Fiat 500 and comments about poor reliablity

Travelling back from North Lincolnshire to Kent today, I passed an 08 plate BMW, a new type Mini, a Civic and a Vectra - all with their bonnets up and the passengers waiting behind the barrier.

My 500 diesel ran like a dream, covering nearly the whole journey at 3000 rpm (an indicated 80 mph) and returned 66mpg on the read out. It was parked straight in the garage and it was as though it had been there all day. No heat, no smell of a hot engine and all the tyres were cold to the touch.

Now for the main point of this mail......

I'm aware of the unfair phrase that FIAT stands for 'Fix It Again Tomorrow' which goes back a number of years. However, things have moved on.

There are various comments on threads in the 500 section saying how reliable other makes of cars have been that members have owned previously etc.

This got me thinking. Of all the hundreds of cars I've seen broken down on the hard shoulder, I can honestly say that in recent years, I do not recall ever seeing a Fiat on the hard shoulder.

I've seen a good number of 'prestige' cars including Rolls, Ferrari, Mercs and BMW, not to mention Mondeos and the like.

Travelling back from North Lincolnshire to Kent today, I passed an 08 plate BMW, a new type Mini, a Honda Civic and a Vectra - all with their bonnets up and the passengers waiting behind the barrier.


I would be interested to know if other members have similar experiences.

Only broken down once on a motorway due to a clogged fuel filter - so not exactly the car's fault - was a long time ago and on dirty morrisons diesel.

exec cars are more likely despite the price tag to brake down as they are far more complex.

Its hard to say / generalise from small sample observations which cars are actually reliable.

Are there any consumer surveys?

i find Fiats very reliable

I'm not sure that Fiats ever were less reliable. All cars used to demand far more servicing to keep them going reliably. Remember when services came every 3000 miles!

BMC/British Leyland/BL or whatever they were called as the weeks passed produced some vehicles with truly horrendous reliability, as my mother discovered before she went French. And I've had Japanese cars needing regular replacement parts under warranty, and I'm sure we all know of the horrors that can afflict contemporary German cars. Thing is, it's traditional to knock Italian cars and to sing hymns to the reliability of German ones.

And not many people like their orthodoxy to be challenged.

But I do believe there was a period when Italian cars' rustproofing was non-existent, and the quality of the steel was questionable. A prematurely rusting body will certainly turn buyers against a car, me included.

There is another thing. I'm not much bothered if there is a squeak or a rattle; I know it can be fixed, or will go, and the odd loose catch can easily be fixed too; but even on this site I see some people going mad over such things and ranting about quality and reliability. But I bet that when their BMW squeaks, as they can do, that they just keep schtum.

it's about managing people's expectations, Fiat have done a great marketing job with the 500 and some people's comments indicate that the reality is falling short of their expected definition of quality

personally i am delighted with the 500 and think it is a big step forward from the Stilo generation where Fiat tried to be German and the result was a dull and insular experience; now they have Italian flair back and some might mistake character for faults

A good thing to do in this regard is to take a look in car magazines at satisfaction survey results. Top Gear is good at this in the new car directory. The 500 is based on the Panda and that got a top ten result in the last survey.

These results include experiences of dealer servicing though. Probably the best qualified person to give their thoughts on here will be an AA or RAC patrol person.

When my Peugeot kept breaking down I would always ask what to get next and the advice I got was to get a Honda.

RobW said:

i find Fiats very reliable

Click to expand...

Me too.
I had my Seicento for 3 years and the little thing never let me down.
I do miss it, but it was time for a change and I'm completely in love with the 500

Re: Fiat 500 and comments about poor reliablity

.

I've seen a good number of 'prestige' cars including Rolls, Ferrari, Mercs and BMW, not to mention Mondeos and the like

Hi,
Since passing my test in 1997 I got a nissan micra it was OK but didnt have it long and bought a brand new one from the same dealer, the bonnet rusted and I only had one year, the dealer said that I had been parked under something metal and this did not go down very well with me, as i park under a tree!!! I was asked to leave the building!
I then changed the car with the same dealer but in a different part of bolton, and got a citreon which i have now (until next week) and I hate it, its engine management light is always flashing, its broken down so many times etc.....
I was going to use the same dealer again and get the fiat but they were so rude to me that I have decided to go for fiat to a proper dealership and they treated me like a queen! Thats me done moaning about my rubbish cars!!!!!!!!

My father in law owns a bentley and a merc (old ones) the bentley has never failed him and he drives from France to Bolton regulary, he has it serviced every year and really looks after it, and his merc is just packing up on him now but nothing major just some electrical faults and he has done 197,000 miles in it, because we talked about it when he was giving me a lift to the airport yesterday. He was appaulled at the way I have been treated by my local dealer and the fact that I have had my cars serviced regular etc... and told me never to buy a nissan or citreon ever again!
He didnt comment on me getting a fiat however he did say that he has noticed that in France a lot of people have fiat's and dont complain.!

