In our opening report on the 500L, comparisons with a previous long-termer, a Mini Countryman, were made, and one of the reasons I think the Fiat 500L isn’t causing an equivalent culture shock is because it has a genuinely different silhouette to the 500, with which it shares much of its name – unlike the Countryman, which is essentially a pumped-up Mini.
The 500L is much longer but not so much taller, so not a super-sized supermini but a decent-looking mini-MPV, with much of its bulk visually hidden by the contrast black roof and large side rubbing strip. Progress.
