► Month six with our Fiat 500X
► Long distance journeys a joy
► High seating position is a delight
A fortnight trekking across the country in the close company of the 500X, to celebrate an engagement and a 93rd birthday, eat too much on Christmas Day (and the rest) and welcome in 2016 with the promise of drastic self-improvement has led to a few crucial observations.
Chief of which is that ‘smart motorways’ are anything but, the populace would take the threat of flood warnings more seriously if the impending storm wasn’t named after everyone’s great aunt, and trying to take a photo of your Fiat on the beach in the middle of Storm Gertrude is a miserable experience.
Nearly 800 miles crisscrossing between London, Merseyside, Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wight wasn’t miserable though. Every long journey in the Fiat reminds you just how important comfy seats and a cosseting ride are for everyday duties. The sat-nav never seems to put a foot wrong. The digital radio is a godsend for listening to 5Live, and the Beats audio system (from that headphone colossus now owned by Apple) does a decent job of using Charlotte Green’s dulcet tones to annul what wind and road noise there is.
And I do like the high-set driving position! Having started out half a year ago with the seat slammed to the floor, I’ve been gradually inching it up each month (sort of like Mr Twit surreptitiously adding pieces of wood to the bottom of Mrs Twit’s chair).
We haven’t reached peak height yet, but as every crossover/SUV/4×4 owner will admit, there is something rather pleasing about being raised above other road users. I feel rather dirty for admitting to it, but it’s subjectively pleasing.
Objectively (a seamless segue…) fuel consumption has taken a hit this month, despite the long-distance cruising. Frankly, I’m flinging the 500X about a bit more, and despite the Fiat’s eco-friendly tyres not being up to much on the approach, apex and exit of wet roundabouts, with supermarkets fighting to get diesel under a £1 per litre there doesn’t seem much reason to stop.
In fact, I’m going to up the ante by treating the 500X to a raft of Mopar performance upgrades – and one of the exterior decal kits will no doubt make the next beach-during-a-storm photo much more visually enticing too.
From the driving seat
– Abrupt applications of the right foot have wiped away 5mpg this month
– ContiEcoContact tyres don’t seem to offer the ultimate in wet-weather roundabout performance
+ Comfy seats are surprisingly supportive during bouts of cornering immaturity
Read the previous long-term update here
Logbook: Fiat 500X 1.6 MultiJet Cross
Price: £20,095
As tested: £24,320
Miles this month: 773
Total miles: 5774
Our mpg: 42.8
Official mpg: 68.9
Fuel this month: £87.39
Extra costs: £0
Read more from the March 2016 issue of CAR magazine