Fiat stretches its 500 to take seven

Published Jun 19, 2013

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These are the first official photos of the Fiat 500L MPW (Multi-Purpose Wagon), which is due to make its world debut in July on the sixth anniversary of the modern 500 family.

Leaving aside the debate as to whether any seven-seater MPV could even qualify as a member of the 500 family, we will merely note that it is among the smallest seven-seaters we've seen, at just 4350mm long overall, 1780mm wide and 1670mm high.

You can insert your own Snow White joke here.

What's not a joke, however, is that with the rear seats folded it offers a class-leading 638 litres of luggage space.

The 500L MPW, which will be badged as the ‘Living’ in Europe, will be available at launch with a choice of two turbodiesel and two petrol engines.

The oil-burners will be a 61kW 1.3-litre MultiJet and a 77kW 1.6-litre MultiJet (the latter also available with auto transmission), the sparkers a 70kW 1.4-litre 16-valve and a 77kW 900cc TwinAir Turbo.

282 COMBINATIONS

The range will include two trim levels (Pop Star and Lounge), each with either five or seven seats, 19 body colours (including 11 two-tone combinations), six interior trim styles and 15 rim styles in steel or alloy.

Fiat boasts that it will be possible to build 282 different combinations without even opening the options catalogue to start adding flutes and clangers such as leather trim, satnav and a rear camera.

The 500L MPW will be built in a new Fiat plant at Kragujevac in Serbia; orders will open in Italy in July, and will be rolled out progressively to the other countries of Europe. At this stage Fiat Auto SA has no plans to bring the MPW to South Africa.

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