Fiat 500

May Have to replace the mondeo soon the dual mass clutch is banging away quite badly when cold gets better when warm but is a reliability concern

The Mrs really likes the Fiat 500 range of cars, so I have been looking at them on the various sites and have come to notice something that seems a bit odd

Why are there so many Cat C and Cat D write offs?
Is it just that there are so many of them or is there an underlying issue perhaps the brakes are poor or something

We're not quite decided whether to buy new or second hand if second hand would be around £5-6k if new would be on a finance deal, either would need to be economical so unsure if the 1.2L is right or too gutless does anybody have any experience of both petrol engine sizes
Does the fiat club membership discount bear any weight if trying to get a decent deal?
We won't be looking until August-September time
Any thoughts appreciated
Cheers

Just a thought but I think you will find theres probably no more Cat C and D 500's as there are any other cars. Its just looking on places like Autotrader will mean you see these first due to the effect on the cars value.........
I wouldn't be put of by a C or D as long as you have full documentation to prove the repair work and even better - if you are able to contact the previous keeper beforehand to prove the story.
The 500 has a five star Adult occupany NCAP rating so they cannot be too badly built.

Fiat haven't been offering great discounts on the 500 range, rather they have been offering say £1500 of upgrades. It may have changed by the time you are ready, have a look nearer then.

I have rented 1.2 petrol engined 500s. They are sluggish and I had to turn off the aircon to keep up with traffic on Spanish motorways going up several hills.

As Nello said, they are quite nicely built and with a more powerful engine I could live with one.

I think MeanRedSpider has experience of these...

The new mapping on the 1.2 was on Watchdog or some consumer program and has no power to get up steeps hills as tested by the old Stig Ben Collins. A basic 1.4 would be my bet. The twin air is supposed to be good but if trouble free motoring is what you are after the 1.4 all day long.

Diesels can also get the filter clogged if you do a lot town driving and require a trip to the dealer/specialist to reset the light.

Cheers for the comments! brought back memories of a crappy car i had on holiday 2014 also in spain! that was totally gutless! was a Hyundai i20 ok but going up hills on the toll roads was a new experience!

One statistic to look into further might be reliability. The 500 came up badly in the ADAC breakdown statistics against other small cars, most of which are a lot cheaper:

https://www.adac.de/infotestrat/unfall-s...rcePageId=47921

My girlfriend has a 500. We paid £7k second-hand from a dealer, with a year’s warranty and an MOT guarantee.

It’s a fun wee car to drive on country roads, quite chuckable, but you do have to drop a gear on steep hills.

It’s well built – solid and fairly reliable. We’ve had no problems in 18 months’ ownership.

We had a fiat 500 1.2 lounge for about 2 years. The rear shock bushes let go at 40k, the water pump was leaking when we came to do the major service, front wheel bearing had also gone. The Door handle also separated from the body!
So build quality was poor. We did love the car but it was completely gutless, i'd go as far to say down right dangress on occasions. Once you were up to speed it was fine and would tootle on and have great MPG but to overtake a 55mph lorry on the m6 you were taking your life in your hands.

Im sad to say a lot of the issues carried over on to the abarth, again the rear shock bushes fell to bits at silly miles and the door handle actually came off in the recovery drivers hand. Not to mention a rad destroying its self and the AC condenser being dust at less than 40k

I find it funny how the Ford Ka has such a better reputation for build and reliability then the 500, when it’s exactly the same car beneath the company styling.

Interesting that the ADAC was also called out to a higher percentage of 500s than KAs.

Thanks for all the comments and info really appreciated!

The thing about this is im not getting a say, as it was my choice to get the mondeo that i hardly drive.
During ownership my wife has gone from walking to school to having to rely on a car (change of job and location) and she absolutely hates the mondeo, so its basically her choice!
I may get to choose the spec but she has already made it clear that she is not having an Abarth

I did not realise they shared the Ford KA chassis

There are plenty of other contenders but most seem quite boring and with no character!!
Seems like we will be falling in to that old trap again!

