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500 Cant find

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500 Cant find

306 Maxi - The Fiat was the car that met my criteria. But the thing isnt gold plated. Fiat's excuse for poor service seems to be that its an exclusive car. Well then dont market something for $14000 and not have the ability to professionally supply the demand.
I'm not in a position for the car to be 4 or so months because im currently without transport and therefore its causing me a lot of problems. The $14000 was higher than my price limit, but I managed to stretch it due to it including on road costs.
Whether its possible or not, it shouldnt be that I need to purchase a cheap rundown car to make it through the months. (its not 'straya', its australian slang)
You seem to love the 500, and I think thats great. I'm not saying I dont, but I would be annoyed if I had this problem with any car. Because its warranted.
Its poor customer service and bad professionalism. It doesnt mean the cars bad.
Its not that Ford or Toyota would be easier, their companies that sell thousands of cars a week, which means they have to keep customers happy otherwise their sales decrease rapidly. Therefore they also have a better reputation.
(and im not bias, im both Australian and Italian.)
Taking a dig at Australia just makes no difference. Fiat clearly has a problem with their customer service. Everyone will be in their own boat here, and some of us cant afford to be without a vehicle for 3-4 months.

Catmail - did they tell you any more about getting one over from SA? I asked the dealer if they would be willing to ship one over from the eastern states, but they said the shipment costs would be so high it wasnt worth it.
I'm not put off by the car, its awesome. Its just become such a bad experience and havent been having any luck.
 
JamesBondFiat said:
306 Maxi - The Fiat was the car that met my criteria. But the thing isnt gold plated. Fiat's excuse for poor service seems to be that its an exclusive car. Well then dont market something for $14000 and not have the ability to professionally supply the demand.
I'm not in a position for the car to be 4 or so months because im currently without transport and therefore its causing me a lot of problems. The $14000 was higher than my price limit, but I managed to stretch it due to it including on road costs.
Whether its possible or not, it shouldnt be that I need to purchase a cheap rundown car to make it through the months. (its not 'straya', its australian slang)
You seem to love the 500, and I think thats great. I'm not saying I dont, but I would be annoyed if I had this problem with any car. Because its warranted.
Its poor customer service and bad professionalism. It doesnt mean the cars bad.
Its not that Ford or Toyota would be easier, their companies that sell thousands of cars a week, which means they have to keep customers happy otherwise their sales decrease rapidly. Therefore they also have a better reputation.
(and im not bias, im both Australian and Italian.)
Taking a dig at Australia just makes no difference. Fiat clearly has a problem with their customer service. Everyone will be in their own boat here, and some of us cant afford to be without a vehicle for 3-4 months.

Catmail - did they tell you any more about getting one over from SA? I asked the dealer if they would be willing to ship one over from the eastern states, but they said the shipment costs would be so high it wasnt worth it.
I'm not put off by the car, its awesome. Its just become such a bad experience and havent been having any luck.
Click to expand...

Don't lecture me :) I probably lived in Australia for longer than you've been alive, I'm quite familiar with the language thanks :) Have you ever actually heard an Australian pronounce Australia? Some are quite lazy with their pronunciation and don't actually pronounce the Au bit and it ends up sounding like straya.

"Professionally supply the demand" huh? Personally I think you're a touch naïve here. Let me explain....... in Australia European cars have typically been sold as a premium product, despite this not being the case in Europe. So you've ended up in the position where you want a fashionable little Fiat in high demand is being advertised at the same price as a Hyundai i20, a car which is a class above in terms of size and build quality.

Hell, the best price you can get a 1.2 pop in the UK for is about 9 grand, this works out in todays prices as just under 15 thousand aussie dollars, so straight up Fiat Australia are giving you a price which is a thousand dollars less than what we'd pay here, THEN they have to ship the thing to Australia and pay the import duties. The car is VERY well priced and this puts you in the very sorry position of not simply being able to walk into a dealership and get one trailered out from a big yard full of 500's near the airport.

I'm not taking any digs at Australia thanks :)

I think your issue with the service is slightly imagined, hundreds or possibly thousands of people in Australia will get a 500 this year and probably be quite happy with the buying process, it's cheaper there than elsewhere in the world and most people probably came to terms with the fact that they weren't going to get one out of stock, so just ordered a factory build. You've put yourself in this situation, a situation where it's more or less impossible for the dealer to satisfy your needs and now you're complaining when the dealer doesn't sort you out. With situations like this when a car is in high demand, dealers can sell cars for a premium and essentially tax lazy people who don't want to wait. I remember back when the original TT was released, there was such a demand for them that dealers in Australia were able to charge quite handsome premiums.

