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2014 Fiat 500L

The saying goes that man cannot live by bread alone, and neither can automakers live by selling one car alone. This holds especially true for automakers with a budding dealer network to support, like the Fiat brand, which returned to US shores in 2011 after a 28-year absence. The company's single car to sell at the time was the Fiat 500, a cute retro rebirth of the original, iconic Cinquecento, which your toddler now calls Luigi thanks to Pixar.
Since then, the new 500 has sold reasonably well here in the US, and the Fiat brand has been following the same playbook that another purveyor of pint-sized autos, Mini, has used: sell as many variants as you can of the one model you've got. So we have the 500, 500C drop top, high-performance 500 Abarth, all-electric 500e and a few additional trim levels and special editions to further fill dealer showrooms. But the axiom that automakers cannot live selling one car alone still stands, and so Fiat has finally introduced its second model, the larger 500L.
Executive Editor Chris Paukert completed our First Drive of the 500L back in June, and was left pleasantly surprised by its combination of utility, offbeat style, fun-to-drive demeanor and value. We've also, however, read some scathing reviews, like this one from The New York Times. I wasn't sure where the truth lay when the keys for this top-trim 2014 Fiat 500L Lounge were handed to me, but finding out would be but a short week of together time away.

This Or That: Fiat 500 Abarth vs. Ford Fiesta ST [w/poll]

They're pretty darn similar. And yet our views are oh so different.
If you guys could read the transcripts of our editors' chat room, you'd know that we're a pretty argumentative bunch. It's always good-spirited stuff (well, usually), but when we're not obsessively covering this or that, we're usually fighting about one car being better than another. We're all enthusiasts here, and our automotive tastes run the gamut from the weird and unusual to the decidedly mainstream - we all feel strongly about specific cars in a given segment. While it usually makes for good conversation, if we're passionate enough, it can turn into a tomato-throwing showdown.

Fiat loses $14k on every 500e it builds, Marchionne doesn't want you to buy one

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne made some interesting comments during a frank and entertaining talk at the Brookings Institution earlier today, saying he hoped that no one bought the Fiat 500e, the well-received EV based on the adorable Italian car.
"I hope you don't buy it," said Marchionne, during a talk and question-and-answer session that focused on the aftermath of the automotive bailouts, "because every time I sell one, it costs me $14,000."
"I'm honest enough to tell you that I'll make the car, I'll make it available, which is my requirement. I'll sell the limit of what I'm required to sell and not one more," Marchionne said. "If we build just those vehicles, we'll be back in Steve [Rattner's] successor's office in Washington asking for a second bailout, because we'll be bankrupt by Christmas"