Fiat 500X SUV - Reliability & safety

The reliability of Fiats has been improving in recent years, with models such as the 500 and Panda proving more robust than their nineties predecessors. However, the 500X didn’t score well in the reliability and build quality category in our 2018 Driver Power survey and hasn't appeared in our recent results.

Fiat 500X reliability

Although Fiat’s poor reliability reputation has been improving recently, the Fiat 500X came last in the reliability and build quality category out of the 75 cars featured in our 2018 Driver Power survey. We’d hope that the new, more modern engines will help the car’s reliability record in the future.

Fiat as a manufacturer came 26th out of 29 brands in 2021, down three places compared to our 2020 survey. Owners praised low running costs and told us their cars were stylish and offered good visibility, but weren't as positive with regards to interior fit and finish or practicality. Around 13.8% of customers reported a fault within the first 12 months.

Safety

The 500X was awarded a four-star safety score by crash-testing body Euro NCAP when it was evaluated in 2015. It was let down by a score of 64% in the safety assistance category, but did well for adult occupant protection (86%) and child occupant protection (85%). Also counting in the 500X's favour in this area is an extensive range of hi-tech active safety systems – although many of them are only available as optional extras at additional cost, which is why the car got an underwhelming mark in the safety assistance category.

Standard safety features include six airbags, a skid-preventing electronic stability control system anti-lock brakes, a system that prevents rollovers, hill-start assistance, traffic-sign recognition, speed-limit alerts and lane-keeping assistance. Blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking are available as options.