1.6 Multijet Cross Plus 5dr SUV

Smart, Stylish, Well Built, Fun to Live With

OK, I'll be honest here, when it comes to cars I like different quirky things and I find the usual best buys a little too 'Trilby hat, Tweed jacket and driving gloves' for me. I mean the Skoda Yeti... yes it's well built and very practical, but it looks like Postman Pat's van and a Transit Connect had a naughty evening and this was the result.

So... we've had a number of SUV's over the years; we currently run a Mini Countryman All4, which we really enjoy and made me re-appraise my view of 4x4's. I've usually gone for big permanent 4's but have found the smaller Compact SUV coped with 98% of what the big cars did and the other 2% just took a little forethought (winter in the Alps twice a year and working in a rural hilly area). So I have just swapped our 100'000 mile Grand Vitara for the 500x Cross Plus.

After a few thousand miles I have to say I'm really enjoying it; the cabin is smart, trimmed with quality materials in the places you want (contact points and sight lines) and very refined... outside the diesel sounds pretty loud but in the cabin it's very quiet. In fact most of the noise comes from the 18" wheels and silly tyres (Brits just love those massive alloy wheels), I personally would have preferred some 17" wheels with more sensible all terrain tyres.

Build quality seems pretty much comparable to most of the German cars I've had in the past. Not quite as polished in some of the less obvious areas such as the boot floor, back of the rear seats and the plastics aren't quite as good in spots but they are good where it matters.

The drive is great, peppy, enjoyable (without being tiresome on long runs). the steering is a little numb and sure that may not be fun on a smooth test track but on a gravelly or pot-holed road that's a very positive thing.

The layout is simple, clean and easy to use (I love our Mini but it is a bit like an explosion in a switch factory), the dual zone air-con is a little low on the dash but the dials are so well designed that its still very easy to use on the move. The multi-function display is logical and easy to use and you can customize the display to show the info you want.

The boot with the space saver option isn't massive, so I swapped it out for a gel pack and compressor and dropped the adjustable floor and it is now very generous even with seats up.

I love that slightly higher seating position and the seats are great, supportive and made of nice materials and the steering wheel has a massive range of adjustment meaning that I think it has one of the best and most adjustable driving positions in the class.

So economy... this is where I get on my high horse about ALL car manufacturers, they all give out wildly inaccurate nonsense from lab tests. I feel reasonably qualified to comment having spent many years in the motor trade and having spent lots of time in many different cars... anyway, back to the 500x... Mine is averaging over the past few thousand miles a genuine average of around 54mpg, which I think is very impressive... but it's still way off Fiat's claims.

Overall, very impressive, stylish, well built (mechanically), fun to drive, quiet, economical, comfortable and fun to live with... but... unfortunately longer term reliability became worrying and particularly regarding the clutch and general electronics.

Pros: Stylish Looking, Fun to Drive, 1.6D Engine, Interior Quality, Low Noise Levels, Logical Switch Layout, Good Level of Specification

Cons: Some practicality trimmed at the expense of styling, electrical and clutch gremlins have blotted its copy book.

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