500 How long until your 500 fell apart, mine is not yet 6 !!

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500 How long until your 500 fell apart, mine is not yet 6 !!

webfish

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Hi

Just joined. Wondered whether the 500 is as badly built as other Fiats. I have had a few, my X1/9 (2) I loved but cost a fortune to run, and were awfully built.

We have a 14 Plate S on a PCP and it is fine, but our 12 Plate 500 Lounge was forever in for leaking exhaust, shockers, suspension and steering issues, new drive shaft etc. door handle fell off, seat broke, the list goes on. Gave it back for the 14 Plate, it seems better but only one year old so hard to tell.

My 59 Diesel, nearly at 56K. Had it 2 years, previous lady had all the bits done, exhaust, handles etc under warranty.

Just had full exhaust done again (£250), DPF sensor (£362) . Rear wheel bearings need done badly. Boot handle has seized, driver handle fell off. boot needs rewired. I service it each year at the dealer.

I thought buying a nearly new car would cut my bills from running an old Merc, but now I am not so sure.

Anyone else have a 500 that just falls apart.

Should I keep spending cash or just give up ?

what is next to go - DPF ?
 
Sigh, if only I could personally have relied on our former TA for a few more years, we'd have kept it. The problem is and which some owners and former owners have found out, you can either be lucky or well, unlucky. Door handle hinges, boot micro switches and lots of other stuff that folk mention, well to be honest parts should last a lot longer than what they do.

I can honestly say, I think the 500 is a great looking little car and whether anyone else agrees or not, it sells mostly on its looks. I think the TA engine is a superb little unit and the 1.2 we had before that was a great little engine too, but with such a short warranty period offered compared to the likes of both Kia and Hyundai and Toyota amongst others, it no longer made sense for us to keep our TA past the warranty period, indeed, we parted with it after just 18 months because I could see that the servicing costs weren't particularly favourable compared to some other brands.

As for you DPF, well if driven correctly and thus allowing the vehicle to regenerate correctly and provided the EGR valve doesn't get sooted up all the time, what else could go wrong? ;)
 
We had a 2011 1.2 lounge for 3 years, only had one problem with the washer jets.
 
Seriously guys I think you may need to go and look at "prestige" brands as they fair no better, and what makes it worse is that they cost a lot more.
Take Jaguar, BMW, Audi, etc etc and look at their forums.......DPF, EGR, DMF, Turbos and in some cases engines going ......BANG !! Then look at what people are saying the dealers have said, which is basically " that's just wear and tear", " not a part covered by warranty" or " that's just how it is".
I myself have had the chew of arguing with a dealer over a known problem that was covered under the 6 year anti perforation warranty, a problem that had even had a TSB issued over it. This was over the rear chrome signature strip damaging the paint and causing the boot lid to rust on a Jaguar X Type, and I had to chase the dealer for over 1-2 years to get it sorted. The same problem has persisted on the XF as well......surely this should have been fixed by the time the XF came along on such a "premium" brand especially when you pay £40k+ for one !!
The 2.7 V6 diesel engines in the Jaguar range have been known to self destruct due to DPF problems, and generally Jaguar dismiss claims due to " driver negligence" and " not driving the car to the required conditions for optimum running". The amount of Jaguar's I've seen in Eurojag that have had blown engines is ridiculous, their big trade is supplying diesel engines to replace blown ones.
I have heard of the same attitude from other "prestige" manufacturers, so in reality if someone spending £40k+ on a car doesn't get much satisfaction then what chance does someone spending £10k have ????
Cars are mass produced in a factory for minimum cost and sold for maximum profit, the manufacturers are a business looking to make as much money as possible.
Yes I know some will say cars should last longer than they do, but don't they already ???
What's the average mileage these days 10-12,000 pa ?
Once over a car was only expected to do 3,000 pa and was serviced at that, think of how many "classic" cars are nearly 30 years old and haven't even done 100,000 miles, something that some cars have done in 2-3 years !!
Personally I think all cars have problems with reliability and parts failing, but look at what they are asked to do every single day. Even in winter with freezing temperatures and corrosive salt on the roads we are all still driving round expecting our cars to soldier on.
How many actually take the time to fully clean the car and lubricate all door pins etc every year before and after the winter ????
I think we expect too much of our cars these days, thousands of miles each year with very little maintenance. Then we complain when something breaks.
Ask yourself this, as a manufacturer would you want your cars to last for years and years without breaking. Or would you want them to last for a little while then start going wrong so the owner buys a newer car and spends a lot more money in one go ????
Modern cars are a consumable item supporting a multi million pound industry, that needs to sell brand new cars to survive. After all once over Volvo used to build cars that were built like tanks and ran and ran, and that nearly sank the company as they weren't selling enough new cars.
Modern driving demands I suppose are just too much for car design which hasn't really changed over the past 30 years or so, and by this I mean door hinges, handle actions, internal combustion engines, bearings etc. So in short are these parts really failing early or are they being asked to do more than what they were originally designed for ??
Why haven't they been redesigned to cope with modern demands ???? Well that's simple.......its all about money and how much manufacturers across the board can make.
 
