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" 1. It&amp;#039;s plenty pretty. Listen, we all know about the 500L: the gangly mini people mover Fiat hastily brought to showrooms to show us the company gets the American market. That thing looks like a Mazda MPV wearing a suit made from the skins of three or four 500s. The 500X is an attractive thing, incorporating design elements from its smaller brother in a proportional way.  The nose is slightly more aggressive, with downturned headlights in place of the pie-eyed look of the 500, and sculpted shoulders over each wheel give the machine more visual muscle. Overall, the translation works just fine. The result is good helping of personality in a segment that&amp;#039;s more catatonic than catwalk. 2. You&amp;#039;re going to dig the interior.  The 500X is big enough for four full-grown adults inside, but that&amp;#039;s not what makes the interior good. Fiat nailed the material choices in the upper trims, including gorgeous brown premium leather seats on Trekking Plus models. While base cars get a painted dash to match the exterior color, nice textured pieces show up elsewhere. The seats are comfortable and there&amp;#039;s plenty of rearward visibility. The 500X does suffer from a huge set of A pillars, however. Don&amp;#039;t bother trying to look through a turn. The rear hatch offers up a good amount of room, and the folding seat backs make space for longer items. Likewise, the floor has two positions to accommodate taller cargo. 3. The tires make all the difference.  Fiat offers three tire options on the 500X, including an 18&amp;quot; Continental, a 17&amp;quot; Continental, and a 17&amp;quot; Nexen. The latter shows up on base cars, and is good for little more than spoiling an otherwise decent ride. Compared to its Conti-shod twins, our wide-sidewalled tester felt sloppy and disconnected. The Nexens turned the steering vague and accentuated body roll. They also wailed in duress at the first hint of aggression. Avoid those suckers at all costs. The larger 18&amp;quot; wheel and Continental rubber solves most of those woes, or at least puts the 500X on better footing against upcoming rivals like the Mazda CX-3 and Honda HR-V, as well as the currently available Nissan Juke. With the bigger rubber, steering feels more responsive and the body roll dials back to tolerable levels. 4. Yes, you want the manual transmission. Most buyers will wind up with a 2.4-liter Multiair four-cylinder engine stuck to a nine-speed automatic transmission. There&amp;#039;s also an all-wheel drive option, though Fiat is quick to point out that the system is designed to provide on-road traction, not off-road prowess. The combination is good for 180 horsepower and 175 lb-ft of torque, and can huck the 3,000 lb CUV to speed with relative ease. It&amp;#039;s also charmless.  The nine-speed automatic hunts and pecks, seldom letting the engine settle down. Fiat&amp;#039;s made big noise about the drive-mode selector on the 500X, offering buyers on-the-fly switching between Sport, Auto, and Traction + modes. Traction + dulls throttle inputs, offers up second-gear starts, and generally keeps the tires from flailing in slippery conditions, while Auto mode is good enough for daily duty. Sport mode is good for little more than making the transmission worse, with abrupt, surging leaps from gear to gear. Gross. And that&amp;#039;s what you get in almost every trim, with the exception of the lowly base Pop. There&amp;#039;s a jewel down here in the cheap seats. For starters, you get the same turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder found in the devilish 500 Abarth. It makes good, brusque, Italian noises, and delivers almost 10 more lb-ft of torque than its larger-displacement counterpart thanks to 22 psi of boost. Yeah, it makes do with 20 fewer horses, but you won&amp;#039;t care. It&amp;#039;s the better engine. 5. The base car is the best of the bunch. The 1.4 is bolted to a solid six-speed manual, and the duo will chirp the tires in second all day long. It&amp;#039;s good, charismatic fun, and it&amp;#039;s the only combination in the 500X family that feels kin to the joyful 500 hatch. Ditch the standard steel wheels for an optional 18&amp;quot; alloy through the Mopar customization program and be the happiest person with a set of 500X keys in your pocket.  Sure, you get cloth seats and a vulcanized rubber steering wheel in place of the fancy wrapped tiller on taller trims, but the truth is, the base car feels like a great place to be, and it starts at $20k. That price won&amp;#039;t get you all-wheel drive, but we all know a good set of snow rubber is good enough for most of the country. My little black heart knows very few folks will opt for the base car. That&amp;#039;s a big shame. With the 2.4 under the hood an the nine-speed automatic in place, the 500X is going to have a tough time keeping its head up against well-sorted hardware from Honda, Nissan, Mazda, and yes, even Chevrolet.   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/first-drives/news/a25565/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-2016-fiat-500x/>