It will be interesting to see if Watchdog does an update in light of public response. I was annoyed by their insistance that the 1.2 has a new engine, without properly clarifying that it is the oldest engine of the lot, but with small but significant modifications.

Fiat should have dropped the 1.2 altogether and cut the price of the twinair.

I'm worried for the company, because I can see that I am not alone in having had build problems cause me to Jump ship and buy elsewhere. Fiat should fess up and take it on the chin, help customers, and build for the future. Right now they aren't!

I emailed Watchdog first thing this morning thanking them for bringing this issue to light because until last night's report, I hadn't needed to drive up a hill. We went out straight away at 9pm and drove up and down a reasonable hill in our village to try various scenarios.

I can't help feeling like I'm tied in now for the minimum 2yrs unless I want to fork out 50% of the costs.

Re: Watchdog - Fiat 500 (2014, 1.2 model)

ab4444 said:

I have heard back from the dealership. They have played down the Watchdog report telling me how successfully they have sold the same model to much hillier areas in Somerset with no-one coming back to them with any such issue. They've said it continues to be their most popular model and they expect it to be for years to come. They're happy to price up a TwinAir or Diesel 1.3 model for me. So essentially they didn't want to hear it. I've checked my lease agreement; if I want to get out now, it's nearly £8k to do so. Feeling trapped, unsupported and REALLY let down

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Hi ab4444,

Sorry to hear your experience.

Where exactly are you based? My advice to you would be to have a look on fiat.co.uk and see what other dealerships you have near to you. You may well find that a service/warranty only dealer will be much more sympathetic.

What you really need is for someone (preferably the dealer expert technician) to come out with you on a test run on a suitable hill so that they can see first hand what the problem is. And then perhaps allow them to drive it with you as a passenger.

Your dealer's response is shocking though.

Re: Watchdog - Fiat 500 (2014, 1.2 model)

Hi there - I'm in Somerset. Will take a look at other dealerships around.

jrkitching said:

My understanding is that whilst the headline limits may be the same, the test procedures are different, as are the specific conditions under which these limits must be met.

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Yes, I see what you mean.

A little story from a few years ago. Please bare with me.

Maybe 1999 or 2000.

We had a 1992 J Reg Mini, and I fitted a heavily modified Allegro 1275cc engine and gearbox with the engine bored out to 1400cc. The Mini went like a rocket! I did all the work myself but outsourced the engineering work : big valves, ported head, nitride big ends etc etc. I fitted a Piper Road/Rally camshaft.

Eventually, some years after the original mod, the Mini failed the MOT.
Why? because it couldn't meet the newly brought in emission standards. The MOT chappy turned the mixture right down (massive 1.75" SU carb, KN filter) and it passed, but didn't have enough power to drive out of the garage!!!!

I tweaked the mixture back to drive the car home, then did a full strip-down to fit a Fast Road camshaft ..... and then tried again, and it passed.

Trouble was, the new camshaft had knocked the stuffing out of the engine. Instead of having a kick in the back when I pressed the throttle, it just turned out like a faster Mini and no wheelspinning performance at all.

---------------------------

Maybe this 1.2 Fiat engine has had the stuffing knocked out of it.

Regards,
Mick.

Does the same engine in the 'new' Panda also suffer from this problem or does it still use the euro 5 tuned engine? Either way FIAT need to sort this out. My friend has the same car and has not mentioned any issues, hers is a July 2014 registered 500.

Re: Euro6 1.2 Throttle Response & Hill Start Issues

My dealer hasn't even suggested that I bring mine in! They've not even acknowledged there is a problem suggesting many other clients living in far hillier areas of the county have not complained.

Re: Euro6 1.2 Throttle Response & Hill Start Issues

How did your wife get on then with your dealers?

I currently own an Abarth 500 but, prior to that, I have owned a total of six Fiats over the years. I can honestly say that I always received brilliant customer service from Fiat. I could never fault them. However, I have received such awful customer service from Abarth in the past three months that I will never considering purchasing a new vehicle from them again.

