{"id":4546,"date":"2014-09-02T14:15:52","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T18:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=4546"},"modified":"2016-04-03T12:52:24","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T16:52:24","slug":"behind-wheel-2014-fiat-500l-diesel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2014\/09\/02\/behind-wheel-2014-fiat-500l-diesel\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Wheel: 2014 Fiat 500L (Diesel)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year while I was in Italy on vacation with some of the Australian side of the family, we rented a car to travel up to Lake Como in northern Italy. Unsurprisingly, the car we ended up with was a Fiat – but in this case, it was the new 4-door version, the 500L.<\/p>\n

\"Fiat<\/a><\/p>\n

I’d driven a Fiat 500 before, but the 500L was something new. I was actually glad to see it – I knew from experience that fitting 4 adults into the 2-door 500 would not have been a pleasant experience, especially for the long drive we had ahead of us.<\/p>\n

\"italy<\/a>This particular 500L was also a diesel, and<\/em> a stick shift on top of that – unlike the Audi A4 I’d driven previously<\/a> in this trip – so driving it out of the city of Milan and up the narrow, twisty, winding roads around Lake Como was… an interesting<\/strong> <\/em>experience!<\/p>\n

But truthfully, the 500L was quite easy to drive – the steering was nimble, the brakes were solid, and the overall handling was very surefooted. The diesel took a bit of getting used to, however. Unlike a small gasoline engine, the diesel in this Fiat didn’t need to be revved up – it had plenty of power down low in the rev range.\u00a0 In fact, the diesel really didn’t like being at any sort of high RPMs at all – which meant I had to spent a lot of time shifting, especially up the twisty, hilly roads around Lake Como.<\/p>\n

The 500L fit all four adults reasonably well, as well as our bags, so it is a quite practical little car. Visibility was good, the steering was nimble, and of course the diesel means it’s quite fuel efficient.<\/p>\n

Up around the Lake Como region are some very, VERY twisty roads, which would have been quite fun to tackle – though with 4 people in the car and traffic coming in the opposite direction, I didn’t actually get much opportunity for fun. Still, the 500L was nimble and took the corners well, and at no point was I worried about the car’s capabilities. Although at times I did find myself wishing that it was a little bit smaller – although the 500L is by no means a big car, some of those roads were still a very tight fit.<\/p>\n

All in all the Fiat 500L is a small, practical little car, that can be fun, but takes some getting used to if you’re not accustomed to how diesel engines develop their power. For myself, I’d have preferred a gas engine, but when you rent you kind of have to take what you get – and of course in Europe diesel is much more common than here in the US.<\/p>\n

So, if you’ve always wanted to have fun in a little Fiat 500, but wanted to be able to carry more than 2 people, the 500L is certainly not a bad choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year while I was in Italy on vacation with some of the Australian side of the family, we rented a car to travel up to Lake Como in northern Italy. Unsurprisingly, the car we ended up with was a Fiat – but in this case, it was the new 4-door version, the 500L.… Continue reading Behind the Wheel: 2014 Fiat 500L (Diesel)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,199],"tags":[360,134,81,359,361,124],"class_list":["post-4546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars-and-trucks","category-my-opinion","tag-500l","tag-behind-the-wheel","tag-driving","tag-fiat","tag-italy","tag-review","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-1bk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4816,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2016\/03\/14\/behind-the-wheel-2014-mercedes-benz-glk-250-diesel\/","url_meta":{"origin":4546,"position":0},"title":"Behind the Wheel: 2014 Mercedes-Benz GLK 250 (Diesel)","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The little SUV from Mercedes that won the right to carry on the name \"Keithmobile.\"","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2016\/03\/keithmobile-E.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2016\/03\/keithmobile-E.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2016\/03\/keithmobile-E.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2016\/03\/keithmobile-E.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2016\/03\/keithmobile-E.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2016\/03\/keithmobile-E.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4543,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2014\/08\/26\/behind-the-wheel-2014-audi-a4-wagon-diesel\/","url_meta":{"origin":4546,"position":1},"title":"Behind the Wheel: 2014 Audi A4 Wagon (Diesel)","author":"Keith Survell","date":"August 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this year I found myself over in Florence, Italy, with family and I needed to rent a car to go for a day trip. Although I normally don't splurge on rental cars, in this case we decided to go for a \"luxury\" rental - both as a slight treat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Audi A4 Wagon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2014\/08\/IMG_2376-e1409055067750-224x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6230,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2025\/02\/03\/executive-fiat\/","url_meta":{"origin":4546,"position":2},"title":"Executive Fiat","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Presidential power has been slowly but steadily increasing, and especially so in recent years, but now it's gotten dangerous - and I worry that we've passed a tipping point and the \"checks and balances\" of our government are no longer able to compensate.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3190,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/10\/21\/behind-the-wheel-2010-chevrolet-malibu\/","url_meta":{"origin":4546,"position":3},"title":"Behind the Wheel: 2010 Chevrolet Malibu","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Keith gets behind the wheel of a 2010 Chevrolet Malibu and finds it... surprisingly not disappointing.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4645,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2015\/06\/15\/behind-wheel-1996-chevrolet-s-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":4546,"position":4},"title":"Behind the Wheel: 1996 Chevrolet S-10","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing the series of Behind the Wheel reviews of cars I've owned, we now move on to the predecessor of my current car... which was actually a truck. Specifically, a 1996 Chevrolet S-10 LS Extended Cab 2-wheel drive pickup truck. This truck was a lot of \"firsts\" for me: My\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2014\/10\/The-Keithmobile-C-in-2003.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2014\/10\/The-Keithmobile-C-in-2003.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2014\/10\/The-Keithmobile-C-in-2003.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2014\/10\/The-Keithmobile-C-in-2003.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6030,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2023\/08\/26\/behind-the-wheel-mercedes-benz-c200-wagon\/","url_meta":{"origin":4546,"position":5},"title":"Behind the Wheel: Mercedes-Benz C200 Wagon","author":"Keith Survell","date":"August 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This summer my wife and her parents and I all went on a trip to Scotland, where we rented a car and drove the entirety of the North Coast 500 - a 500 (ish) mile loop along the... you guessed it, north coast of Scotland. 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