Lol! Forgive me, but I'm trying to work out if your post was a rant or whether you really are trying to be helpful! :D

Seriously, I've owned everything from a crappy Austin Metro to a Cadillac Escalade, couple of Fiats thrown in there for good measure and my own personal drive is a Saab 9-3 1.9 fitted with ahh, guess what? a Fiat designed diesel engine.

Now I'm one of those folks who services my own car like you would not believe and so I do know a bit about cars ;), but to be honest, as good looking as our two Fiat 500's were, I wasn't impressed overall by their build quality and that is how it was for me. I recently bought the wife a brand new Hyundai i10 1.2 Premium, and personally......he waits for a shed load of abuse :p, I think it is an altogether better package. It is certainly proving already at it's very early days, to be more fuel efficient than our previous TA being driven in exactly the same manner and doing the same journeys. Plus it was a damn sight cheaper than a brand spanking new 500 1.2 out of the show room and comes with a 5 year warranty period. Sorry, gone on there a bit about the competition, but hey, I do still like the 500, just won't own one again. (y)
 
The i10 is a very good car,I was surprised when we had one on loan when our 500S was being fixed.We almost bought one last year but the 500S has lost so much money I will have to keep it for the time being.
 
Haha, a bit of both really.
My main point being that all cars have problems no matter how much they cost, in fact everything you buy has a limited life expectancy. Its the nature of any company to make something that will eventually fail, meaning they can continue making money selling you a repair kit, new part or a whole new product.
The last job I worked at involved doing warranty work around the country, and one visit we did was to someone's house. The guy we went to see owned a Lamborghini, only 2 years old and he described it as " the biggest pile of **** he had ever bought". Apparently he had done more miles in it going back and forth to the dealer, than what he had personal mileage. There was always something not working or rattling, or had completely failed. He even had a snapped door handle !! Certainly not what I expected to hear from a £100k+ car owner.
I've even heard someone complaining about the build quality of Rolls Royce !!!!!!! Apparently it wasn't silent enough over his local roads. And yes I did laugh at that one, the guy wasn't impressed and complained to my boss.
Yes build quality and component quality varies between manufacturers, but when you have amalgamated groups who dictate development costs and build costs what really can you expect ?
I know there is offerings coming in from Korea and the far east, but let's be honest £ for £ they get more for their money than Fiat do in Europe. Their labour force costs are lower as is their manufacture ( overall) cost. Also to break into and be successful in Europe and the USA they have had to excel in both build quality, fuel efficiency and warranty offerings.
Toyota had to come up with Lexus to please the USA market.
Its a dog eat dog world ;-).
 
The i10 is a very good car,I was surprised when we had one on loan when our 500S was being fixed.We almost bought one last year but the 500S has lost so much money I will have to keep it for the time being.


