Nah, all of the wheels on the i3 are forged aluminium so far lighter as a wheel than a conventional wheel and tyre assembly. They have also been designed with aerodynamics in mind.

306maxi said:

The damping is still bad on all 500's. I've a journalist friend who drove an abarth and bemoaned the complete lack of suspension.

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Whats the ride quality like with the B14's Maxi? Looks well btw and not silly low.

306maxi said:

My 500 isn't that low tbh. With better damping it doesn't wobble all over the place and IMHO is less likely to hit anything. It's at maximum ride height so it's lost maybe 20 or 30 mm at most.

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oh wow thats pretty high I am halfway between max and min on mine.

Mercky said:

Whats the ride quality like with the B14's Maxi? Looks well btw and not silly low.

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It's not soft or comfy as such, BUT when you hit a bump it only takes one oscillation of the spring to sort itself out..... with the old suspension it took far longer to sort itself out and deal with bumps which is uncomfortable imho. It also never hits the bumpstops anymore.

Personally I would say it's more comfortable now, but others may disagree.

306maxi said:

It's not soft or comfy as such, BUT when you hit a bump it only takes one oscillation of the spring to sort itself out..... with the old suspension it took far longer to sort itself out and deal with bumps which is uncomfortable imho. It also never hits the bumpstops anymore.

Personally I would say it's more comfortable now, but others may disagree.

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depends on the road maxi. on the motorway I am very happy with it, on rubbish cobblestone roads its a hassle.

I've found I can get 66.7mpg on medium runs, 37mpg on short runs and no difference between Eco and non-Eco.

jrkitching said:

Lowering isn't an option for me as I need all the ground clearance I can get. I'm curious if it would help if Fiat were to streamline the underside of the car - mine doesn't even have an undertray. I doubt you could do much else with the aerodynamics without spoiling the appearance - and without that, I doubt Fiat would sell even 20% of the 500's they do.

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The 500e betters the stock Pop's .36Cd with .31. Smooth underside, smooth wheels, blocked grill, new mirror caps and new rear spoiler.

Adopting similar changes to a petrol 500 would save 6mpg at 60mph. I partially smoothed the underside of my MY14 Renault (not quite fully run in) along with a few other tweaks and use just over half of what the NEDC says it should use. UFI's going to get similar mods, but I want to wait until 18,000km so he's fully run in an we see what a stock TA can do (otherwise I'd be cheating).

306maxi said:

My 500 isn't that low tbh. With better damping it doesn't wobble all over the place and IMHO is less likely to hit anything. It's at maximum ride height so it's lost maybe 20 or 30 mm at most.

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Surprised how low that is on max. We have a 100mm minimum clearance to be street legal, you can't be much above that. Look forward to mine looking like that *someday*.

UFI said:

Surprised how low that is on max. We have a 100mm minimum clearance to be street legal, you can't be much above that. Look forward to mine looking like that *someday*.

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i'll check the clearance of mine with a tape measure later on. I am halfway between min max on mine. I find mine to be a good compromise, not too low not too high, it is much better damped so only bottoms out on really unstraight roads, and even then with the 1.4's hard plastic skid plate, it really isn't much of an issue.

I'm toying with the idea of replacing UFI with a Citroen Cactus and I'm, reading through the brochure and Citroen lists the MPG you'll get with different wheels! They claim 6mpg difference between 15 and 16 inch wheels, but no difference between 16 and 17's.

See for yourself:

http://info.citroen.co.uk/Assets/pdf/new-cars/c4-cactus/brochure.pdf

PS any 500 owners taken one for a drive?

ahmett said:

i'll check the clearance of mine with a tape measure later on.

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Just checked our 500TA.

Suspension is stock, no modifications, just as brand new. 18,700miles on the clock at a tad under 4years old.

110mm maybe a shade over, but nowhere near 120mm.

I'd hate to lower ours, as many of the roads round here have grass down the middle.

Regards,
Mick.

