TRIP was very different...
Overcast, love overcast, but dry.
This car performed almost as well as my Mini Cooper.
Mini at 190 horses, this fiat at 160, slightly noticeable differences but they geared this 500L nicely... Hills, it didn't feel hills, never struggled and we were loaded down for a weeks trip.

Had a few times that agility and HP were important and yes, it touched 100mph going up hill just a few times to pass some serious bottle necks and it did it well, with grace....

Now at just over 2k miles, it has smoothed out very nicely. Yeah I keep hearing that cars don't break in any more.... Not buying it. A much better running car now after the trip than in the beginning.

Is it an even Fiat offering to compete with the mini?
The Mini will still clean up on this fiat.
But that's not to say that the fiat isn't great.
In all fairness I put nice tires on the mini to help it along too. I can honestly see this Fiat getting damned close to the mini in performance and handling just by adding a better set of tires, thus letting me push it further ... which I believe will reveal its real inner beast. This Abarth engine is no slouch.
And once moving, thus no "Off the line" comparisons, this 500L just rocks.

I had to pass many so called better cars on the hills as they weren't cutting it. And agility, getting around said cars, piece of cake.

And no more engine lights or transmission faults.
I will check in the morning to see if it lost any oil (remember new it was down a quart)... Didn't have to top up in Boston, a bit dark to check right now.

I ran Premium the entire trip... It likes Premium.

And comfort, the steering wheel, I found to be very comfortable for the entire... over 24 hours on the road.

The only other mod, besides as simple tire change, is to find a mod for the sun visors. They do nothing from the side if the sun is hitting the drivers side of the car. Had to put a hat on for that part...
I'm sure there's an easy mod that will help with that.

Yeah, lovin the car. Now I have two cars that I just love. The mini and the fiat. Oh ok, and the Nissan Maxima... Had that to 120 following a corvette and fire bird over the WV hills a dozen year ago.... 105k miles now and not showing any signs of giving up.. Syth oil all the way.


But back to the 500L...
Love the car, not so happy with the sales guys CON artist silliness (spare tire bs), but the service guys are cool.
And the car is worth it.

It did not disappoint for this entire trip.
Including when a van decided to cut across 4 lanes of traffic in the ice storm, and I had to get out of its way like NOW, this 500L responded to my every move...exceptionally.... Or I might not be typing this :)
 
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Thanks for the info on the 500L, both the trip and your thread on the spare tire. I just bought a 500L trekking and it was between that and a used Mini countryman.
 
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