My thoughts also. Might as well as drive it to the ground !
 
Well, mine is 2nd hand 2010 with 1.4 engine and Dualogic gear.
Bought it with 66000KM, took it directly do oil changes as a regular service.

Fisrt thing to fail was the radiator at 78000KM , costed me about 650$.
Second is the A/C gas cable that connects to the compressor - the screw broke half inside the compressor for some reason and the cable "flew" from its place because of the pressure - the ac fluid was splattered everywhere inside the engine bay.
Dissembling it for cleaning out the screw leftovers + refilling the Aircon gas was 200$ (and another 30$ for the cab :p ).

The third thing coming is the clutch replacement, costs about 750$ and now its giving its signs already.

Oh and the front chrome molds just keep on falling - replaced about 4 of them, for about 100$ total.

Accidentally 1 - i broke the internal upper lamp trying to replace a bulb - 80$
Accidentally 2 - while installing a new aftermarket audio system i also broke the knee airbag sensor, with my knee.
Accidentally 3 - sprayed some scent to the air vents - don't do that!!! i did it with some Chemical Guys Stripper Scent (oh that thing smell so good.. ) and it got sticky - that sticky stuff mad the ladders inside the airvents break too so now the air is flowing to the upper center only :( - costs about 80$.

The steering wheel leather is so sensitive, peels very fast.
 
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dpf's are the worst part of any modern diesel..the mazda 6 I had before my impreza didn't have its dpf, as far as I can work out the owner removed it. And the emissions were still only just above the minimum (it was as clean emmissions wise as when it left the factory..not bad for it being a 2007 57 plate). My advice to anyone with a diesels would be to get the dpf deleted as soon as possible. Just gets rid of one big headache.
 
DPF removal is now a no no, and any diesel that had one factory fitted but has had it removed will fail the MOT. Most modern diesel cars would need the DPF removing from the ECU as well, otherwise fault codes will come up.
DPF filters in 2007 weren't fitted to evey car, for eg the Jaguar X Type range in 2007.
2.0D manual 5 speed - no DPF.
2.2D manual 6 speed - DPF could be included as an option but it wasn't standard.
2.2D automatic - DPF fitted as standard.
DPF and EGR valves are the bain of diesel cars, and cost owners £000's over the lifetime of the car. All thanks to emissions regs and antipollution lobbies.
What I've never been able to figure out is why have the need for a clean air filter when you are chucking dirty exhaust gases back through the intake !!!! Its barking mad really lmao.
Also now go and look at the new Euro6 diesel cars like the new Jaguar XE and probably new XF, they now require Adblue as well. Which is basically urine which is injected into the exhaust to cut emissions further, buses and HGV's run the stuff and its rather nasty for the skin.
I really do hate to think how complicated diesel cars are going to get as emissions get tighter, and I wouldn't be surprised if diesel cars slowly get phased out.
 
Boot handle will just need some contact cleaner spraying up it. Our Panda's stopped working, couple of sprays and it was fine.

The 500 just needs to be maintained properly and not treated harshly and it'll be fine. I'm gentle with my door handle and it's fine.

Mine needs a bit of love in the next year or two. Dampers and springs got replaced this year, tyres will need doing next year, exhaust will fail an MOT one day and the timing belt is 7k miles overdue. But after all that is done there is not much else to go wrong and not much to spend till it needs the belts doing again.
 
DPF removal is now a no no, and any diesel that had one factory fitted but has had it removed will fail the MOT. Most modern diesel cars would need the DPF removing from the ECU as well, otherwise fault codes will come up.
DPF filters in 2007 weren't fitted to evey car, for eg the Jaguar X Type range in 2007.
2.0D manual 5 speed - no DPF.
2.2D manual 6 speed - DPF could be included as an option but it wasn't standard.
2.2D automatic - DPF fitted as standard.
DPF and EGR valves are the bain of diesel cars, and cost owners £000's over the lifetime of the car. All thanks to emissions regs and antipollution lobbies.
What I've never been able to figure out is why have the need for a clean air filter when you are chucking dirty exhaust gases back through the intake !!!! Its barking mad really lmao.
Also now go and look at the new Euro6 diesel cars like the new Jaguar XE and probably new XF, they now require Adblue as well. Which is basically urine which is injected into the exhaust to cut emissions further, buses and HGV's run the stuff and its rather nasty for the skin.
I really do hate to think how complicated diesel cars are going to get as emissions get tighter, and I wouldn't be surprised if diesel cars slowly get phased out.

