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2015 Fiat 500L Living [w/video]

Turning The World's Largest Fiat Into A Larger Three-Row MPV
We've explored every offering of the Fiat 500 family meant for the United States, plus all of the Abarth variations. But the 500 now also comes super-sized; we recently attended a drive of the larger 2014 Fiat 500L people-mover and its Trekking edition, and found them both to be generally enjoyable. We Americans, however, are suckers for anything that comes in an even bigger size than Large, so witness this Fiat 500L Living, which will be landing on our shores sometime in late 2014.
The essential benefit here is that this 500L is bigger (i.e. longer) by 8.3 inches, thereby adding cargo space and, to our eyes, filling out the natural profile of the slightly scrunched design of the standard 500L. You can maximize your 500L Living cargo space to 59.7 cubic feet by knocking down all the seats, or you can opt for the "+2" seating arrangement that sacrifices 3.5 cubic feet of volume for a tantalizing third row of chairs that seems to turn some consumers into dogs of Pavlov, no matter the degree of usefulness of said added row.

Fiat stock rockets up after word of Chrysler deal

Now that Fiat has finalized a deal to purchase the outstanding shares of Chrysler owned by the United Auto Workers' VEBA retiree heathcare fund without having to file for an IPO, you can count the Italian automaker's stockholders among the happy. The Detroit News reports that Fiat stock closed Thursday with a 12-percent gain for the day on the Borsa Italiana, having been up by as much as 15.8 percent during the day's trading, at prices not seen since mid-2011. One trader reasoned the run was because Fiat "paid less than the market had expected and there will be no capital increase to fund this."
But there are some who worry, including bank analysts and unions. The final price of the stake will be $4.35 billion - $1.9 billion in cash from Chrysler, $1.75 billion from Fiat and extraordinary dividends in the amount of $700 million paid over three years. Adding that sum to its ledger will raise Fiat's debt level to roughly 10 billion euros ($13.8 billion), which Citibank says will make it the most indebted OEM in Europe.
Italian unions are also concerned about what the deal means for the future. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has had an at-times contentious relationship with both unions and the Italian government over the future of Italian manufacturing, a fact that makes headlines because Fiat is Italy's largest private employer. At least two left-leaning unions have publicly called on Fiat to give guarantees and to explain what the deal means for its Italian operations, while a centrist union argues this is "good news for Fiat workers, for the auto industry and for our country."

Fiat 500 Abarth made from models in body paint [w/video]

Fiat has taken an interesting approach to its advertising for ESPN The Magazine's annual Body Issue. Rather than just hiring an athlete to stand next to a car or sit in a car, it's actually built a car out of athletes. (And not unlike some naked-lady-motorcycles we've seen before.)
Using body artist Craig Tracy and more than a dozen very talented, very muscular, and very flexible models, Fiat has developed an interesting ad that is, according to the head of Fiat Brand North America, Jason Stoicevich, "as visually unique as the Fiat 500 Abarth Cabrio." We can't really argue with that statement, as we've never seen an ad quite like this before.
If you aren't interested in picking up a copy of ESPN The Magazine, then at least take a look at this (slightly NSFW) video, which shows the effort that went into the ad and the degree of talent from the models. We've also posted the actual ad in the gallery, so you can get a closer look at what's at your local newsstand. Check out the video down below.