Sales from stock are going to be low margin sales as well, you want an absolutely bog standard pop with no options by the sound of it, options are where dealers and manufacturers start making more money out of a sale, they may get in a few cars like this to sell to people who just want the bare minimum and to also be able to say "Well, we had 5 cars this month that we sold at the headline rate" so that they can legally have big signs up and stuff on the website advertising cars for 14k.

The fact of the matter is that there is little/no incentive for Fiat to go selling thousands of pops in Australia at the headline rate, that's a kind way of me saying that they don't want to actually sell you a pop at 14k other than if it's one of the few sales they need to make to be seen to be selling cars at 14k. Now if you want to order one from the factory at the price that Fiat advertised them at then you can do that and Fiat will be legally obliged to do this for you. But why would Fiat want to order more pop stock in when they can be selling 500s' at nearly 21 grand and twinair lounges at nearly 23 grand.
 
I'm not lecturing anyone. Its just a response to how many times you've mentioned things being harder to buy in Australia, which I think is no excuse for Fiat. Its simply my opinion.
Of course Fiat is going to want to sell more expensive cars, every dealer would, but when you advertise something for a certain price, you need to supply the demand for that. I have a fair bit of knowledge about the automotive industry and the way shipments work, and also about cars in general.
Its poor customer service to advertise a car for $14000 and be unable to supply that to customers. Currently over in Australia, the price itself is even up in the air and unfortunately the dealers are saying that even if a contract is signed, the price can still be raised. On top of that no one can give a definite answer as to when it will arrive.
I dont think any of my issues are imagined, im not the only person in this boat and just because I decided to buy a car for $14000 and not $21000 has nothing to do with the kind of customer service I receive as I'm still purchasing the car, so it shouldn't matter as they make a profit. My purchase is no less or more important. I dont want a bog standard pop, I just dont mind about all the bells and whistles as I think the pop has them anyway.
I quiet frankly dont give a hoot if Fiat has no incentive to sell thousands of pops in Australia, if you decide to market something for $14000 you need to be able to back that up. Just as there was an article in my newspaper last week about them having arrived, when in fact they hadn't.
Fiat is not obligated to sell me the car at $14000 and can change that price, contract or no contract. Three manuals in the space of six months is not practical and I've been told its actually something Fiat Australia themselves are having a problem with. What im buying or why im buying it, is irrelevant, it doesnt make up for the poor customer service or anyone being lied to. Just as Catmail shouldnt have been forced into signing the contract on his.
 
They don't HAVE to supply the demand for people wanting to walk into a dealership and buy a car at 14k from stock, let's be clear on this, there is no legal requirement for them to do this, let's be clear about that. However, IF you want to do a factory order then they have to fulfil this. They're allowed to say "Sorry madam, we don't have any today, come back tomorrow", but they're not allowed to say "Sorry, we won't allow you to order a car at that price"

Have you ever heard of a loss leader? Basically it's a product which is very competitively priced (sometimes even sold at a loss) and priced so as to get people into a store/showroom and try and get them to buy a more expensive product or buy the cheap product as well as other products which are more profitable.

This is what Fiat Australia have essentially done, they've advertised the pop at a price which is fantastically attractive and has gotten many people into their showrooms, a lot of them probably realised full well that they were never going to just get one from stock and have ordered cars. Others probably walked away because they wanted a car there and then and realised that this wasn't going to happen.

You seem to fundamentally misunderstand how business works, perhaps because if you understood it then you'd realise why Fiat aren't going to bring loads of pops in to sell at bargain basement prices and why there aren't hundreds of 500 pops in Australia. A 14k pop being advertised is bait, bait to get people into showrooms in the hope of them spending more (these people don't have to spend more, they could just order a 14k pop from the factory), and the 3 manual pops in 6 months is merely them doing the minimum required to legally say that they're selling a few from stock at the headline price.

