Fiat 500X vs Volkswagen Multivan

What's the difference?

The 500X is a fun-looking alternative to the various options available from everyone else and is - overall - better to drive than its Renegade twin. 

It packs a very good safety package which you can't ignore but does lose points on the warranty and servicing regime. But it's also built to take four adults in comfort, which not every car in the segment can boast.

The Australian launch of the new generation Multivan was confined to the Life grade with the 2.0-litre diesel engine. Later in 2025 the Style grade will arrive bringing a hybrid powertrain and even more features. We’ll be able to test both more thoroughly once we have them in the CarsGuide garage.

From this first drive, however, it's clear that while slightly pricier than its Kia Carnival rival the new generation Multivan is more practical than ever, and now that it rides on a car platform, far better to drive.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

Look, I like the 500X, but I know why people don't. It's clearly a 500X in the way a Mini Countryman is a Mini. It looks like a 500, but get closer and you see the difference. It's chubby like a $10 weekend market Bhudda statue and has great big googly eyes like Mr Magoo. I find this endearing, my wife does not. The looks aren't the only thing she doesn't like.

The cabin is a bit more restrained and I quite like the band of colour stretching across the dash. The 500X is meant to be a bit more grown up than the 500, so there's a proper dash, more sensible design choices but it still has the big buttons, perfect for the meaty fingers of people who won't be buying this car.

As with all Volkswagens the redesign of the new-gen Multivan is more about refining than redefining. Just like the Golf hatch which has kept its look through eight generations the Multivan is recognisable and familiar but new and modern looking, too.

Smoother lines, a more heavily raked windscreen and a flatter bonnet make for a cuter snub nose. The new Multivan is less boxy than before even though it is still a box on wheels, just a sleeker, more adorable one. 

As mentioned, the Multivan comes in two lengths: the short wheelbase, which is 4973mm from the front bumper to the rear bumper, and the long wheelbase which is 5173mm long. Height for both is 1900mm.

Inside, the cabin is modern with large screens for media and driver instruments with a minimalist design to the dash, while the lack of a centre console frees up space. The sense of roominess is enhanced by daylight flooding in through oversized windows which can be taken a step further when combined with the optional panoramic (split panel) glass roof. 

There are nine body colours to pick from including 'Candy White', 'Pure Grey', 'Reflex Silver Metallic', 'Copper Bronze Metallic', 'Deep Black Pearlescent', 'Energetic Orange Metallic', 'Medium Blue Metallic', 'Mono Silver Metallic' and 'Starlight Blue Metallic'.

At just 4.25 metres, the 500X isn't big, but makes the most of what it's got. The boot impresses at 350 litres and with the seats down, I think you could reasonably expect to triple that figure, though Fiat doesn't have an official number that I can find. For added Italian feel, you can tip the passenger seat forward to get really long things in, like a Billy bookshelf flat pack from Ikea.

Rear seat passengers sit high and upright meaning leg and kneeroom are maximised and with that tall roof, you won't scrape your head. 

The doors each have a small bottle holder for a total of four and Fiat has got serious about cupholders - the 500X now has four.

Practicality is the Multivan's greatest strength. Seven seats come standard and the rear five can be configured into numerous variations. If you like you could have those rear seats facing each other or you can just have a second row with a large boot area or you could have two in the middle row and two in the third row or whatever other variation you can think up. Yes, you can remove all five rear seats and now that they're 25 per cent lighter it’s easier to do so.

People space is excellent and at 189cm tall I found it possible to not only sit comfortably in the second row behind my driving position, but also behind that in the third row with plenty of leg and headroom.  

An optional multi-functional table is also available and this can slide on rails from the third row all the way up to between the driver and front passenger.

Second row cabin storage is outstanding. You’ll find drawers under the seats big enough for a pair of shoes, hidey holes and cupholders everywhere, seat-back tray tables and gigantic door pockets.

Up front is a double glove box, a dash-top storage bin, more cupholders as well as a multitude of pockets and small storage holes for bits and pieces.

For devices there’s a wireless phone charger and four USB ports.

You’ll also find three-zone climate control with air vents throughout the cabin and dark-tinted glass for the side windows. 

Finally, the power sliding rear side doors are huge and allow easy entry and exit to and from both rear rows.

Being able to leave the driver or front passenger’s seat and walk through to the second row is also handy and fun. Not while driving, of course, although it’s tempting.

Volkswagen has launched the new Multivan in one grade to begin with called Life and it comes exclusively with a diesel engine. A Style grade will come later in 2025 to sit above it with a higher price but more features and different powertrain - likely a petrol-electric hybrid.

For now, though, the Life is here and there are two versions - a long one and a short one. Volkswagen calls them short wheelbase and long wheelbase but the truth is their wheelbases (the distance between the front and rear wheels) are identical. It’s the back area of the car which differs in length and it’s only 20cm - the length of the boot, basically.