Last night, watching BBC's Watchdog, I was staggered to see such an appalling response from Fiat in relation to the problem of their new 1.2 500 model's inabilitity to get up hills. What a complete insult, and desperate comment, to say that the fault lies with the drivers.

It looks like my time as an Abarth and Fiat owner will be drawing to a sad close in the not too distant future. I shall really miss their cars but, from the sound of things, I shall be well rid of their customer service!!

Re: Euro6 1.2 Throttle Response & Hill Start Issues

I turned my DRLs off immediately I took delivery of my 500 and it's not made a jot of difference to the performance of it (or lack of should I say)

I had my first and last Fiat with my Grande and moved on and probably won't look back neither.[/QUOTE]


Can't help wondering why you are still on the forum????

JD82 said:

Does the same engine in the 'new' Panda also suffer from this problem or does it still use the euro 5 tuned engine?

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Yes, the latest 1.2 Panda is Euro 6 and the same issue is being reported.

babyferrari said:

I had my first and last Fiat with my Grande and moved on and probably won't look back neither.

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Can't help wondering why you are still on the forum????

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Ah yes, the old "once you don't have a FIAT anymore you're not allowed/don't having anything worthwhile to say" sentiment.

Don't take it the wrong way. It just seemed that the comment about not looking back was quite ironic.
And of course I respect your right to express an opinion.

jrkitching said:

Yes, the latest 1.2 Panda is Euro 6 and the same issue is being reported.

Click to expand...

It looks like I had a lucky escape then, I nearly ordered one of these instead of fixing my ECU issue, but I will keep my old 2010 54bhp Panda, it goes up hills

You could still order a twinair or multijet. No problem with hills in them!

jrkitching said:

Yes, the latest 1.2 Panda is Euro 6 and the same issue is being reported.

Click to expand...

If it's both Panda and 500 using the 1.2L engine, is any other manufacturer suffering likewise?

After all, it's only a 1.2L engine of no particular exotic-ness, so are there any other manufacturers using "older" designed small capacity engines experiencing problems with Euro6?

Surely it's not only Fiat?

Regards to all,
Mick

69bhp in a car weighing 840kg really ought to be enough to get it up a hill. Particularly as earlier ones with the same power aren't affected. So it has to be the mapping of the ECU. Has anyone gone down the route of an independent upgrade? Not ideal for a car in warranty but if it is a plug and play upgrade that can be unplugged surely there is little to be lost. If it really is as simple as that then there would be a constructive basis on which to go back to fiat to put pressure on them for an official upgrade.

Re: Euro6 1.2 Throttle Response & Hill Start Issues

ab4444 said:

I turned my DRLs off immediately I took delivery of my 500 and it's not made a jot of difference to the performance of it (or lack of should I say)

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I'd turn them back on, all you've done it purposefully made yourself less visible to other road users.

Re: Euro6 1.2 Throttle Response & Hill Start Issues

Most Easterly Pandas said:

I'd turn them back on, all you've done it purposefully made yourself less visible to other road users.

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:Offtopic:

Well to be honest, that is a matter of opinion. I drive the same route a thousand miles a week, 200 miles a day, five days a week in my work van (with holidays taken into account, I've already driven 35000 miles this year), and my van doesn't have drl's and it doesn't make a jot of difference in my own very humble opinion. Indeed the biggest issue for me with drl's, are those people who run around in poor visibility without their lights on thinking that drl's are ok because they still think they can be seen from the front seemingly blissfully unaware that they aren't showing any lights at the back. Thankfully, my van has windowless doors at the rear, so I don't get constantly blinded by super bright drl's during the day by morons sitting five feet off my rear end!

I know you will undoubtedly disagree with my stance on this, but I see so much diabolically poor driving on a daily basis, that drl's won't save those people anyway. Anyway, what do I know, I've only been driving for 30 years, so compared to some, I'm just a novice. I'm also probably backward in my thinking and resistant to change!