car buying crazy ..

[Butcher]

Not sure if the 500L is better, but the Fiat 500 I drove as a hire car was hands down the worst car I have ever driven. I wouldn't buy one.

[herulach]

I have a similar assessment, but mine is the width of my grin as I pull down a sliproad on to the motorway. Last weekend I had a Fiat 500L 1.6 diesel, and was very, VERY, pleasantly surprised. Then I looked up the spec and details online, and discovered that buying new would be around £20k. I need to stop judging potential future car purchases on my experience of driving hire cars

That said, in 5 - 10 years time, if I'm looking for a second hand car, I know that a 2014 Fiat 500L diesel just might do the trick for me

Easily pleased much? To be fair the fiat diesels are nice engines, but you'd want it in a mito at least you could look at that and not hate yourself for inflicting such an eyesore on everyone else.

[DanceswithUnix]

Not sure if the 500L is better, but the Fiat 500 I drove as a hire car was hands down the worst car I have ever driven. I wouldn't buy one.

I hated the 500 I drove, though it is far from the worst I have driven. The Volvo V50 was a bit worse, the Xantia estate was a disaster on wheels and much worse but the winner has to be a Morris Ital Estate where I struggle to think of anything that was good about it.

My wife is really picky and also hated the 500 1.2, but got huge grins from the Abarth version so they aren't all bad. Still wouldn't buy a new one though.

[scaryjim]

... not hate yourself for inflicting such an eyesore on everyone else.

Actually I had to move a small PA rig and several adults around so the boxiness was perfect for my needs this weekend. AFAIK the 1.6 diesel is the most powerful engine available for it (although I'm not 100% sure whether it was the 105 or the 120 variant). And tbh I probably am easily pleased when it comes to cars - my old Rover 414 used to bring a huge smile to my face, and I get horrified looks from a couple of my friends when I hold forth at length about how much I like driving short wheel base vans