Wow, didn't realise my answer was so lonnnng, so for those who can't be arsed to read that essay, my short answer to 'How reliable is your 500':

So far, very :slayer:

Hi - like a number of forum members, we're now on our 2nd so hopefully that speaks for itself! However a potted history as follows:

#1 2009 1.2 Lounge covered 19K miles in 32 months and never let us down. It had the washer jets replaced twice under warranty and a new breather hose fitted by me. It also suffered the usual tailgate release jam, but that was fixed with a can of WD40. Everything still worked and was in great order when the car was traded in.

#2 2012 1.2 Lounge so far covered 1.5K miles in 2 months.

Overall - the cars appear to be as reliable as most other small cars and probably more reliable than a lot more expensive large cars. The dealer network I have found to be on the whole, fair and helpful.

I would concur with JTD Liam's advice having owned French cars - never again (unless it's a 2CV)!

Hello,


30,000 miles in about 20 months on my 1.4 Duallogic, so demanding use mainly in cities on horrible roads = (

So far duallogic gearbox seal has failed (i am not sure if the dealer that was about to go bankrupt sabotaged it but thats another story)
battery has died. they are chinese XYDE/EXIDE? i think after all but fiat should use bosch batteries then at a little more cost!
Silicon hose has been replaced ( this happened ever since they fixed my gearbox so they were probably clumsy in the engine bay and messed that up).


Thats about it. Other than my gearbox failing on me it has been quite reliable, with Fiat techs that i have witnessed more unreliable than the car. Still I am worried about the gearbox so when my warranty expires I will be buying roadside assistance in the case that it fails again (i don't want to be stranded on the roadside).


It is very easy on the tires, not easy on the brakes (the brake system is rubbish as jrkirching mentioned on this forum as the brakes wear easily due to no grease or something like that).
Suspension? i think the 2010 + suspension is actually much improved so far they seem fine.


The engine feels very solid so i don't expect anything happening with that.
So pending any horror stories when i get the car checked out befoew warranty expires in a few months, all going well!


Overall no regrets and i would rather buy a Fiat then a German car for the time being as a city car. The parts are cheap too, and my dealer is offering repairs with 0 labor rate due to the economc situation in Greece. Labor rates are generally the same between manufacturers, its the price of parts that kill you, especially with German things.

madrat said:

In the first 3 years of its life.

power steering failure twice
hill holder constant fault
boot lock jammed
boot lock wiring shorted out
clutch peddle snapped
washers packed up twice
handbrake cable brackets snapped
door handle snapped
oil change warning fault
numberplate light wiring failed
eats sidelight bulbs
steering lock stopped working.

Over the last year.

Hill holder AGAIN
rear bump stop fell off
at least 3 more sidelight bulbs
new timing chain (70,000 miles) not even mentioned in service scheduled

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Fair enough you've had some problems, but you don't even explain what happened with some of the faults. Power steering failure, hill holder constant fault? Oil change warning fault? What does that even mean?

Power steering failure can be anything from the power steering light coming on when the battery is a little low on juice to the EPS unit needing replacing.

Hill holder constant fault? Again, what does this mean and what if any parts have needed to be replaced.

Oil change warning fault? Again, what does this mean? Does this mean you just didn't want to change the oil when the car said to? Heck that could be why you've needed your timing chain doing......

Washers packed in? Do you mean that the barrel came out of the nozzle? That's hardly "packed in" is it? 2 seconds with a pair of needle nose pliers will rectify that.

Now there are lots of things which have gone wrong with your car that are not acceptable, but something tells me that things are not quite as bad as you make out.

Only owned the car for 2mths and 1000mls so far. If you look through my thread history you will see myself questioning how people percieve this car. I personally see it as a stylish town/city car but others think it is capable of much more. I think your perceptions may help answer why some people complain so much.

The car has so far performed perfectly. It is returning the fuel economy we expect. It is nippy around town and it hasnt had any issues.

All in all the car is everything i expected. I have had loads of VW's, fords and mercs and i have witnessed any of the faults already raised on this thread with these other brands

The Littlest Hobo said:

Only owned the car for 2mths and 1000mls so far. If you look through my thread history you will see myself questioning how people percieve this car. I personally see it as a stylish town/city car but others think it is capable of much more. I think your perceptions may help answer why some people complain so much.

The car has so far performed perfectly. It is returning the fuel economy we expect. It is nippy around town and it hasnt had any issues.

All in all the car is everything i expected. I have had loads of VW's, fords and mercs and i have witnessed any of the faults already raised on this thread with these other brands

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Yes the problem with fiat is their parts are of cheap quality which means that they may wear quicker than most expect, but then again are rather cheap to replace. As they are quite simple cars i dont see too much that can go wrong.
Lets say German high end cars have so many gizmos that i believe equal higher repair bills. More parts = more things that can go wrong.
For me as long as the engine, which is the heart of the car does not die prematurely (and it doesnt seem to on fiats) my worries dont add up to much.

