Fiat 500X SUV - Practicality & boot space

Branching out from the Fiat 500 range means Fiat has some practical offerings that are stylish too, in the Fiat 500X SUV and the 500L people carrier. The 500X itself doesn't offer class-leading amounts of interior and boot space, but it stacks up reasonably well against your average supermini and boasts a few clever extras that boost practicality.

Fiat 500X interior space & storage

The Fiat 500X is spacious up front, and only adults taller than six feet will have problems getting comfortable in the rear, where head and legroom is pretty generous. There are plenty of places to store bits and bobs, too, including two gloveboxes, large door pockets, seatback nets and (where it's fitted) a deep storage bin under the central armrest.

Boot space

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With all the rear seats in place, the 500X's boot will hold 350 litres of luggage – which is less than the Nissan Juke, Renault Captur or MINI Countryman can manage, yet should still prove pretty useful.

With the rear seats lowered, that space expands to 1,000 litres for carrying any larger or bulkier items. A wide boot opening and an (optional) adjustable boot floor boost practicality – the latter lets you have either a fully flat floor to make sliding big boxes in easier, or drop the floor down below the level of the lip to maximise capacity.

Towing

With the basic 1.6-litre E-Torq petrol engine fitted, the Fiat 500X could previously only pull 800kg, so if you wanted to tow a trailer or small caravan, you were better off looking further up the range. The two new petrol engines have towing limits of 1,200kg, but caravan owners may miss the 2.0-litre Multijet diesel model.