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Fiat 500 MPV exclusive

The Fiat 500 family is set to grow with the introduction of an all-new compact MPV to rival the MINI Countryman

Fiat 500 MPV

Text: Dan Strong / Photos: Poblete

29th December 2011

The Fiat 500 range is growing. Auto Express has learned the company will reveal a new small people carrier at March’s Geneva Motor Show, and that the car will go on sale shortly after, priced from around £13,000.

Based on a modified platform from the new Panda, the supermini-MPV will be the first new addition to the 500 family. It will translate the cheeky city car’s looks and charm to a larger, more practical vehicle, as the Countryman does to the standard MINI. Codenamed L-Zero, the model is part of Fiat’s Global Architecture Plan, which means it will be sold throughout the world, including the US.

The 500 MPV will replace the slow-selling Idea and the Multipla in one fell swoop, and will initially be available as a five-seater. A seven-seater is also planned.

Rather than be offered as a standalone product – like the Meriva is in Vauxhall’s range – the newcomer will be very much part of the 500 family, as Citroen’s C3 Picasso is to the C3 hatch.

Leaked pictures of the car have already appeared, and we produced our main image using information from our sources in Italy. As you can see, the car gets a 500-style nose, with large lights flanked by lower spotlamps and a simple, single-bar upper grille. Add chunky wheelarches, minimal overhangs and a curvy tail, and the car should bring some style to the MPV sector.

Several names are being considered for the new model, including 500+ and Multipla. The latter was first used on the 600 Multipla – a compact people carrier from the fifties and sixties. This six-seater version of the Seicento city car was a forerunner of today’s practical and higher-roofed family cars.

Whatever the name, the new car’s versatile architecture will mean the standard front-wheel-drive model could 
be joined by a four-wheel-drive version – as is the case with the new Panda.

Like the Panda, the new MPV will offer various engine choices in the form of a 900cc TwinAir petrol turbo and 1.3-litre Multijet diesel. A larger 1.4-litre petrol turbo is also planned.

The 500 MPV will be built at a new plant in Serbia. It will then be shipped around the world, and is tasked with boosting Fiat’s return to the US after sales of the 500 fell short of expectations following its launch last year.

However, the cheeky MPV won’t be the only new Fiat at Geneva. There are rumours that the company will take the wraps off a new replacement for the Ford Focus-sized Bravo, too.

This article was updated on 4 January 2011.

For an alternative review of the latest Fiat 500 visit our sister site carbuyer.co.uk

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13 Comments

"U.L.G.Y you aint got no alibi you ugly uh uh you ugly"

Im not saying the Mini Country man is beautiful but I honestly feel physically sick at that image!

By Kevtoon2905 on 29 December, 2011, 3:55pm

Joke!

Surely they couldn't produce something that looks like this, it's a mess of about three didfferent cars and has a zero desirability factor. The new Panda looks like being overpriced, but it looks better than this freak. Who wants to spend scarce money on an ugly car?

I'm certain the reality will be nothing like these photoshops.

What with the messy interior of the overpriced Ypsilon and the overpricing of the 500 and new Pamda it seems Fiat is leaving behind it's position as a seller of good cheap cars and going after a richer market: they will fail I reckon.

Fiat, remember, there has to be desirability, and all the cloyingly irrelevant sales presentations can't convince the public a pig is not a pig. Where are your designers with taste?

By Alexan14 on 29 December, 2011, 4:19pm

The ORIGINAL.....

back in the 60s and 70s when the original 500L etc was in mass production, there was a small "bus" that ran on the same platform - or perhaps the 850 platform? Either way, this is true to the heritage that is within FIAT.

I like it.

By Freshacre on 29 December, 2011, 4:57pm

Who is the ugliest of them all?

Bearing in mind this is merely a "guess" as to how something not yet announced will turn out, it is at least rather less ugly than the Mini Countryman. This is not difficult.

IMHO the Countryman looks as if it is styled, indeed built, by some small scale maker of trailer caravans in Wyoming! It all shows that people buy vehicles not according to merit as to what tribe they perceive themselves as belonging to!

By aeolus on 29 December, 2011, 6:16pm

Good Idea

Freshacre

The car you are thinking of is probably the Multipla that was based on the 600 platform. There was also the less popular (but equally interesting) Giardinere that was basically a 500 estate. The 850 came later. I too think that the time is right for Fiat to introduce a successor.

By CrystalBall on 29 December, 2011, 8:07pm

Have you just photoshopped the MG3?

Oh dear, oh dear!!!! Perhaps it'll look better in the flesh, but it's a bit like MINI's "Field of Dreams" attitude that, whatever they build, people will come and buy. The 500 is a good looking car, but this just looks strange. Perhaps Fiat are trying to recoup some of the investment in Chrysler/Jeep but the strategy of a price-hike on their Fiat models might just make people look elsewhere.

By n50pap on 30 December, 2011, 1:21pm

From an Italian site…

http://www.alvolante.it/news/foto_spy_fiat_ellezero-572051044

By BizarreGloveTriangle on 30 December, 2011, 4:58pm

Thanks BGT!

Good link,
is this going to replace the Sedici, Idea AND Multipla? Tough if it is, mind you, they didn't exactly sell many of those models outside Italy.

By JFalck on 31 December, 2011, 9:16am

Yuk!

How can they even consider building an ugly car like that? And an MPV based on a car that small, even with a platform modified from the Panda, will be useless to most people.

By dastardly01 on 31 December, 2011, 11:13am

Here's Hoping The Guess is Wrong

The styling guess had better be wrong, I'm sure FIAT will do a better job than that.

By Richard_H on 31 December, 2011, 6:43pm

SO THAT'S WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF A FIAT 500 CRASHED INTO A FIAT PANDA .

VERY ORIGINAL NOT !

By BEREAL on 1 January, 2012, 1:36am

Brave new world

Its a lot better looking than the Citroen C3 Picasso - which I also like. It is time for design to be a little bolder to save us from German clones and the habit of manufacturers to use a zooming photocopier to produce their range. If and when VW's Microbus comes to production, vehicles like this will look normal!

By ukmike2000 on 3 January, 2012, 9:56am

Will reserve judgement

until this Ellezero / Multipla / 600 thing is launched, I really would have liked a 500 were it not for the tiny boot, and this looks like it might answer my wishes, although, and this is what I don't get, why do we need this if we have the Panda which is a more practical 500?

By JFalck on 4 January, 2012, 5:49pm

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Fiat 500 SUV coming too

As well as a 500-based MPV, Fiat is planning another exciting new small car – a Nissan Juke-rivalling SUV. The 4x4 is a joint partnership with Jeep and will be built on a stretched Panda 4x4 platform. The Jeep version will get styling cues from the Renegade concept that appeared in 2008, and there’s a good chance the Fiat variant will follow the supermini-MPV by being strongly influenced by the 500. Both the new SUVs will feature Fiat-sourced engines, including a 1.3 Multijet diesel – cutting emissions to below 120g/km on the most frugal two-wheel-drive cars – and a 1.4-litre petrol turbo. We could get our first glimpse next year.

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