Utter bull**** mate..my mazda passes it's mot before I got it, passed when I had it and again the next owner reported it just passed with flying colours. It is removed then deleted off the system. The engine copes better without it, better response and is just as clean. As long as the outer box is still there then it will pass as that is all the MOT check consists of. - just to add to that. I did a lot of homework on dpf removal, spoke to the garage i normally use, other garages, people who can do the dpf removal and remapping (ended up with a racechip instead). all told me it was a visual check, only dpf removals that fail are when people remove the box. as long as a car passes the smoke test all is well, and it should unless the car is properly wrecked.

here is some information from a company that does dpf removals: http://avontuning.co.uk/2013/10/dpf-removal-mot-regulations/
 
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Utter bull**** mate..my mazda passes it's mot before I got it, passed when I had it and again the next owner reported it just passed with flying colours.

its not bull https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-rules-for-mot-to-test-for-diesel-particulate-filter if your tester is nice enough to pass you its not nice to grass him up on an open forum. most people just knock the insides out now and ecu delete so it looks like its there tester dont have to look inside it.
if you do this be carefull the dust is worse than asbestos!
 
I know the DPF can have its guts knocked out and deleted from the ECU, and personally I don't blame people for doing it as they are a pain.
But seriously saying someone is talking bull when it has been announced that DPF removal is no longer legal, especially when diesel powered vehicles are being hammered at the moment, isn't very good of you is it John87 ?
I was just pointing out that is was now considered to be an MOT fail, obviously maybe I should have said if the box was removed and replaced by a straight through or standard silencer.
The MOT station at the end of my street will fail a car without a DPF if one should be present and it visibly isn't. As the guy said its his licence to conduct MOT's and work as a garage, and he won't put that at risk for anyone.
Also has anyone that has done the guts knock out actually thought what happens when the box eventually rots through ? There's places near me that won't make a box section to look like a DPF but they will make you buy a new DPF and fit it, and that isn't cheap as we all know.
I've never agreed with EGR or DPF systems, but who are we to argue with the powers that set emission and pollutant standards.
You make your choice and take the chance at the end of the day, and what happens when diesels are eventually tested properly and not just for smoke density ? A lot of EGR and DPF deletes could have to be reversed, a good money spinner for companies doing the work.
This is the reasons I'm moving from diesel to petrol power, probably end up going electric somewhere down the line as the eco warriors get there way........shanks pony anyone ???? Lmao.
 
its not bull https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-rules-for-mot-to-test-for-diesel-particulate-filter if your tester is nice enough to pass you its not nice to grass him up on an open forum. most people just knock the insides out now and ecu delete so it looks like its there tester dont have to look inside it.
if you do this be carefull the dust is worse than asbestos!


firstly you don't know who i use for my cars to be mot'd ;) therefor please re-read and you will notice that i did not "grass him up on an open forum" as if that is the case, please tell me who mots my cars...I would be very impressed if you got it right. (just a hint, Avon Tuning are based in Bristol, their website is very open and easy to find...and um..well being from Scotland there is no way they would be moting my cars ;) )

that site was one of hundreds out there that will have the same information..and that information has been the same for ages..in reality testers don't open up the dpf box to check that the dpf is there. I did read the government articles on dpf removal when i was considering it, then as said consulted a few places. The base fact is that during the MOT the only check for the dpf is its visual check, your emissions test and smoke test are the other tests done and if your car is wrecked to the point it fails the emission or smoke test the dpf will not have any effect on that result. as said my Mazda passed and it was only just above the minimum levels. But really before you try say what im saying is false...have you put a diesel car with its DPF deleted through an mot? and after selling it spoke to the new owner after its next mot? oh and the dpf been deleted since before you got the car? (it was mot'd 4 months before I got it, and the dealership did a "pre-mot" on the car to make sure everything was ok before letting me take the car home, the dpf, and emissions never flagged up. the car produced no black smoke out the exhaust either.





