General Armrest Mod or Replacement

[sparkin5280]

Hi, Newb here, just bought me a used 2014 Easy, 6-speed manual Easy with only 3k miles.

Armrest.....we all know is stinks. The range of motion of this is terrible. In the lowest setting it's still very high. Barely usable for me, not usable for my wife. She puts it up, I put it down. Kind of like the toilet seat....in reverse!

Maybe not a big deal if you have one of those lazy auto-boxes. But ours is the better 6-speed manual Has anyone tried to take it apart and gain some more downward direction with it? Anyone bought and installed an aftermarket one like on Ebay? (I tried to post a link here but I'm not allowed yet apparently, just search for 500L Armrest on Ebay and you'll see what I'm talking about for $150).


This aftermarket piece apparantly plugs into a hole that ours doesn't have. Will this hole appear if I remove the factory armrest?? This also appears to block the hand brake less which would be a huge bonus too.

 

[acikota]

To be honest-the one that I saw on ebay is too simple for me-not for my taste....My Fiat 500l didn't have armrest so we had to buy one and installed Armster 2 (google it)-it just has to be srewed in the middle console,between seats and you can adjust position (vertically it has 3 heights and horizontaly-you can slide the top and make it shorter or longer).We had trouble in the begining but after a while my housband and I found the best position so I would recomend it definitly...And it comes in two colours -totaly black and matt silver/black combination....

 

[acikota]

And the price was around 80 euros...

 

[sparkin5280]

oh wow, cool! Sounds exactly what I'm looking for. thx!!!

 

[sparkin5280]

So the Description on 500 Madness is "This great looking and functioning armrest is designed specifically for the European Version of the FIAT 500L.
This armrest comes with all the hardware need to be installed in the FIAT 500L (EU Version). "

Is this just set up for the EU 500L? What's the diff? Anyone install one of these in an US version?

 

[acikota]

To be honest-I don't know will it fit for the us version.All the Armster 2 armrests are the same and they come with a specially fit adapter(that is individual for each car model) that covers a bottle hole in the back of that center console ....So if you have anything simillar to that maybe it will fit...I can write to the manufacturer and ask them will it fit,because I was in contact with them while I was waiting for their product to get to the shelwes (and we were among first ot the owners that installed their product in Fiat 500l ;-)

 

[sparkin5280]

That makes sense because the other one I mentioned on Ebay shows it going into a drink holder hole in the back of the center console that we don't have here in the states. I was wondering what the heck that was all about.

I might start taking my factory arm rest apart and see what all's under there. This damn armrest is about the only thing that's thats keeping my wife from liking the car!

 

[Ez2517]

Hi,

do I get it right that you can height adjust the armrest ?

In the European version you can't, and it is mounted way too low ...

This is the Euro version - does yours look differently ?

Brandy

 

[sparkin5280]

Nope, not even close to that. It's a design that could have been good, but fails miserably. It's a piece that mounts to the center console, and yes it has level adjustments, but it only has "ridiculously high" and "Uncomfortable High" positions. The lowest it will do is 90 degrees. It needs to go slightly downward to allow the arm to reach the shifter more naturally. It also covers the handbrake almost entirely. Whole thing seems like an afterthought. It's not too much to ask, the Germans do it well...

I'll see if I can get pics of mine on here.