Went out into the hills for a good blast on narrow tyres, basically drove like I stole it. UFI handles a lot better on the less grippy tyres, you can get lift off oversteer now and point much more aggressively at apexes. On the 195's all I ever got was understeer, even driven on a closed circuit.

Over a 50 mile run, lots of heavy throttle and shifting at 4-5K, I got 66MPG UK. The tank looks like returning 62MPG with a lot of running about back and forth across the city.

You going to be in the UK anytime? Mine understeers

UFI said:

Went out into the hills for a good blast on narrow tyres, basically drove like I stole it. UFI handles a lot better on the less grippy tyres, you can get lift off oversteer now and point much more aggressively at apexes. On the 195's all I ever got was understeer, even driven on a closed circuit.

Over a 50 mile run, lots of heavy throttle and shifting at 4-5K, I got 66MPG UK. The tank looks like returning 62MPG with a lot of running about back and forth across the city.

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I don't really get that, to get 66mpg from mine I would need to drive uber carefully, I don't believe the tyres are making the difference between mid to low 40's which is what I would typically get driving similarly ( on 15's) and your 66. That's a big discrepancy.

306maxi said:

You going to be in the UK anytime? Mine understeers

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You do have to be fairly aggressive with your lift off or braking but yes, mild oversteer is possible now (enough that you have to wind off lock), and I may be in the UK this time next year

Mercky said:

I don't really get that, to get 66mpg from mine I would need to drive uber carefully, I don't believe the tyres are making the difference between mid to low 40's which is what I would typically get driving similarly ( on 15's) and your 66. That's a big discrepancy.

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Bare in mind that on 16's I'd still be getting 50mpg + driven on the same roads in the same manner. Even inclusive of a track day on my fifth tank from new I managed over 47MPG. I don't know how I'd have to drive to get into the low 40's now. To be fair, wet weather kills MPG, we don't have much of that, head and cross winds kill MPG, we don't have much of those either. On the other hand A/C in the summer can cost me 20% in fuel.

UFI said:

You do have to be fairly aggressive with your lift off or braking but yes, mild oversteer is possible now (enough that you have to wind off lock), and I may be in the UK this time next year



Bare in mind that on 16's I'd still be getting 50mpg + driven on the same roads in the same manner. Even inclusive of a track day on my fifth tank from new I managed over 47MPG. I don't know how I'd have to drive to get into the low 40's now.

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So in your opinion what's causing the big gap?

It always amuses me to see people who get 40mpg from their 500. The only time I get that low is when I am spanking the car.

My car has sooooo much front end grip now, it just grips and grips even when the rear is giving up.

Mercky said:

So in your opinion what's causing the big gap?

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Part of it is likely the UK weather. I see about a 4mpg hit in my Renault 1.6 in heavy rain. Cold weather affects MPG but so does hot with the A/C on so I'd say temps are a wash really.

The lion's share is likely technique. My Renault is rated 30mpg city and I drive right though the CBD (or more often Subiaco for Maxi) and my best tank to date is 47mpg (best commute done four times now hit 60mpg). Some days my average speed is 10mph. Even if there's horror traffic and I've got my 600kg trailer, I still beat 30mpg by a fair margin. Even my big bad 4.0l Jeep beats it's US EPA combined rating by 20% on knobby A/T tyres (came factory with street tyres).

All things considered, I don't think my results with UFI are all that great, it's the only car I've had that has yet to match official figures (not helped by virtually always having a passenger). I'm tempted to buy a 1.2 because I think that could deliver truly impressive results, and Fiat dealers are basically giving away Panda's.

Just ordered a Renault Trafic BiTurbo and fully expect to see 50mpg from that in city use.

PS: Official MPG tests are done with a fully charged battery, I charge all my batteries daily/ or at least before I take a lesser used car out.

I was considering a block heater and Ctek comfort cable in my 500 as we've moved somewhere with a driveway, but I'm considering an i3 in a couple of years and that would need the driveway, so the expenditure probably wouldn't be worth it when the 590 will be then parked out on the street and unable to use the block heater.