This is why i specced a 1.2 Pop without air con or any other extras. As well as the actual price i deemed extras to be things that can go wrong. All these fancy gearboxes and new technology take time to get 100% right. I dont want to be the test bed for that.

The Littlest Hobo said:

This is why i specced a 1.2 Pop without air con or any other extras. As well as the actual price i deemed extras to be things that can go wrong. All these fancy gearboxes and new technology take time to get 100% right. I dont want to be the test bed for that.

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It's a shame you didn't go for A/C and B&M. We would really miss our A/C now if we didn't have it and it hasn't given us a moments trouble. The B&M is excellent too. To be fair, A/C has been around so long now, I doubt any manufacturer could get that wrong!

It's not really about getting it wrong. It's things like saving 20p on a proper clip to hold pipes on etc. The fact that the warranty is essentially only a 2 yr warranty and then in the hands of the dealers. The fiat is built with parts that aren't engineered for heavy use IMO and although I accept this, I wouldn't consider something like a fancy auto box on a fiat. B & M is no big deal for a car that will average 10-20 min journey times. We had air con on the polo and it got used about 10 times in 5 yrs.

Just been for a drive in ours. Still puts a big smile on my face to drive it

OK hear is the detailed list.

Power stearing failure,
Twice the entire power steering unit had to be replaced as it stopped working.

Hill holder,
For the cars entire life the hill holder has malfunctioned giving correct and false warnings of "hill holder unavailable" The plunger was replaced 4 times, adjusted more times than I can remember.

Boot lock jammed

Jammed in the open position so boot would not stay shut, and then after it was supposedly fixed, in the shut position.

Boot lock wiring shorted

Shorted out in c pillar so boot could not be opened

Clutch pedal snapped.

snapped clean in two where it joins pivot, replacement is now showing singes of doing the same, going in to be welded at local garage

Washers packed up

First time a conector had to be replaced somewhere at the back of the engine bay, took Fiat almost 2 hours to fix? second time pipe split and was spraying into engine bay.

Handbrake

At its first MOT at Fiat both cable support brackets on the rear axle had snapped off

Door Handle

Snapped at the hinge

Oil change light

Chang oil light and message came on 2 hours after oil change, then a week later. Both times Fiat has supposedly reprogrammed ECU to solve. next time it took them 2 hours to get the ECU to except the fact the oil had been changed and then 3 days later it was back on. New software installed solved this for about 6 weeks but it then came on again. Fiat took it back for 3 days changed the oil again and again reprogrammed the ECU. Came on as we drove off the forecourt. Finally fixed by a 3rd reprogramm of ECU.

Numberplate lights

Kept reporting "check number plate light" even though they were working, then one day they were not working, turned out to be a problem with the light unit and the whole thing including boot handle had to be replaced.

Side light bulbs

Eats them, lost count of ham many times they have been replaced, cheep ones, expensive ones dose not matter

Steering lock

Stopped working 4 days after second new power steering unit was fitted

Timing chain

Began to get noisy at 68,000 miles and by the time it got to 69,000 miles it sounded like marbles on a tin tray. No mention of replacement in service scheduled

Bump stop

fell off. Never had this on any other car, could be due to naff suspension?

advised 'avoid anything French

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I have had 3 French cars in the past and they just never went wrong.

madrat said:

OK hear is the detailed list...

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I've thus far held back from commenting on this thread as IMO it's way too early to be talking about reliability when most of the cars out there have probably not even covered 50000 miles yet.

Just about any new car ought to be able to make it to 3yrs/50k without significant issues (unless Ahmett is driving it ) - the real test is what happens as the fleet ages & gets some proper mileage under its belt.

Madrat's post is worrying because this is one of the few higher mileage 500's out there; if the pattern is repeated, then I think those of us who plan on keeping their 500's long term might actually have something to be concerned about.

And lets not forget 70,000 isn't that high to be honest

madrat said:

And lets not forget 70,000 isn't that high to be honest

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Crikey, our POP has just passed 5845 miles 16 months into its life. At that rate, we'll be hitting 70,000 in about 10 years time! - if we keep it that long It took us 7 years to cover 55,000 miles from new in our former Mazda MX5.

fair enough madrat, you can understand why I took issue with your somewhat vague issues.

I still love Fiat's.

I think the mistake you made was buying a diesel one Small petrol engines Fiats are great

Had to be diesel for economy, only 2 of the faults relate to the engine.

1.2 does good on fuel on long runs If you'd bought a petrol it would have been a different car to the one you got and it would have had less problems

75% of the mileage is done in an urban environment