I put a deposit on a new (pre-registered) Panda TA Lounge, in sunset red, today. Collecting the car next week. It's one of Motorpoint's pre-registered (62 plate) cars for £7,799, with only 11 miles on the clock before my test drive. The downsides are that 6 months' warranty is already gone and I am buying with no options.

The car is good, the price is good, but the sales spiel was less impressive:

The salesman knew nothing about the 3rd year dealer warranty - as far as he was concerned, there is a 3-year Fiat warranty, full-stop. He wasn't aware (and wasn't particularly interested) that the 3rd year is in the name of the first owner, so I will probably have to transfer it into my name.

Tried to sell GardX protection @ £299
https://www.gardx.co.uk/index.php?page=shop&cid=84
Seems a bit of a rip-off compared to occasional waxing, or buying GardX products and applying them myself. He talked about a lifetime guarantee, but the Motorpoint brochure states a 5-year guarantee.

Very keen to sell me GAP insurance, basing his argument on a Black Horse valuation of the car (for 3 years' time), for insurance payout, at just over £3,000 ! Something tells me that this figure has been massaged to make the GAP insurance look more worthwhile.
Seems to be insurance companies telling us that they can't be trusted to pay out what the car is worth, so we should pay them an extra premium to make up for it. I'd rather bear the risk myself than pay an insurance company to take that risk.

Tried to sell me parking sensors, but gave up easily when I told him I am familiar with them on my Multipla, and I wouldn't have bothered to specify them as an option on a Panda if ordering from a Fiat dealer. Maybe if it was a big car ...

Roll on next Friday.

Well, in the end you geting great litle car and verry good price. I hope you will enjoy it! For me, panda is best car in class.

Hi chr1s,

Welcome to the forum.

Great to hear first-hand the experience of someone buying one of the pre-reg deals from Motorpoint.

£7,799 for a TA Lounge is a cracking deal. OK, you've lost a bit of the warranty, but - you've still got 18 months to take your car back into a dealer to get stuff fixed under warranty, not to mention the third year too (which will cover some bits for sure). No-one buys a FIAT for the warranty anyway, lol!

Not sure if you are going to sort out GAP insurance or not, but IMO it is worth getting it. Good deals available on the Internet, we got ours from ALA. You should be able to search for a discount code too, I think there's a standard one which knocks a further 10% off.

Got to say though...what a mug I was getting our 1.2 Easy when we did last year We paid £10,050 for ours; OK, it's specced with everything we wanted, but even so! Definitely beginning to feel like we were ripped off to be honest

Thanks. New to the Panda forum, but not new to FiatForum

I had a look at ALA GAP insurance - £74 for the basic cover (£5000, 3 years) - compared to Motorpoint's Black Horse GAP insurance @ £299 (also 3 years) ! I may take this out with ALA; £74 is much more reasonable.

its good to here that you went for another fait , and a panda at that , sunset red is a nice colour and you are going to like the twinair engine ,also nice price ,I,ve got GAP insurance on my panda 4x4 it gives you a sense of knowing and hoping if you should have a prang or it gets stolen aleast thers a chance of getting most or all your money back so you can get a New car

A few questions:

The Motorpoint salesman knew nothing about the "1 year's AA Assurance cover" (for Fiats registered up to 28th February 2013) or "Fiat Roadside Assistance" (for vehicles purchased after 1st March 2013). From the Fiat website, it appears that this is provided for one year from the date of first registration in the UK.
My Panda was registered in November 2012, so there should be AA Assurance until November 2013. Does anyone know if this can be transferred to a second owner during the first year (if the car has been registered with Motorpoint as the first owner) ? Would a Fiat dealer be able to do this, or should I contact Fiat UK ?

I am a little concerned that the petrol cap/flap does not lock. I like the Smart Fuel system, with the cap integrated into the flap, but has anyone investigated adding a solenoid lock to the flap ? (I remember that my old Fiat Ulysse had a locking flap, controlled with the central locking).

Has anyone looked into fitting Blue&Me as an aftermarket add-on, or do I just settle for a basic Bluetooth kit ? I want to have a Bluetooth system which integrates with the radio, so that the cd/radio output is disabled with an incoming call and the call audio is directed through the radio speakers. Any recommendations, or should I look at Parrot (e.g. CK3100) ?

Hi chr1s

Great bargain on your car. Make sure you charge the battery fully, or you may get stop/start problems, and forget about trying to add blue and me. You may as well just cancel the order and find a car with it installed as it will be cheaper.
Just change the head unit instead
Super Uwe , don't beat yourself up over the deal you got. Early adopters always pay for the privilege. All of us who have taken a 4x4 this year have done the same to get what we want.

