This a new one?

Picked up my T-Jet Sporting on June 10th. By yesterday, 19th, it had been in Research Fiat Nuneaton for 4 and half days. I'm sat at home at the moment waiting for it to be delivered (part of "an agreed package" after a meeting with Dealer Principal yesterday afternoon). On collection there was a paint fault on the rear spoiler, caused by a misaligned tailgate fouling the bodywork. On the drive home I noticed a grinding noise when steering to the left which got worse the higher the speed and the more lock applied. Anyway, after much investigation, the garage have found that the engine was not properly aligned on the engine mounts which, under certain conditions was pulling on one of the driveshafts, causing the grinding. They have literally had to move the engine sideways slightly!

Anyway, much frustration and several customer service issues later (I won't go into it here in detail, but it resulted in said meeting and a compensation package being agreed) I am due to get the car back this morning.

Anyone heard of this before? I really wouldn't have thought there would be any adjustment in the engine mounts, but it seems perhaps there is. And the fact the problem has arisen doesn't say a lot for Fiat's manufacturing tolerances. Weird.

Stu

After having dealings with Research and its 'service dept' i am feeling your pain.

I'm no longer surprised at what Fiat can achieve in terms of new faults

Lol that made me laugh! The courtesy car I just had a 1.2 Active (has to be the slowest thing I have ever driven in my life no joke) The steering lock didnt seem to work. Just kept wiggling the wheel and nothing? Assuming it has it, which I would of thought so...

With those kind of faults on a new car I think I would have exercised my right to refuse the car and get a new one altogether.

Its slow but not the slowest car. Its one of the fastest 1.2's though.

The car is to heavy for the engine. Its a smooth engine for a 8v. Last week I had a Panda 1.3 M-Jet and that was quite quick I was surprised. Mind you I dread to think of the 1.0 12v in the Corsa.. ouch

Considering how heavy the Grande Punto is, the 1.2 8v does amazingly well.

It's 0-50 performance is totally acceptable, this engine is for town drivers.
I have left enough 'quicker' cars behind at the lights.

The change up from 50-60 is probably where the 14 second 0-60 time comes from, takes quite a while to do that. It will sit at 80 all day without too much of a struggle provided you've maintained the engine well.

But as said, gutted for corsa owners with the 60bhp 1.0 engine.

17 seconds to 60. thats the difference between being on-time or late for work

My 1.3 GP MJ is faster than i expected so im happy,
70-80 on motorways is fine and on A roads 2nd or 3rd gear with the right foot down does rocket eventually after the initial lack of response.
With only 10bhp between the MJ and the 1.2 petrol its a noticable difference but who am i to say - im no expert

try a 1.4 focus

You are lying, you cant beat anything off the line in an 8v they are **** slow no matter what you say. I owned one for 2 years and i never came close to beating anything that even bothered to race me off the lights. But please do expand on what you mean when you say 'quicker cars'


It will sit at 80 fine but that is not hard. Loose your momentum on a motorway or start going up a slight incline on the motorway and it has no torque to keep it at 80 mph you will have to change down a good few gears to get it going again which is a right pain in the arse to be doing all the time.


This is going off my experience from the 8v in a mk2b which is a lighter car than the grande so god only knows what it is like in the grande with it being heavier.

I found in the 1.2GP I struggled to get off the lights quickly. On dual carraige ways I had to stay in the one lane, I got embarassed to go round people because it took an age to go past struggled to keep speed on an incline. I never remember my 51 Plate Fiesta 1.3 59bhp being as slow?

On the subject of 1.4 Focus, I had a Fusion 1.4 on holiday, that was slow constantly revving it, it hate to think what it is like in the Focus!

i've beaten many of 1.2 16v corsas away from the lights in my gp its just when you get to the by passes that they are faster between 50-70 lol

i agree with the momentum thing on the motorways but i rarely have to change down any gears just to give it another mile to get back up to speed!

Who cares that the 1.2 is not the fastest. I'm usually not in any great hurry to get anywhere and living where I do the roads are generally quiet. Decent fuel economy and the car looks great. I'm happy with mine.

Ditto, Would have insisted on another one or a fully refund!