You just don't get it, I don't know whether you're stupid or just plain pig ignorant, when it comes to a car being manufactured in Poland and then shipped all the way to Australia, it's nigh on impossible for them to give you a definite date when you'll get your car. In the UK from what I've seen, you can be looking at a couple of weeks variance in build time depending on how busy/not busy the factory is, then there's a difference in the amount of time it can take to get to the UK on the ship, if there's one shipment a week on a Friday at 4pm and your car turns up at 5pm, then you're going to wait an extra week. Hell, my car sat in Bristol for at least 2 weeks before it got out to me.

Now chuck in a 45+ day sea journey and the variation in delivery times is such that no honest sales person would de stupid enough to try and give you a firm delivery date other than to say something like November at the earliest but more realistically December and possibly into January.

Fiat aren't having problems with manual pops, I could probably go to my local dealer and drive away in one today or have a factory ordered one with me in late October or early November.

But hey, you've been a member of this forum for a month, never owned a Fiat let alone any car so I can completely understand why you feel you understand things better than me :) I've only had a licence for 12 years, owned various cars for the last 13 years, part owned a 500 for 4 of those and been on this forum for 5 years and helped hundreds of people on here and probably aggravated as many or more, so what do I know?
 
Like I said, why im looking for the car, whether its my first car or ive driven others (which I have) doesnt matter, and ignorance doesnt even come into it. I reported on my bad experience with fiat to help others, who might be having the same problem and to see if I could help anyone else and find out myself. I dont know what you think is acceptable but being plainly god damn rude isnt what I came on this forum for, it was to help out people who might be having the same problem as I was. Not for you to be rude and insulting. Next time you buy a car you might want to inquire about some damn manners instead. Because I wont be that rude to anyone.
 
You are not helping others, you are pigheadedly sticking to your misplaced belief that Fiat Australia should bring in loads of pops which they're not going to do......

How long have you been waiting for a car anyway?
 
Catmail shouldnt have been forced into signing the contract on his

(Err...hmm....her):eek: he he....just trying to imagine me as a 'he':eek:

If they were able to tell people here an around about month as in 'at the very latest it will be....whatever month', then one could decide if hanging on until then was what they wanted to do or if they wanted to move on and look at something else. Even if it is a long time off, who cares, at least you would know. And if they honestly don't know, they should just say that too. It isn't nice when you can smell a rat. I think this is fair to say that this is what you are after JBF? Like an 'outside time.' I am so lucky a dealer here had a car I could purchase.

JBF - I'm not sure what the deal is with the car I sent you the link for. This isn't the dealer where I am getting mine. Maybe I should put you in touch with where I'm getting mine as the salesperson I have has been very helpful, nice and honest. He was the one that told me what was actually happening.

Cat:)
 
Catmail said:
Catmail shouldnt have been forced into signing the contract on his

(Err...hmm....her):eek: he he....just trying to imagine me as a 'he':eek:

If they were able to tell people here an around about month as in 'at the very latest it will be....whatever month', then one could decide if hanging on until then was what they wanted to do or if they wanted to move on and look at something else. Even if it is a long time off, who cares, at least you would know. And if they honestly don't know, they should just say that too. It isn't nice when you can smell a rat. I think this is fair to say that this is what you are after JBF? Like an 'outside time.' I am so lucky a dealer here had a car I could purchase.

JBF - I'm not sure what the deal is with the car I sent you the link for. This isn't the dealer where I am getting mine. Maybe I should put you in touch with where I'm getting mine as the salesperson I have has been very helpful, nice and honest. He was the one that told me what was actually happening.

Cat:)
Click to expand...

I didn't think you were a he either if it makes any difference, a man buying a 500 to advertise his business just doesn't seem nearly as plausible as a woman doing it.

The thing is the dealers have given timeframes, but as I keep trying to point out, when it's a relatively low volume manufacturer (in terms of sales to Australia) and the cars are getting made in Poland, then the best they can say is something like November/December hopefully.
 
I just think it's really strange how the dealers can't give you a clearer date. And some even give you a date of within four months. I understand its difficult to know precisely but that's pretty rich. And they lie a hell of a lot too. I got sick of going to dealerships after they rang me to say ' a manual has arrived for you to test and buy' and it wasn't ready or manual. It's just impossible to know what's going on.

Sorry Catmail! I meant to say theirs. That would be good, I'm not sure I could ship it over however, they said it would be a few grand in shipping costs as its further away.
The best answer I got here was either within the next six months or after February. So that's why I'm a bit annoyed.
 
