Fiat 500L Trekking 1.6

The MINI and Fiat 500 have been pulling at heartstrings for a few years now, and it only takes a few minutes on the York ring road at rush hour to see the type of driver these cars are aimed at – primarily young women.

Both cars not only drive well but are also beautifully designed with extensive options lists. But what they don’t have is, by there very nature, the ability to carry families.

Mini resolved this problem by introducing firstly a Clubman and then a larger Countryman version, and Fiat followed that lead by launching the 500L.

But also available in the Countryman arsenal was a fourwheel drive version. Now Fiat has stepped up to the mark again with the 500L Trekking.

It’s an off-road styled upgrade from the basic car, with the key visual differences being a taller stance and plenty of plastic trim around the lower edges of the bodywork. The effect depends on your colour choice, but in the brighter shades with contrasting black roof, the Trekking looks rather stunning. Think Citroen DS3.

That additional 15mm in the suspension height gives ten per cent more clearance for rutted tracks and raises the driving position for a more commanding view of the road ahead than the ordinary 500L.

In addition, its Mud&Snow tyres have been designed and made just for this car, blending a cold-weather capable rubber compound with a more open and aggressive tread pattern. They should cope with an endless British winter better than normal summer tyres, and the rubber compound has been adapted to create less noise than a typical cold weather tyre, too.

This combination of new rubber and taller suspension is fine with a bit of genuine off-roading, and thanks to the Traction+ system that brakes whichever driving wheel starts to lose traction, the Trekking can maximise the available grip in whatever circumstances life throws at it. The downside is that this more robust set-up introduces slightly more high-frequency vibration into the cabin, reducing the outright onroad refinement a tad compared to the ordinary 500L. The trade-off is worth it to those that need to tackle rough stuff now and again.

But let’s get one thing clear – this is no substitute for a Land Rover, rather it’s a car that will give confidence in difficult winter conditions and will have no problem traversing a rutted field.

The bodyshell is much the same as the 500L’s, except for the additional plastic trim, and it employs the same chassis. It’s a five-seat layout with particularly soft, comfortable seats that make an immediate impression after climbing in, with a 455-litre boot that makes use of an adjustable load floor.

Plenty of window area means visibility is very good.

Also in the boot you’ll find a 12- volt socket for charging small devices and powering things like coolboxes. There’s nothing worse than arriving at your picnic destination to find out your sandwiches have gone warm.

The Trekking has other useful facets too, like an air-conditioned glove box and an extended ‘step’ in front of the boot opening that gives you somewhere to sit while changing clothes or footwear. Plus a couple of small in-boot pockets for trinkets.

The 500L Trekking is the first model in the range to be fitted with City Brake Control as standard. This system is designed to reduce the effects of low-speed collisions in traffic. By sending out laser impulses and registering how quickly they are reflected, City Brake Control can detect remotely how far the car is from other obstacles.

Mounted behind the windscreen, the laser sensor transfers the information it gathers to an electronic control unit for processing. If the control unit calculates that a frontal collision is inevitable and there is no action from the driver, the brakes are applied. Depending on variables such as weather conditions, road surface, and the condition of the tyres, a crash can either be avoided or the consequences minimised. It operates at speeds between three and 19mph.

The lightweight feel of the steering make it a pleasure to drive, although I found the 1.6-litre diesel engine in the tested car rather rough in its tone and occasionally intrusive in the cabin.

There are four engines: two petrol and two diesel. The multiple awardwinning 0.9 TwinAir Turbo 105hp and 1.4 95hp Fire engine make up the petrol pair. The 1.4 starts the range at £17,095 while the TwinAir is priced at £18,590. In the diesel corner, Fiat’s clever MultiJet II technology appears in 1.3-litre 85hp and 1.6-litre 105hp formats. The 1.3 MultiJet is priced from £18,590, with the 1.6 MultiJet from £19,590. All engines apart from the 1.4 petrol feature Start&Stop. The 1.3 MultiJet with a five-speed Dualogic automatic gearbox is priced at £19,490.

The 500L Trekking is available in 17 colour combinations, with a choice of six finishes inside. It is priced at £700 more than the 500L Lounge and carries a different level of equipment, as well as completely revised styling.

Next to join the 500 family will be the seven-seater 500L MPW (Multi- Purpose Wagon), which goes on sale in the UK in September. A fullblown people carrier might just be too big for Mini to swallow.

Fact file

Fiat 500L Trekking 1.6

PRICE: £19,590

ENGINE: 1.6-litre four-cylinder diesel producing 104bhp and 236lb.ft

TRANSMISSION: six-speed manual gearbox driving the front wheels

PERFORMANCE: top speed 109mph, 0-62mph in 12 seconds

ECONOMY: 60.1mpg

CO2 RATING: 122g/km