Re: Fiat 500 and comments about poor reliablity

In the 12 months of owning my 500 I've had absolutely no faults or problems what so ever.

I have owned around 15 Fiats over the past 12 years, some of which Jenny has had. She abuses her cars so anything that survives a few months with her must be OK
In that time Ive broken down once, a headgasket on a Regata but still got it home with water stops every garage!
I have found them very reliable, OK they do rattle from the trim and suspension and the dealers can be iffy. But, they are cheap to buy and fun to drive on the whole. You will get niggly faults that you can ignore or obsess about, but if you dont like these things then fine, dont buy another.

For me though, a buying experience in 2004 and early last year have left an incredibly bad taste, and Im loath to go to Fiat again... even the last one which is my current car was a little tainted but thats all history.

As for older Fiats, they are as relaible as any other car of the time, rust was their enemy but people forget how old Fords and Vauxhalls rusted. Even older VWs rotted, remember Mk1 Polos? Our Mk3 Golf is rusting away gently, so its hardly fair to Fiat.

ive had a few fiats, punto gt's, uno turbo's- tbh they were all crap and unreliable, the 500 is better, no rattles, reliable ect the only prob weve had is the front suspension prob (knocking) its been back 6 times in 5 months, but i wouldnt say it makes it unreliable, just annoying, fiat uk are aware of the 'common' problem and are 'taking steps to alter weak pionts that are causing the problem'

i agree - modern fiats are well up there in reliability, in my view. had a seicento for nearly 7 years which has never let me down.

my ex bought a panda multijet in 2005 and it didnt even need anything done under the whole warranty and sailed through its first MOT, let alone a breakdown!

sadly peoples perceptions remain - but thats up to them isnt it

initialg said:

ive had a few fiats, punto gt's, uno turbo's- tbh they were all crap and unreliable, the 500 is better, no rattles, reliable ect the only prob weve had is the front suspension prob (knocking) its been back 6 times in 5 months, but i wouldnt say it makes it unreliable, just annoying, fiat uk are aware of the 'common' problem and are 'taking steps to alter weak pionts that are causing the problem'

Click to expand...

This being the "common problem" thats not affected anyone else on the forum then
I think saying the Uno Turbo is crap is totally unfair, perhaps your treatment of Fiats isnt entirely symapthetic?

My 1.4 Sport will be a year old in April and has proved to be extremely reliable, with only the flashing mileage twice, I think(now rectified), and a slight rattle from the passenger side of the dash, which went away of its own accord.

We also have a 7.5 year old Seicento Sporting, which has only broken down once, (not so much broke down, but wouldn't start and had to get towed to the garage). This was our second Seicento and we only changed it for one with power steering.

My last car was a Renault Megane (renamed Renault Migraine), as in the 3 years I had it, It must have gone back to Renault at least a dozen times for work to be carried out under warranty.

The 500 is lovely in so many respects, but it is a bit flimsy in places.

For example one of my washer nozzles has popped out and vanished! And the little cup thingy lid is permanently fallen off.

Family car is a "functional" Octavia 1.8t - the only problem has been a broken floor mat clip (seriously). Then again it's an old shape 04 plate so plenty of time for them to have got it right.

Cheers

Having been a fiat owner for a long time now:nutter:, i have had the pleasure of owning - (right here we go)

3 Original Panda's
1 cinquecento
2 uno's
4 Puntos
1 Tipo
1 Stilo
1 500

I think thats got it.

The only one that let me down was the stilo. It broke down several times and in the 3 years we owned it, it was in the shop at least once a month.
Got rid before the warranty ran out because i knew it would cost a fortune once it had.

Somewhere amongst all of that there was a honda Civic, a truly awful car that eventually had a catastrophic steering failure that put it through a wall.
I complained several times to the dealer too before the accident but they kept saying there was nothing wrong.

Think in all the fiats Ive had the only thing that has stopped me getting where I want to go was a snapped gear linkage cable on a cinquecento. Luckily I was going downhill and so gently coasted to a stop. Got rescued by AA as I was still in the first year of warranty, and it was replaced. Not a days trouble after that. Even the stilo didnt let us down!

I was told once that Rolls dont break down, they "fail to proceed".

Nuova500 said:

This being the "common problem" thats not affected anyone else on the forum then
I think saying the Uno Turbo is crap is totally unfair, perhaps your treatment of Fiats isnt entirely symapthetic?

Click to expand...

open ur eyes look around the forum and you will see a fair few have had the problem,
the uno turbo, was awfull 'IMO' end of :slayer:

If you say so.