JamesBondFiat said:
I just think it's really strange how the dealers can't give you a clearer date. And some even give you a date of within four months. I understand its difficult to know precisely but that's pretty rich. And they lie a hell of a lot too. I got sick of going to dealerships after they rang me to say ' a manual has arrived for you to test and buy' and it wasn't ready or manual. It's just impossible to know what's going on.

Sorry Catmail! I meant to say theirs. That would be good, I'm not sure I could ship it over however, they said it would be a few grand in shipping costs as its further away.
The best answer I got here was either within the next six months or after February. So that's why I'm a bit annoyed.
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JBF - In regards to the place where I sent the link to the other day....I went past there last night. It is way out of my area but I had to go in that direction so I checked out what they have. FYI, they have 1 Sol Yellow manual, 1 Gelato White manual, 1 Red auto, 1 Diva Pink auto.
Have you thought about giving them a call?
 
Think I may have located one in Perth that is due September 30 and should be ready a week or two after. Was told early to mid september, but aparently not.
Real pain with how long its taking. How are you going with the Sole Yellow 500 Catmail? If its arrived you should have it by now for sure. Maybe try and find out more, it shouldnt take them that long just for vehicle checks and processing.
 
JamesBondFiat said:
Think I may have located one in Perth that is due September 30 and should be ready a week or two after. Was told early to mid september, but aparently not.
Real pain with how long its taking. How are you going with the Sole Yellow 500 Catmail? If its arrived you should have it by now for sure. Maybe try and find out more, it shouldnt take them that long just for vehicle checks and processing.
Click to expand...
That's great JBF, as I have heard from my dealer that all cars coming in before the end of the year have been taken already. What colour is it?
Mine has been sitting for....however long it has been since it arrived. I have seen it at least, out in the open with my name on it, but it hasn't gone through whatever it is. I really pushed to have it today and although they are busy they would have done it but I had to change plans because of business. I am told they can have it done by early next week. Will have to take photos. Still not really taking to the Sol Yellow but never mind. Good luck with yours....looking forward to knowing the colour and hearing more about it!
 
Hi,

I just ordered a red with black 'ambience' 500 POP in Sydney today. Quoted delivery times ranged from "October" (last week) to "November" to "five months" to a contract with 30/12/13 on it (and those last three were all in the space of an hour)...

After a small outburst, that was changed to 31/10/13 on the contract - but realistically I'm not expecting it much before Christmas unless they squeeze an extra one onto the ship or someone cancels.

Our dealer (Suttons) has sold more than 60 in the past month - that's $1m of business to start the new financial year. Nice work - especially if they can find a way to bump up the price before delivery citing exchange rates.

But if they try that, there's going to be plenty of pissed off people - and the backlash will be massive...

And as a journalist, you can be sure I'll be leading the posse, pitchfork and torch in hand!

Hopefully though, it will all go through smoothly and I'll be in my new quirkymobile ASAP.
 
Bought the 1.2 Pop this morning, its Gelato white with a red/ivory interior, due September 30 but ready early- mid October. Apparently its been built and its at the factory ready for shipment. So I'm hoping from this point it will all go ok.
Think you'll like the yellow catmail, I saw one this morning and its really nice. Plus, as an owner you make the car your own, so im sure you'll make it yours.
I saw a black one on the road as well and they look pretty awesome.
 
JamesBondFiat said:
Bought the 1.2 Pop this morning, its Gelato white with a red/ivory interior, due September 30 but ready early- mid October. Apparently its been built and its at the factory ready for shipment. So I'm hoping from this point it will all go ok.
Think you'll like the yellow catmail, I saw one this morning and its really nice. Plus, as an owner you make the car your own, so im sure you'll make it yours.
I saw a black one on the road as well and they look pretty awesome.
Click to expand...
JBF - ah, sooooo nice! That was what I had wanted. But, I became too impatient and advertising is pressing. I don't mind the yellow but the gelato white is gorgeous and you will be extra happy with that! Congrats!
 
Cheers Catmail! Yeh, if I hadnt grabbed one of these ones it probably wouldn't be till Christmas or next year so I'm impatient too. But I cant afford to be without one much longer either. I hope we both enjoy our new fiat just as much.
 
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