Fiat 500 Under Warranty, Excellent Condition on 2040-cars

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Facelifted 2019 Fiat 500X features new lights front and rear

Jeep has been testing an updated 2019 Jeep Renegade, so it should come as no surprise that its Fiat-badged cousin, the 500X, is also going to be refreshed for 2019. The new Fiat has finally been spotted, testing alongside the Jeep, and it's going to be a mild update. Most of the changes appear to be in the lights. Up front, the headlights and the fog lights appear to be sleeker. The main headlights have been slimmed down a bit. The fog lights have shrunk all around and have lost a little bit of the roundness of the current model. At the back, the taillights retain the same shape, but they have much more depth now. Instead of having a smooth round plastic housing, the lights are concave, starting with a red outer ring. Inside that is a clear ring that may be turn signals and/or reverse lights. Then, in the center, at the deepest level, is a light we're not totally able to identify. It does appear to have lights arranged in a plus shape. It may just be a basic taillight that stays on with the headlights. We expect the 500X to be revealed sometime this year. Considering how little is changed on the outside, we're not expecting any major changes to the powertrain, which includes either a turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder or a naturally aspirated 2.4-liter four-cylinder. The former is currently only available with front-wheel drive and a six-speed manual, and the 2.4-liter engine is available with front- or all-wheel drive but only with a nine-speed automatic. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2019 Fiat 500X spy shots View 16 Photos Spy Photos Fiat Crossover SUV Economy Cars fiat 500x

Fiat Chrysler's Marchionne being treated in Zurich

ZURICH — Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne was being treated in a Zurich hospital on Sunday with a serious illness after suffering complications following shoulder surgery. A Fiat Chrysler spokesman confirmed Marchionne was in Zurich's University Hospital, one of Switzerland's largest medical centers. The FCA spokesman did not give the 66-year-old Italian-Canadian executive's condition or say in which of the hospital's 43 divisions he was being treated. Italian news outlets said he has been in a coma since Friday, is breathing with the help of a ventilator, and that attempts to have him breath on his own were unsuccessful. Fiat Chrysler named its Jeep division boss Mike Manley on Saturday to take over immediately from Marchionne, who had been due to step down next April. SGS, the Swiss logistics services company, also announced on Sunday that it had named a new acting chairman to take over for Marchionne, since his illness prevented him from fulfilling the role's obligations. SGS said in a statement it was "deeply saddened" by the news, as did Lausanne, Switzerland-based Philip Morris International, where Marchionne is also on the board. Marchionne was credited with rescuing Fiat and Chrysler from bankruptcy after taking the Italian carmaker's wheel in 2004. On Saturday he was also replaced as chairman and CEO of Ferrari and chairman of tractor maker CNH Industrial — both spun off from FCA in recent years. In additional management changes linked to Marchionne's illness, Ferrari named FCA Chairman and Agnelli family scion John Elkann as new chairman and Louis Camilleri becomes chief executive. Reporting by John Miller in ZurichRelated Video: Image Credit: Reuters Chrysler Ferrari Fiat US

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.