Hi,

I bought an 06 plate Croma today, low mileage full service history for £1300. Seemed a bargain to me compared to a lot of what else was around for that same money. I would have preferred an Extensia over a Dynamic, but mustn't grumble. She drives nice and will suit our needs perfectly.

I used to own a Fiat Stilo Multiwagon so I'm fully prepared for weird error messages appearing on the screen

I do have one problem though. The glovebox is stuck closed. The lever doesn't release the catches. I've tried using a screwdriver to prise it open but it's a pig, and any more force and I will no doubt break it. If anyone has any advice I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks
Ian

Hi Ian and welcome, have a look in the thread tools at the top of the thread page and put "glove box" into it . I am sure there will be a thread about this . On here we have shared most experiences except sharing a single bed!!!! ;-)

Hi and welcome to the Croma (I've had mine 1 month and 900 miles as of today
I had a quick look at my glovebox door and it does not look good for a stuck one. There is substantial latch on either side. They are well recessed and back from the edge of door. I can't see an easy way to push them back. The door seems to be made from two pieces of moulded ABS glued or welded together with no apprent means or separating them. This means you can't get in that way and I can't take mine apart to see what may have gone wrong or a work-around. It's also pretty rigid.
The good news is the striker plates for the latches are removable so if they break you can replace them.
It looks like the best place to apply force to open it is the middle of the top edge. I'd use a strip of metal to protect the dashboard. Having forced it open, if you can't repair it, you could get a replacement (with striker plates if required) from a scrappy. The other option is to cut a neat hole in the front of the door and having done a repair glue it back in and disguise the joint somehow .

Robert G8RPI

Thanks for taking the to figure out a solution. I managed to get it open using brute force until the latches gave, which they did eventually.

I've removed the striker plates so that the glove box does not lock itself again, and I'm holding it shut with strong gaffer tape. Not pretty I know, but I can hold on until I see a replacement lid on Ebay.

At least I can now get in it to retrieve the locking wheel nut kit, and owners manual.

Hi,
Glad to help, there arn't a lot of Cromas in the UK. With something like this I know how helpful it is to know where the latches are.
You could try cutting a "window" in the inside of the door to see what's going on with the linkage. A Dremel with a mini saw blade should cut the ABS OK. There's not much to lose.

Robert G8RPI.

Well back in the 70s/80s the Fiat glove boxes/shelf undertrays had no doors.

Why not just unclip the glovebox door and go "retro"

Well, a few weeks in and so far so good.

I did have to buy a new battery, but I was aware of that when I bought it, and knocked the sellers price down accordingly. Got it done at Halfords. Took all of 15 minutes in my lunch break. The battery that was replaced was the original Fiat battery, so it has done well given that it is 8 years old.

Overall the car is lovely to drive. Even my wife who is not a fan of bigger cars likes driving it. We're getting around 450-500 miles to a tank with 50/50 town and motorway. I would expect it to be much better on a long trip. It's on par with the Picasso 1.6Hdi I once had, and the 52 reg Stilo JTD MW I had about 7 years ago. In the Stilo I drove to Edinburgh from Kent on a single tank with just under a 1/4 of a tank left. The Croma I should think would do very much the same if I repeated that journey.

I had never heard of the Croma until I saw this one on Ebay. Since I had once owned a Stilo MW and I liked that, I thought this would be similar. It is and overall, I'm very pleased so far. My Stilo was an ex-showroom car with every option from the option list installed. The Croma is not, but that's fine.