Just been to the local garage, and they tested the battery.
Completely fine! Good battery! It should be good too, considering the age of the car!
These were the sort of comments made. They offered to give me a print-out, but said that if I had any concerns, I should take the car back to where I bought it and let them sort it out. I told them the symptoms of my poor S/S, and they said they knew little or nothing about S/S!!!!
I explained that where we bought the 500, he was just a car salesman and wouldn't have any real info to give me, and that I hoped for some hard evidence of a dodgy battery so I could present him with it.
I'm now in a cleft stick.
1. Just buy a new battery - £100 odd.
2. Take the 500 to Fiat and pay them to test out the S/S, then (hopefully) be presented with hard evidence about the poor battery so I can go back to where I bought the 500 and ask him what he's going to do about it. He's in Torbay - 40odd miles away - 80odd mile round trip.
If I take No 2 option, I may have to pay £50? to Fiat, then £10+ of petrol (plus time) to Torbay and back.
Meanwhile, I'll be calling in at Fiat later this week and asking their advice and asking for an estimate of their charges.
All of a sudden, £100 for a new battery doesn't seem so expensive.
Regards,
Mick.