Fiat Is Making A Convertible Crossover

The crossover craze isn't going away any time soon. In fact, crossovers are so popular in the US that they've all but reduced car sales to a trickle, prompting GM to prune its US-market car lineup way back and causing Ford to exit the car market altogether, save for the Ford Mustang pony car.

Across town at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger, and Chrysler 300 all soldier on, antiquated as they are, as does the Alfa Romeo Giulia. But Fiat saw fit to discontinue its car model lines in the North American lineup, axing the Fiat 500, 500e, and 500 Abarth, later adding the 500L and 124 Spider to the chopping block. All that remains is the Fiat 500's most crossover-style derivative, the 500X. But what about folks who want an open-air, top-down experience?

As it turns out, there's a rag top Fiat 500X Cabrio model in the works, announced behind closed doors last month in a meeting with the automaker's suppliers, and Automotive News Europe reports that the new model will arrive later this year. Sources have revealed that it will be similar to the 500C, with full door frames and a folding canvas center panel spanned between them, unlike most convertibles on the market which use frameless windows that retract automatically with the top for a truly open cabin.

In all of automotive history, there have been very few convertible crossovers ever produced - a list that includes Nissan's ill-fated, much-maligned Murano CrossCabriolet, Land Rover's Range Rover Evoque Convertible, and more recently, Volkswagen's T-Roc Cabriolet. The latter model is primarily what the Fiat 500X Cabrio will be competing against in the European market.

It's unclear at this juncture whether the 500X Cabrio will ever actually make it stateside, though. On the one hand, it could breathe new life into a stagnant crossover model that's seen its US sales decline steadily over the past four years, renewing interest in the Fiat brand as it struggles to maintain relevance in the market. On the other hand, the 500X's already slow sales could be seen as reason not to bother with the costly process of introducing a new model variant.