What about the outgoing "Grand Punto." There are some tasty engines available... and even an Abarth.

http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/cartestreports/2007093.html

I also have a Grande Punto 1.4 8v 5 door in my garage. A very practical car but lacks the "go" for overtaking etc. It is also a good "shopping cart".

However, for a bit of spirited driving, the 1.4 Tjet or 1.9 diesel is the way to go. Several of my car club friends have these and a happy with their performance.

Show her the 500´s classy niece and prepare for a trip to France. Punto MKII base, 60 to 95 hp petrol engines or 70 to 105 hp diesel.

The Mk.2 Ypsilon was never offered in RHD here ePiFaNT.
The Mk.3 is though but badged as a Chrysler - Maybe worth a look as a cheaper alternative H_R? Certainly cheaper in the 2nd hand market..........

Cheers for the input! its one of those things, the Mrs just wants to have a choice for a change and its more to do with a car she likes that is economical as opposed to a budget car that's cheap and economical, (I am making the assumption that they are cheap)

Im still unsure when we are likely to purchase as my money is accounted for, at least until Augusts payday so that is pushing it more for next spring now! too many kids school trips to pay at the moment! Iceland and New York!! never had trips like that when i was at school!

I Popped in to a fiat dealer for a finance quote and to get the monthly down to £100 which is where im happy at on a long term, because at least it should not be too noticeable! i need a £4000 deposit plus the £1000 that Fiat were giving ontop of that, so i could either save the deposit have a brand new car for £100 a month or near enough by a second hand one for a bit more outright!
I know what my head is telling me to do but seeing the new shiney bling thing sitting there sort of messes with the logic process!
We will see!

Again appreciate your input!

A nearly new pre-registered car should be cheaper than brand new. It could be worth checking out dealer stock when NEW plates come along. That said the 500 is hugely popular so there may not be too many sitting around waiting for an owner.

If you do choose new it could be well worth checking the club offers.

My girlfriend rented an Ypsilon a couple of times and declared it the worst car she had ever driven. Just hated it.

My daughter has a 500. Bought pre registered with 8 miles on the clock. She's had it four years now and done around 80,000 trouble free miles. The car does have enough go in it - not compared to a coop but compared to most of the ordinary cars out t here it can hold its own Our local dealer has three pre registered in at the Mo. 14 miles on the clock £8.5k each!

Wow 8.5k that's good!

Might have to check out some dealers for pre registered or ex demos or something
Good shout!

My mum got an early one with the guaranteed £2k cash back scheme a few years back.

She's hasn't had a huge amount of problems just the usual consumables. I've done a few services and changed all the cambelt & waterpump for her. One split vacuum hose and the heater hose started leaking at the bleed valve. New battery and handbrake cables. Stainless (or was it chrome) tip exhaust started rusting and FIAT put a new one on for her.

That reminds me … there is something about a common problem with one particular hose splitting. Not come across it on ours. If you smell fumes in the cabin, it’s the likely culprit.

The top mounts on the rear suspension are the only common rust spot. Worth checking for water sitting there.

Owners club forums for the 500 should tell you all about those two issues.

Yep its the breather hose up behind the airbox to throttle.

Front suspension top mounts have are a watertrap too - the rain goes down the windscreen and there is not plastic covers ontop of the top mounts so it just sits there.

I think you can get aftermarket ones though.

Poprock, its the crank case breather under the airbox, this went on ours as well.

They used the same crankcase breather hose on the Grande Punto and it's a common failure on those as well. Have replaced mine on the GP twice, but now Fiat have upgraded the hose to a proper silicone one so hopefully won't happen again.

Also we had to replace our steering wheel as all the *leather* went funny, crinkles and then peeled

I had that on my Grande Punto too. Fiat replaced it out of warranty at 4 years and 20 something k miles, so I suspect it was a commonish problem.
The replacement is fine.

Yes, my Grande Punto steering wheel also has crinkles on the surface of the leather on both sides. Hasn't peeled yet so just ignoring it for now as it's more cosmetic than anything else. It is 8 years old so can't complain too much I guess.

They wouldn't touch ours, said it was our fault and it was down to hand cream or such like. The service at our local fiat place was less then great sadly.