I know the DPF can have its guts knocked out and deleted from the ECU, and personally I don't blame people for doing it as they are a pain.
But seriously saying someone is talking bull when it has been announced that DPF removal is no longer legal, especially when diesel powered vehicles are being hammered at the moment, isn't very good of you is it John87 ?
I was just pointing out that is was now considered to be an MOT fail, obviously maybe I should have said if the box was removed and replaced by a straight through or standard silencer.
The MOT station at the end of my street will fail a car without a DPF if one should be present and it visibly isn't. As the guy said its his licence to conduct MOT's and work as a garage, and he won't put that at risk for anyone.
Also has anyone that has done the guts knock out actually thought what happens when the box eventually rots through ? There's places near me that won't make a box section to look like a DPF but they will make you buy a new DPF and fit it, and that isn't cheap as we all know.
I've never agreed with EGR or DPF systems, but who are we to argue with the powers that set emission and pollutant standards.
You make your choice and take the chance at the end of the day, and what happens when diesels are eventually tested properly and not just for smoke density ? A lot of EGR and DPF deletes could have to be reversed, a good money spinner for companies doing the work.
This is the reasons I'm moving from diesel to petrol power, probably end up going electric somewhere down the line as the eco warriors get there way........shanks pony anyone ???? Lmao.

when that box rots through it would have to be replaced anyway haha :p so I imagine would mean a new dpf anyway (to be re-gutted), as you said no where would make boxes to look like dpf's just means spending the money and deciding whether or not its worth the second dpf delete (in my opinion yes). and yeah that will be a sad day when they start testing properly, but I dare say its a long way off as the only way to properly check its there is to open up the dpf box (not enough time in a mechanics day to do that on every car being put through its mot), or to reset the ecu to a factory settings (which could lead to legal issues if the vehicle has been remapped and the dpf isn't deleted). i would have another diesel in an instant, although it would have to be something like a Mazda6 again, as it was incredibly reliable as long as oil changes were done every 12k miles.
 
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2012 fiat 500 pop. Bought for the purpose of what I believe the car is designed for. A good looking glorified shopping trolley. Main dealer serviced for 3 yrs has cost me £300 in total. Other than that it hasn't cost me a bean.

17,000mls and I plan to keep it forever. I only its people who expect these cars to be more than they are that become disappointed
 
firstly you don't know who i use for my cars to be mot'd ;) therefor please re-read and you will notice that i did not "grass him up on an open forum" as if that is the case, please tell me who mots my cars...I would be very impressed if you got it right. (just a hint, Avon Tuning are based in Bristol, their website is very open and easy to find...and um..well being from Scotland there is no way they would be moting my cars ;) )

you have posted all your cars reg numbers in another thread, very easy for vosa to trace who moted them :rolleyes:
 
Back to the original question: Mine's a four and a half year old TA lounge, 34,000 miles, no problems so far. I look after it, and it never goes more than 1 year or 10,000 miles (usually much less) between an oil and filter change. I also supply the oil to my mechanic - although I trust him, I'm paranoid about it being the correct spec!
 
you have posted all your cars reg numbers in another thread, very easy for vosa to trace who moted them :rolleyes:

True but I doubt they trail through every post on here in the off chance :) even then vosa being up my neck of the woods is a rarity haha they don't seem to bother with us backwater countryside people haha, even then telling me whats involved in a mot regarding the dpf and emissions isn't against the law, it's information you can freely request pretty sure dvla and vosa would happily tell you what an mot involves ;)
 
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