But let’s go with Volkswagen’s choice of words. The Life in short wheelbase form lists for $75,990 and the long wheelbase is $3000 more at $78,990, both before on-road costs.

Standard features on the Life include LED headlights, 17-inch alloy wheels, power sliding rear doors and power tailgate, a 10-inch media screen and 10.25-inch digital driver’s display, three-zone climate control, push-button start and eight-speaker audio plus wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Seven seats are standard, too.

Fiat's rather excellent 1.4-litre turbo MultiAir does duty under the stubby bonnet, making 103kW and 230Nm. Rather less excellent is the six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, which sends power through the front wheels only.

It's rated to tow a 1200kg braked trailer and 600kg unbraked.

At the moment there’s just the one grade of Multivan, the Life, and it's powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel making 110kW and 360Nm. Transmission is a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic which sends drive to the front wheels.

Coming later in 2025 will be a petrol-electric variant but it will only be available in a more premium Style grade.

Fiat rather optimistically suggest you'll get a combined cycle figure of 5.7L/100km but try as I might, I couldn't do better than 11.2L/100km. What's worse, it demands 98RON fuel, so it's not the cheapest car to run. This figure us consistent with past weeks in the 500X and no, I wasn't thrashing it.

Volkswagen says that after a combination of open and urban roads the Multivan Life should use 6.4L/100km. While on the launch the trip computer was recording an average of about 8.5L/100km, but we’ll assess fuel efficiency again when this VW comes into the CarsGuide road test garage. 

In theory, if you do use 6.4L/100km, the Multivan's 80-litre tank should give you 1250km of range.

The score for efficiency looks quite low here and that's because without having driven the Style grade and the hybrid powertrain all we have to go by currently is the diesel.

Again, I shouldn't like the 500X but I really don't mind it. It's flawed, which might be why.

The dual-clutch transmission is dumber than a box of loose cogs, lurching from start and looking the other way when you expect it to shift. We know the engine is a good one and I think part of the reason it's so thirsty is the confused way the transmission goes about its business. I'd love to drive a manual to see what it's like.

The 500X initially feels worse than its Jeep Renegade sibling-under-the-skin, which is quite an achievement. Part of that is to do with the ride, which is very choppy below 60km/h. The first 500X I drove wallowed about but this one is a bit tauter, which would be good if you weren't punished with this bounciness.

The seats themselves comfortable and the interior is a good place to hang out. It's reasonably quiet, too, which is at odds with the old-school silliness of its conduct. It feels like Labrador let out of after day kept inside.

And that's where the car I shouldn't like is a car I do like - I really like that it feels like you're on Roman cobblestones, the type that make your knees hurt when you walk on them for a day. The steering wheel is too fat and is at a weird angle, but you kind of square up to it and drive the car like your life depends on it. You have to take it by the scruff, correct the shifts with the paddles and show it who's boss.

Obviously, that's not for everyone. If you drive it really gently, it's a very different experience, but that means going slowly everywhere, which is no fun at all and not at all Italian.

The missing piece of the Multivan puzzle for me has been the way it drives. Past versions have been less 'car-like' than rivals like the Kia Carnival. It felt like a commercial van to drive, because essentially it was. But that's been fixed.

One of the biggest changes to this new-generation Multivan is the platform on which it's built. Volkswagen has decided to swap the truck-like platform from the past for the 'MQB' platform which underpins vehicles such as the Golf and Tiguan. 

Having spent a few hours driving this new generation Multivan around some great country roads during the launch I can testify that not only is the ride comfortable and composed but this van handles way better than you might imagine.

While the Multivan is in no way a sports car, good handling adds to the fun factor. It's easy to drive with light, accurate and direct steering, good acceleration and smooth gear changes from the transmission, great pedal feel under your feet and superb visibility from the high seating position and oversized windows all around.

That said, I enjoyed driving the previous generation Multivan. I loved its fun and easy piloting factor and the change in platform for this new-gen model makes the experience even more pleasurable.

Volkswagen's Multivan scored the maximum five-star ANCAP rating under 2022 criteria (tested by Euro NCAP). Safety tech includes AEB, lane keeping assistance, rear cross-traffic alert, blind-spot warning, front and rear parking sensors and emergency assistance.

Importantly, side curtain airbags extend to cover all three rows; there's also a centre airbag between the driver and front passenger.

A pleasant surprise was finding how non-intrusive a lot of the safety tech onboard the Multivan is. While there's steering assistance there are no annoying alarms and bells as you'll find in other vehicles. In trying to focus your attention on the road they only distract you further.

Fiat offers a three-year/150,000km warranty, along with roadside assist for the same period. It's not great as more manufacturers shift to five years. 

Service intervals arrive once a year or 15,000km. There is no fixed or capped-price servicing program for the 500X.

The Multivan is covered by Volkswagen’s five year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

Servicing is recommended every 15,000km or annually and will cost you between about $600-800 a year.