FIAT 500e

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Just drive a 500e at the Costa Mesa dealer. Cute, fairly nicely finished inside, under-instrumented, weak regen with no B mode to increase regen, nice handling, good head room.

But OMG the torque steer!! The car is sporty enough that you naturally want to punch it coming out of corners. But hang on! The thing lunges to the left, you compensate with steering input, back off a tad and it lunges right! In fact, if i recall correctly, it might have darted left and right without my having actually backed off the throttle. Reviews mention the torque steer and some say the EV version has more of it than some of the ICE versions. But this would be unacceptable to me. Really, a deal breaker. And no, it's not that I can't handle a little torque steer, it just flat felt dangerous!
And it killed the driving fun because the car goes where it wants to when you punch it from slow speeds. Above 30 mph or so, it's not bad at all, but coming out of a quick right turn, watch out! That's attention-getting, but not the kind of driving fun I'm looking for.

I was very happy to get back in my 2013 LEAF. I drove my car over the same route and it felt like it handled every bit as well as the Fiat, but of course the LEAF had no torque steer at all.

By the way, if you really want one, this dealer says he sometimes sells them to people not on his list if the color or equipment don't match his list people's preferences or if they don't call him back.
 
WSJ review by the always entertaining Dan Neil:

http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/2013/05/11/review-fiat-500e-video/?mod=google_news_blog" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Love the review. There is a reason why Dan Neil is the only automotive journalist to win a Pulitzer. Two parts to the review. Part I, the civics lesson, would be Dan Neil to Marchionne: Get with the program and STFU or divest yourself of Chrysler and take your sorry ass back to your sorry company in Italy. Part II, the car part, would be: The 500e is a much better car than any of the gas versions of the 500.

I don't they'll have any trouble selling the necessary number of compliance vehicles.
 
Fiat To Sell 491 Of Its 500e In 2013:
http://insideevs.com/fiat-to-sell-491-of-their-500e-in-2013/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The gallery of images at the bottom of the article (letter to NHTSA) are interesting...
 
Boomer23 said:
Just drive a 500e at the Costa Mesa dealer. Cute, fairly nicely finished inside, under-instrumented, weak regen with no B mode to increase regen, nice handling, good head room.

But OMG the torque steer!! The car is sporty enough that you naturally want to punch it coming out of corners. But hang on!.

I have to correct my comments in the above post after driving the 500e at National Plug-in Day this past Saturday in Long Beach. The 500e that I drove on Saturday had NONE of the torque steer that I experienced during my test drive at the dealership. It was a very fun and enjoyable ride indeed. I wouldn't say that the 500e is quick, but it had all the power it needed to exploit the car's good (for a fwd) handling, and it far outshone the weak acceleration of the base gas engine version that I drove about a year ago. I can only conclude that something was very wrong with the 500e example that I drove at the dealership.
 
Tall-guy warning: I sat in two the other day at the Plug-in America event, one with a sunroof and one without, and at a little over 6'3" tall, my head was brushing the roof in the sunroof model. I could fit in the non-sunroof one (barely), but there is about 1" of the headroom sacrificed for the sunroof tray. Overall, the car is just too small for me. I didn't even bother test-driving it.

TT
 
ttweed said:
Tall-guy warning: I sat in two the other day at the Plug-in America event, one with a sunroof and one without, and at a little over 6'3" tall, my head was brushing the roof in the sunroof model. I could fit in the non-sunroof one (barely), but there is about 1" of the headroom sacrificed for the sunroof tray. Overall, the car is just too small for me. I didn't even bother test-driving it.TT
My friend just bought one. I plan to go with him this week to pick it up and give it a good airing out. He's 6'6" so maybe it's a matter of leg/torso ratio? He said the sunroof was not an option for him as well though.
 
We had 4 people in the 500e during my test drive at PID-San Diego.

I didn't think it was particularly powerful, but certainly not a slouch at low speed urban driving that I did. I'm 6'2", and I did fit far better than the Tesla Roadster!
 
sparky said:
ttweed said:
Tall-guy warning: I sat in two the other day at the Plug-in America event, one with a sunroof and one without, and at a little over 6'3" tall, my head was brushing the roof in the sunroof model. I could fit in the non-sunroof one (barely), but there is about 1" of the headroom sacrificed for the sunroof tray. Overall, the car is just too small for me. I didn't even bother test-driving it.TT
My friend just bought one. I plan to go with him this week to pick it up and give it a good airing out. He's 6'6" so maybe it's a matter of leg/torso ratio? He said the sunroof was not an option for him as well though.
I'd like to hear how that goes for him. It certainly could be that I am long in the torso comparatively, and there was enough legroom, just not enough headroom for me, but I don't see how someone 2-1/2" taller could fit without slouching in the seat somewhat, or reclining it back, which has diminishing returns, as the roof line is lowering towards the rear of the car.

TT
 
According to road test data, it is faster than the Leaf by about 2/3 of a second to 60 but then, the Leaf is no speed demon either... I'm 5'8" and it fits me like a glove. Very nice and I particularly like the sculptured seats...

TonyWilliams said:
I didn't think it was particularly powerful, but certainly not a slouch at low speed urban driving that I did. I'm 6'2", and I did fit far better than the Tesla Roadster!
 
Would you believe... drum roll... 84.3 miles with 3 miles on the GOM? Almost the same as a 2011-2012 LEAF.

Test was driven November 17, from 6:15pm until 7:48pm. Here's the reported weather on the very flat, and mostly straight course:

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KHJO/2013/11/17/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Time (PST) Temp. - Dew Point-Humidity-Pressure-Visibility-Wind Dir-Wind Speed--- Sky
5:53 PM 57.0 °F - 37.0 °F 47% 30.05 in 10.0 mi Calm Calm ----- Clear
6:53 PM 54.0 °F - 39.9 °F 59% 30.06 in 10.0 mi Calm Calm ----- Clear
7:53 PM 51.1 °F - 37.9 °F 61% 30.08 in 9.0 mi Calm Calm ----- Clear

The course was about 44 miles in each direction, as is always the case to counter any wind. You'll note that it wasn't particularly warm!! More video, etc, in the future.


215.jpg
 
Not sure if there should be a separate thread for Chrysler's EV/PHEV efforts... some recent news on this front

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1091924_chrysler-mild-hybrids-coming-says-electric-cars-overblown-by-media" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1091911_chrysler-confirms-plug-in-hybrid-minivan-big-suv-in-2016-and-later" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And, it said, plug-in electric cars have been "overblown by the media"--going on to elaborate:

Electrification has been over-blown by the media. With the exception of a relatively small group of early adopters, the market continues to be primarily driven by regulatory requirements.

While Chrysler plans to launch two plug-in hybrids of its own, those are merely to "comply with zero-emission vehicle requirements." In other words, they will be built only in compliance-car volumes.

As for the mild hybrids, they won't come until 2017 or later.
 
walterbays said:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/...r-ceo-please-dont-buy-fiat-500e-electric-car/
"I hope you don't buy it because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000," he said to the audience at the Brookings Institution about the 500e. "I'm honest enough to tell you that."

"I will sell the (minimum) of what I need to sell and not one more," [Fiat-Chrysler CEO] Marchionne said of the 500e.
At Honest Ed's cars we have the best prices in town. In fact, we are selling them for less than they cost us! You won't get a better deal than at Honest Ed's cars.

We only have a few of these, and when they are gone, they are gone! So, if you want one, hurry on down!

Pardon me if I am skeptical. Car makers and dealers say all sorts of things. Look at what they do, instead.
 
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