Fiat 500L Trekking review

Inside there are numerous interior storage spaces, including handy cubbies in the front seat-backs, and the rear seats (60:40, sliding, splitting, folding and pivoting forward so the bases go vertical) offer ample room for third and fourth passengers, and space for a narrow fifth. A false boot floor can sit flush with or above the rear lip. In other words, it’s a very flexible cabin.

Although this is the quickest Trekking, pace is certainly on the leisurely side, however the engine doesn’t labour quite as much as in the larger 500L MPW and can pull smoothly from 1500rpm. It does suffer the same failings in refinement, though, with audible protestation under rising revs, albeit drivetrain vibration is well isolated. The pleasingly chunky gearlever marshals smooth, positive shifts.

While the engine settles at a cruise, the mud and snow tyres grumble a fair bit, especially over rougher asphalt. The Trekking’s raised suspension includes stiffer springs and revised dampers and bushings. Despite this, roll is quite pronounced, albeit within perfectly tolerable limits for this application, while the ride fidgets over high-frequency bumps and is on the firm side in town. There’s also a fingertip-light city mode to the electric steering that is otherwise reasonably direct but mute.

Fiat says the Trekking is ‘for the city dweller that can’t wait for the weekend,’ and has made provision for those weekends to involve some light off-roading. Although unlikely to spend much time on scrubby gravel tracks, this is where the car felt most at home as it loped comfortably along, making use of that healthy ride height, and happily canted itself onto steep-ish verges.

We had few challenges to offer the Traction+ system (operable up to 19mph), which brakes a slipping front wheel to send more drive to the other, and an aggressive standing start with one front tyre on gravel and the other on grass yielded a nippy and stable getaway. As for City Brake Control, a simulated emergency stop on tarmac also majored on stability and exhibited impressive halting force.

The Fiat 500L Trekking’s lack of four-wheel drive won’t matter to most, especially with electronic traction trickery and 4x4-grade tyres on its side. There’s no nippy engine available and it's not the nimblest of drives, but again, these aren’t especially pertinent points for most buyers.

However, the noisy engine, grumbly tyre characteristics and fidgety ride are a nuisance. However, the significantly cheaper Skoda Yeti 1.2 TSI offers more space still thanks to its removable back seats, a much more refined drivetrain and achieves a measure of charm without trying quite as hard.