General 500 Twin Air - Yay or Nay?

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General 500 Twin Air - Yay or Nay?

I am not sure really how a 1.4 can compete with a Twin Air? For starters the road tax on the 1.4 is £150 and on the TwinAir its £0! The TwinAir might not reach its claimed MPG, but I easily get over 50mpg without trying too hard.
You won't get anywhere near this in the 1.4!
The 0-60 is similar for both cars, the TwinAir will feel faster because of the turbo.
I have had a TwinAir Dualogic sport from new since 2014, its done 25000miles now and I have found it to be a fantastic small car! We liked the design so much that we bought a second hand 1.2 sport convertible at 2 1/2 years old with very low mileage... both cars have been great.
I don't know what your budget is, but i just wouldn't buy one of these cars with 69K miles on the clock and expect it to be trouble free or in good condition on its second or third owner.
The design is capable of well over a 100K miles, but with 18000 mile fiat indicated service schedules I wouldn't!
Low mileage is more important than age.
69K miles on a second hand BMW, yes sure..... but on a Fiat 500 no.... not unless the body and suspension was in excellent condition and it came with a detailed service history!

The Alfa/Fiat specialist that I used to use in the UK, stated once that they were beginning to see snapped timing chains with the high mileage TwinAirs due to lack of or infrequent oil changes. He recommended that I change the oil at 9-10K miles if possible to give the engine a long life.

As for what to look for on a 500 of that age... Service History! Rear shocks will be knackered if not changed by then. Front shocks and top mounts - very rusty/leaking and movement in the top mount. Noisy turbo bearings/ buffing smoke out of the exhaust when hot - indicating failed oil seals. Rear brake cylinders likely to be weeping brake fluid at that age if the brake fluid hasn't been changed every 3/4 years. Front brake disc wear. Lower ball joint wear on the front control arms.
 
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fiat mechanic here- fiat 500 twin-air have a 2 major problems
1. Flywheel failure (if driving aggressive.) i have seen even on 2015 with 15k catastrophic flywheel failure. on some cars in 1 year i changed 2 times. but most of those cars was company cars- pica delivery , etc. (where people don't care about car)

I assume this only affects newer cars with the DMF. DMF is a failure point on all cars fitted with one. Early TA's had solid flywheels.
 
My Twin air was owned for 6 years from new, was thrashed, bashed and abused over 99000 miles until I sold it in April.
Never let me down mechanically, was regularly serviced using the correct oil, even though the original stealer marked the wrong oil on the invoice. (So don't believe service receipts either).
Went through:
1 door handle hinge pin
2 sets of front top mounts (I had Bilstein suspension on)
1 set of front brakes, pads and discs
1 cooling system reservoir (cracked)
many tyres, many, many tyres (Summer and winter)

That is all

Cheers

D
 
I have a 1 yr old TA 105 that I got from new. It certainly does take getting used to. Ours broke down several times within the 1st 1000 miles of it's life due to a leaking coolant expansion tank that was spraying pink fluid over all of the electrics. It was in the dealers for about 6 weeks while they replaced multi air units and CPUs etc. But that's another matter.

It seems to have a misfire on tickover and at certain low revs but that is normal for a multiair engine they said.
It also has what can only be described as bad turbo lag with a good second before it picks up when accelerating - even in sport mode and it pulls better at low rather than high revs.
On the motorway it goes very well and still pulls in 6th gear but at 70 MPH+ I can only describe the sound as like sitting on a flying bomb from WW2 - not a tourer for me.

That said, you can throw it about and if you pull it's ears it's quite a fun drive.

The advice above about the very specific oil is good advice and it needs checking regularly. But the stuff is rarer than rocking horse sh** and you'll probably only find it in a Fiat dealer or an online oil specialist. I ended up buying a gallon online and a small 0.5l oil/petrol mixing bottle (for lawnmowers) so I keep a little bit in the boot without taking up too much space.

It's OK but I wouldn't buy another one.
 
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So is performance advantage of twinair worth more risk re turbo, etc over the 1.2?

My last one was a 1.2. Never went wrong in 6 years. Apart from services and a set of wipers I never even had a bulb go. BUT, not so good for motorway driving as it was noisy at speed and struggled to maintain 70MPH in 5th on any sort of upward incline. a 50 mile journey down the M2 was tiring.

Test drive a TA 105. It is a unique driving experience and my first thought was that the exhaust was blowing. It might not be to everyone's taste.
 
A definite Yay for the Twin Air from here.

Why?

Well, to me modern cars are mostly boring. Too soft, too big and with very little character. And I think this applies not only to your Hondas, Hyundais, etc, but even to modern Mercs, Beemers, Porsches, etc. Also, on most modern cars you really need to be driving at illegal speeds to be having fun.

Enter the Fiat 500. A small car with bags of character. And cherry on top is the Twin Air engine that just completes this little thing. Lovely. Is it perfect? No car is. But the character more than makes up for it.

In fact, if I could have just one of the cars in my signature and I would have to drive it throughout the year (including the Finnish winters), it would actually be the Fiat 500 - but only if it is with the Twin Air engine :)
 
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A definite Yay for the Twin Air from here.

Why?

Well, to me modern cars are mostly boring. Too soft, too big and with very little character. And I think this applies not only to your Hondas, Hyundais, etc, but even to modern Mercs, Beemers, Porsches, etc. Also, on most modern cars you really need to be driving at illegal speeds to be having fun.

Enter the Fiat 500. A small car with bags of character. And cherry on top is the Twin Air engine that just completes this little thing. Lovely. Is it perfect? No car is. But the character more than makes up for it.

In fact, if I could have just one of the cars in my signature and I would have to drive it throughout the year (including the Finnish winters), it would actually be the Fiat 500 - but only if it is with the Twin Air engine :)

I couldn't agree more with the part in bold. I think modern cars (in general) are awful. All style, no substance. That's why I'm keeping my Clio 197 and now am going to get a 500 Twin Air. You have persuaded me :)
 
I couldn't agree more with the part in bold. I think modern cars (in general) are awful. All style, no substance. That's why I'm keeping my Clio 197 and now am going to get a 500 Twin Air. You have persuaded me :)



I see you're in Ireland, whereabouts? Twins are hard to come by here as there was not many sold, they have since been discontinued and are no longer available to buy new unfortunately. My TA was a special order back in 2014 and absolutely no regrets, they take forever to run-in though!
 
I see you're in Ireland, whereabouts? Twins are hard to come by here as there was not many sold, they have since been discontinued and are no longer available to buy new unfortunately. My TA was a special order back in 2014 and absolutely no regrets, they take forever to run-in though!
I'm in Dublin. I usually get my cars in the UK as there's a much better selection, plus the exchange rate is pretty good at the moment. It's a just matter of finding the right one now :)
 
Yes they did, not sure what year, I think around end of 14 but I'm sure someone here can qualify, I'm not sure what you get for 5k stg but probably quite a lot, the 85 is still great though if 5k won't get you a 105
 
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