It’s an Italian Jeep Wrangler.
The Fiat 500 is a quirky two-door runabout that never became a hot-selling compact car that defined a generation. It’s small size, and three-door-hatchback design limited its appeal, even though it gained fans thanks to its retro Italian design. But cars of all sizes are facing declining sales, and the 500 is no different. Fiat 500 sales continue to fall year-over-year as consumers flock to crossovers and SUVs. How can Fiat save the 500? By joining the crossover craze and turning the 500 into the Mad Max rejected extra you see above.
The Fiat 500 XXL rendering from Rain Prisk is the perfect refresh for the floundering model. The raised suspension and gray-plastic wheel arches fall right in line with today’s popular aesthetic of trying to fool customers into thinking a lightly modified car is now a capable off-road vehicle ready for the treacherous terrain of mall parking lots and school pick-up lines. Convince customers a car is magically a crossover and they’ll pay more for the vehicle, padding those corporate profit margins.
Prisk’s 500 XXL features a raised suspension, meaty off-road tires, a revised front bumper, a brush guard, additional front lighting reminiscent of rally cars, a roof rack and spoiler, and the engine exhaust poking through the hood. It’s the custom hood exhaust cutout that gives the 500 XXL its apocalyptic appearance.
The XXL naming convention likely comes from the 500L – a larger, yet more restrained offering from Fiat that increases the 500’s versatility with two extra doors while diminishing its stylistic attractiveness. The 500 XXL we have here is something otherworldly and an unlikely product from the Italian automaker.
While the Fiat 500 XXL is nothing more than fantasy, the rendering is a cool look at what kind of aftermarket accessories could exist for the 500. It’s no Jeep Wrangler, but there are customers out there who would lay down cold hard cash for such an off-road ready Fiat.
Source: Rain Prisk via Autoevolution.com
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