Fiat's fancy 500X Trekking ... Yes, it is an SUV

A menu of Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews can be seen on the Business page of The Sacramento Bee’s website – www.sacbee.com/news/business/article4005306.html

Sacramento, California – I had been test driving the 2017 Fiat 500X Trekking FWD for three days when I learned that it was considered a sport-utility vehicle.

Oh, come on!  Really?  Yes, really.

Silly me, I thought I was testing a specialized Fiat sedan, only to learn that I was driving a small crossover being marketed to young SUV buyers.

Along that line, by the way, the 500X Trekking shapes up rather nicely.  It has room for some cargo and more than a few passengers.  No, it won’t carry the entire Little League team and all its equipment, but it’s not supposed to do that.

It looks nice with Fiat relentlessly referring to its exotic Italian styling. In simpler terms, I thought it looked sleek and smooth.

As time went on, I started appreciating the advantages of my particular 500X tester.

For starters, instead of a standard 1.4-liter engine (like you get on other Fiats), my 500X Trekking model was equipped with a 2.4-liter, in-line 4 rated at 180 horsepower.

Wow, what a difference!  Matched to a NINE-speed automatic transmission, my ride briskly whipped through traffic when I mashed the accelerator.  The level of spirited performance was surprising, not only to me but to trailing drivers who watched my little SUV leave them in the dust.

The power plant is rated at 22 miles per gallon in the city and 30 mpg on the highway, pretty good numbers for sure.

The price was reasonable at $23,350 to start, but mine was exhaustively spruced up with extras that brought the bottom line to $29,480.

Not that I was complaining.  The Advanced Safety Package, the Cold Weather Package and the “Trekking Popular Equipment Package” (a power, eight way driver’s seat and a “ParkView” rear back-up camera were part of that) were welcome additions.

I did have a gripe with the way-too-sensitive blind spot-monitoring system.  It would blare a loud “beep” when I was 15 yards past another vehicle and moving 25 miles per hour faster than the trailing vehicle.

Maybe my ride was calibrated to “aging old man,” which I can’t argue with, but the continued beeps were jarring and annoying.

But that’s not enough to spoil the whole package.  Not even close.  This Fiat compares favorably with the recently tested Nissan Juke subcompact crossover SUV.

Want to go trekking?  Fiat has your ride.