FIAT UK has responded quickly to my email, yesterday, answering a question in my earlier post:

chr1s said:

My Panda was registered in November 2012, so there should be AA Assurance until November 2013. Does anyone know if this can be transferred to a second owner during the first year (if the car has been registered with Motorpoint as the first owner) ? Would a Fiat dealer be able to do this, or should I contact Fiat UK ?

Click to expand...

Reply from Fiat: "The Road side assistance come with all Fiat vehicles from the date off registration the cover is under the vehicle registration and chassis and not the owners details."

Also, with regard to transferring the 3rd year dealer warranty into my name: "In order to change the 3rd year warranty into your name please fill out the waranty transfer form in the back of the owners manual or contact our 3rd year warranty team on 08445738029"

Thanks deeyup. It looks like I'll be fitting a simple Bluetooth hands-free kit then, maybe Parrot CK3000 or CK3100.

deeyup said:

Super Uwe , don't beat yourself up over the deal you got. Early adopters always pay for the privilege. All of us who have taken a 4x4 this year have done the same to get what we want.

Click to expand...

Haha! Yeah, I sounded quite grumpy didn't I?

Honestly though, I'm really happy with the car. Just makes you sit up and take notice when you see some of the pre-regs deals. But I know that many of them are standard models with only the odd fitted extra in some cases. I doubt I could find one with all of the flex options in our car, that's for sure.

I guess it's a little grating coming from the 500 as there were none of these deals when we bought ours in 2009.

Hey ho, wrong place, wrong time I guess....

I collected the car on Friday, and I'm very pleased with it. After cycling (nearly 20 miles) down to Motorpoint to collect the car, I even managed to fit my bike inside (very, very carefully) to bring it back home.
Unfortunately there already hundreds of dead flies on the front (and mirrors), following a drive up to Brecon.

Being a TA Lounge, without climate control, I was under the impression that there would not be an outside air temperature display. But there is. Also, the dashboard includes the in-car temperature vent holes, although only the climate control option would include the sensor underneath. Is this normal ? (There is a photo showing a manual air con panel without the in-car temperature vent, in the 'ready to go' booklet).

The car was registered 30-Nov-12, but the first service stamp (PDI, Royal Portbury Dock) is dated 4-Jan-13. I suppose it must been registered (to Fiat, Slough) on arrival in the UK, then left at the dock for a few weeks.

The tyre gunge is not as shown in the handbook. Is this normal, or have Motorpoint substituted a different kit, for some reason ?

It's not important, as I plan to get a space-saver.
Can anyone confirm that a Punto 2001 spacesaver (135/80 B 14) fits the wheel well and fits the car, with the correct offset, stud PCD, etc ?

For anyone considering buying a car from Motorpoint, I would recommend them, from my experience. Beware of over-priced add-ons, but that is only to be expected.

I find it hard to believe there is no climate in lounge trim. I understand there are differences between countries but still - no climate in top trim

chr1s said:

The tyre gunge is not as shown in the handbook. Is this normal, or have Motorpoint substituted a different kit, for some reason ?
View attachment 118765
It's not important, as I plan to get a space-saver.
Can anyone confirm that a Punto 2001 spacesaver (135/80 B 14) fits the wheel well and fits the car, with the correct offset, stud PCD, etc ?

Click to expand...

That is not the standard re-inflating kit. It has indeed been swapped.
I'll take a look at my spare tomorrow and let you know what size it is.

oh and btw, don't forget you'll need a jack to go with your spacesaver.

chr1s said:

I collected the car on Friday, and I'm very pleased with it. After cycling (nearly 20 miles) down to Motorpoint to collect the car, I even managed to fit my bike inside (very, very carefully) to bring it back home.
Unfortunately there already hundreds of dead flies on the front (and mirrors), following a drive up to Brecon.

Being a TA Lounge, without climate control, I was under the impression that there would not be an outside air temperature display. But there is. Also, the dashboard includes the in-car temperature vent holes, although only the climate control option would include the sensor underneath. Is this normal ? (There is a photo showing a manual air con panel without the in-car temperature vent, in the 'ready to go' booklet).

The car was registered 30-Nov-12, but the first service stamp (PDI, Royal Portbury Dock) is dated 4-Jan-13. I suppose it must been registered (to Fiat, Slough) on arrival in the UK, then left at the dock for a few weeks.

The tyre gunge is not as shown in the handbook. Is this normal, or have Motorpoint substituted a different kit, for some reason ?
View attachment 118765
It's not important, as I plan to get a space-saver.
Can anyone confirm that a Punto 2001 spacesaver (135/80 B 14) fits the wheel well and fits the car, with the correct offset, stud PCD, etc ?

For anyone considering buying a car from Motorpoint, I would recommend them, from my experience. Beware of over-priced add-ons, but that is only to be expected.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure an electric pump should be included with the foam can.