► Month Seven with the Fiat 500X
► Looking at the Mopar extras
► No pushrod Hemi V8s on offer
I recently learnt the 500X can be upgraded with a raft of Mopar extras. Which got me over-excited. Click on the US website and, well, you’ll lose hours dribbling and dreaming. There’s something for everyone or, if you’re like me, far too much choice. Take the Challenger Drag Pak – it starts life as a two-door coupe, but Mopar then adds a roll cage approved by the NHRA (think the FIA for drag racing), lightweight buckets, a composite bonnet, a Hurst shifter atop the three-speed tranny, and a solid nine-inch rear axle. Oh, and one of two Hemi V8s, either a supercharged 5.7 or a naturally aspirated 7.0-litre, the latter with a bonnet scoop big enough to hinder forward visibility. It’s not street legal, and so much the better for it.
And if you want to stay away from the tarmac completely, then there’s a vast array of off-road accessories for Jeeps, from ridiculous lift-kits and tougher suspension, via hardcore winches and high-intensity lights, to beefy underbody protection and hardware engine upgrades. All that’s missing is your partner – she’ll be packing her bags the instant you arrive home in a Wrangler on 35in wheels.
Sadly Mopar’s offerings for the 500X in the UK are a little more, umm, sedate. There’s a fragrance dispenser, a headrest-mounted coat hanger-cum-iPad holder, a plethora of stickers for the bonnet and roof, mirror caps (including black or white ‘carbonfibre’) and various racks to carry bikes and skis. No doubt actually practical and useful stuff, but not the pushrod engines offered by the cubic inch or Fox racing shocks I was pining for, that’s for sure.
The sad truth though, is that while Mopar (a contraction of Motor and Parts) has nearly 80 years of heritage in the States, it actually started life in 1937 as a single product – antifreeze. And while it conjures up images of quarter-mile dragsters to me, it’s actually a catch-all phrase for the entire aftersales experience for anything Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge – and now Fiat.
Oh well, with no lifestyle to speak of, there’s nowt for me in the Mopar catalogue (the UK one at least) but if you’re after a hotted-up 500X I hear there is a circa-200bhp Abarth version coming…
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
Logbook: Fiat 500X 1.6 MultiJet Cross
Engine: 1598cc 16v turbodiesel 4-cyl, 118bhp @ 3750rpm, 236lb ft @ 1750rpm
Transmission: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Stats: 10.5sec 0-62mph, 115mph, 109g/km Price £20,095
As tested: £24,320
Miles this month: 792
Total miles: 6566
Our mpg: 47.4
Official mpg: 68.9
Fuel this month: £75.44
Extra costs: £0