The Series 3 Ypsilon is based on the Panda/500 platform so is mechanically the same car..... Not everyone likes the centrally postioned dials though. Perhaps they put her off.

We have had our 500 colour therapy since Feb, whilst I do really like it there are a couple of things that aren't great with it.

Its the 1.2 69hp version, the problem with hill starts and climbing hills has been fixed (almost) by Fiat with an ECU update. Its slow, dangerously in some circumstances. The engine surges when you pull away, adding 500-750 rpm to whatever revs you had instructed the engine to use. According to Fiat, I need to change my driving style. You can, just about, pull away without being launched into the car infront, by very gently and precisely controlling the clutch using next to no acceleration!! Best advice is to test drive a new 64 or later registered one.

The reason theres so many Cat C and D, again according to Fiat, is that if you have a bump big enough to deploy the airbags, they are being written off by the insurance companies, regardless of exterior damage.

Mpg is around 39 although our car has only just gone past 1000 miles and mpg is slowly getting better.

Its noisy. The road noise intruding into the cabin at anything over 20mph is crazy, it could be the tyres but doesnt alter the fact that the radio gets turned up when moving and then back down at traffic lights.

Apart from all that, we actually really like the car. Its fun and now that I've learnt to deal with the clutch its a good city car that will happily do motorway speeds. Although you really have to push it to get up hills on the motorway, at the expense of decent mpg.

Edit to add - We got the Fiat friends and family deal (same as what fccuk members get), so roughly £1300 off. All the wife did to get that was flutter her eyelashes at the salesman. £1500 deposit, £100 per month. Build dates for the non hill climbing ones are 1st and 2nd quarter last year, the first euro 6 engines.

In late March, did a 3000km round trip in an Abarth Essesse (1.4 TJet) to attend the Australian Fiat Nationals with the trip home straight through in 17 1/2 hours.

Great on the open road and not too harsh in the suspension.

My daughter has had a 500 Lounge (1.4 16v) for the last 6 years and is very happy with it. No major problems, other than the normal things that one would expect to replace over that time frame.

Cheers Guys Going to keep my ears to the ground just incase the Mondeo bites the bullet sooner rather than Later and as Morrison has suggested a test drive would definitely be the way to go!
Just going to see if i can gradually persuade her to get the Abarth!

Thanks Rich

Could be! Or possibly the whole interior wasn’t to her taste. There’s a fair chance it was a base model too, compared to her 1.4 500 …

You won't be disappointed!

My wife has the Abarth. She loves it.

Sorry - late to the party. Just swapped the 500 1.2 lounge in black for a 500 1.2 lounge in black (but with the semi-auto box).

I ADORE the 500. I bought one for my kids to learn to drive on (getting rid of the hateful MiTo in the process). I bought the first one in Cambridge and then realised that I was going to have to drive it to Inverness. I was really impressed when I arrived pretty fresh at the other end. I swapped that one in Sheffield so drove there and back in 500s. On the A9 I did PLENTY of safe overtaking in both directions. It doesn't have the 220bhp or 450-odd torques that the Merc has but part of the charm is to drive to that: skipping it around corners to maintain momentum is hilarious. I don't recognise any of the comments about it being "dangerous" - maybe drive it to the capability and use the entire rev range. Even in "auto" it will happily pull up the steep hill near me that I don't often attempt on the bike.

The only problem I've had is the door handle breaking (whilst the outlaws were using it!) - a £12 kit from eBay and 20mins and it was sorted.

Tax is £20, 40+mpg (even with me pedalling), very happy to cruise at 80mph- I'm a huge fan. When we had both the 500 and the 155bhp MiTo turbo on the drive, I'd take the 500 every time.

And, you know what? I'm not sure I'd go for the Abarth - part of the charm of these cars is pushing it along.

Here in Australia, the 500S is considered to be good value for money. Certainly has more features than the POP and comes with the 1.4 74kw engine and a 6 speed box.

When in Italy late last year, noticed that the 500S there was fitted with the Twin Air engine. What is the case in UK?

The abarth is fun, depending on where I want to go there are many occasions id rather take the normal lounge over the abarth