A PT Cruiser Successor? Mopar Brings Slammed Fiat 500X Chicane to SEMA

Monday, November 2, 2015

A PT Cruiser Successor? Mopar Brings Slammed Fiat 500X Chicane to SEMA

In our instrumented test of Fiat's new 500X, we suggested that the Jeep Renegade's kissing cousin was an improved effort compared with the 500 and the 500L. We also mooted that it looked more like a Porsche Macan than a Cinquecento. But here, gussied up as the 500X Chicane for the 2015 SEMA show, the newest Fiat to hit America looks like the successor vehicle the PT Cruiser never got.

To come up with the look—which we like, by the way—Mopar set the Melfi, Italy–built crossover on 20-inch rolling stock, painted it Competition Blue with a gloss-black roof, and added a "Chicane" side stripe. Inside, the seats were redone in Katzkin leather trimmed in blue, because it's not a SEMA car without a Katzkin interior. The dash insert gets the same sort of bluing, as does the instrument panel. Under the dash sits a Mopar bright-pedal kit. The Chicane gets its power from the 500X's 2.4-liter naturally aspirated engine exhaling through a prototype cat-back exhaust system, and the car sits closer to the ground via a prototype lowering kit.

Steve Albini once said of the PT Cruiser: "Awesome car, I love it. Plenty of room inside, sips gas." Might the former Big Black frontman, recording whiz, and notably irascible music-industry critic say the same of the 500X Chicane? We observed 17 mpg during our first test of the PT Cruiser 15 years ago. We managed to get 24 out of the 500X. If the PT "sips" gas, the Chicane might just qualify as a legit fuel miser in Albiniland, a veritable Feather Duster for our modern age. We're thinking that somehow, that's not quite what Mopar was shooting for, but, well, that's where we wound up.

Fiat 500X Chicane concept for SEMA 2015