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Fiat 500L Range Gets 120 HP 1.4 Turbo. Should It Come to the US?

Competition is heating up on the European city MPV market, and despite having one of the most iconic names in the auto industry, the 500L from Fiat needs updating.
Fiat 500L 1 photo
Photo: Nissan
The guys from Fiat decided to improve the Fiat 500L, 500L Trekking and 500l Living and opted for a new 1.4-liter Turbo T-Jet engine, therefore ensuring a high elasticity of travel and more power from a small displacement engine.

If we’ve caught your attention, let us give you some more details about it. The 1.4 16v T-Jet engine has a maximum torque of 215 Nm at 2,500 rpm and delivers 120hp (88 kW) maximum power achieved at 5,000 rpm. Now, that might not be the 160 hp delivered by the US model, but it should be cheaper to make and sell.

With the US market 500L being kind of overpriced at around $20,000, shouldn't Fiat try to offer this cheaper, less powerful version as well?

The performance is going to be the biggest sticking point. The European 500L with the new 1.4 turbo takes 10.2 seconds to reach 100 km/h and has a maximum top speed of 189 km/h. That's not a blistering storm, but it's still a respectable rival for the Renault Captur 1.2 TCe.

You can choose to order any of the three model cars, but only in Italy at the moment. the Fiat 500L starts at €20,920 ($28,444), the 500L Trekking for €21,626 ($29,407) and €20,063 ($27,281) for the Living.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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