Fiat 500 an X-citing new Crossover

The world has, as we all know, gone crossover mad. I’m not talking here about any LGBT phenomenon, I’m talking about those cars which are designed to look like rugged off-roaders, but perform like family hatchbacks.

Through the 90s and 2000s, the SUV was the thing to have and here in Ireland we bought them by the warehouse-load. It mattered not to us Irish, it seemed, that they were all madly expensive and, more often than not, terrible to drive. The image was more important than any other factor back in those heady Celtic Tiger days.

However, a new motoring marvel was on the way and while you could argue that it was Suzuki’s Vitara which set the ball rolling in this market niche back in 1998, their faux 4x4 (at least the 2WD version which sold most widely) was never accorded the same pioneering accolades which met Nissan when it unveiled the Qashqai back in 2006.