why bother buying a diesel 500 the diesel engine IS noisey and yes i have heard one running top gear also commented on this, they cost quite a bit more money to buy and in the real world they are no faster than the 1.2 (.4 seconds quicker to 62 and 4 mph more top speed ) diesel IS more expensive to buy and this brings me on to the economy yes the diesel will do 13.2mpg more on the extra urban cycle but when you are paying more for the fuel in the first place surely it defeats the object plus the diesel is 115kg heavier so then tyre wear, brake pads etc come into play ! the only real bonus with the derv is high torque. and a very small increase in economy.. plus petrol's dont pile black smoke out when you put you'r foot down..

dont be peed off by this its just my opinion on all small cars with diesel engines, diesel range rovers make sense diesel city cars don't..

:devil:

at beast, that sums it up nicely....pulls up a chair and waits....

white 500 said:

why bother buying a diesel 500 the diesel engine IS noisey and yes i have heard one running top gear also commented on this, they cost quite a bit more money to buy and in the real world they are no faster than the 1.2 (.4 seconds quicker to 62 and 4 mph more top speed ) diesel IS more expensive to buy and this brings me on to the economy yes the diesel will do 13.2mpg more on the extra urban cycle but when you are paying more for the fuel in the first place surely it defeats the object plus the diesel is 115kg heavier so then tyre wear, brake pads etc come into play ! the only real bonus with the derv is high torque. and a very small increase in economy.. plus petrol's dont pile black smoke out when you put you'r foot down..

dont be peed off by this its just my opinion on all small cars with diesel engines, diesel range rovers make sense diesel city cars don't..

Click to expand...

Noisy? No. Top Gear? :bang: Black Smoke? Not with the particle filter.

Have you actually driven a 1.3 Mjet?

Thought not.

Absolutely no point buying the diesel unless you are doing lots of miles on mainly motorways. We thought about it, then did the calculations and based on 10000 miles per annum it was going to take 10 years to break even on the additional cost of the diesel engine.......

It may have a bit more torque than the 1.2 but the diesel won't set the world on fire either and the turbo lag is pretty nasty.

I wouldn't buy a diesel small fiat....mainly as the engines don't suit the character of a small fiat, a small car should be nippy, instant response from no revs, and feel fun and light on there feet, things which fiat FIRE engines provide in shovel fulls they may not be quick but have character to burn...diesel doesn't provide that its good but its better suited in its character to motorway lugging than around town darting for gaps and pulling away from the umpteenth set of lights....also if you can't afford to pay the 40+ mpg on the petrol you should have bus pass, its not a big exec where the diesel does double and triple the mpg of a petrol its a small fiat where the difference is actually relatively minor and the price you pay in loss of character and initial purchase is not worth it (unless as already said you do lots of miles but why you buying a 500 to do 20000 a year?)... then again I drive a petrol superFIRE so i would say that.

The engine is no more expensive than the 1.4 gives better fuel ecconomy, £35 tax and pulls harder and I live at the bottom of a steep hill!
I have no idea what the character of a fiat is and dont care tbh, I just want a nice looking reliable and cheap car.

Look -

Choice is good. You can have a 1.2 petrol, a 1.4 petrol, or a 1.3 diesel. Next year you will be able to have a 900cc twin petrol. Brilliant. None of these are necessarily "better", just different. They are all very, very good. If I could afford it I would have one of each.

John

I went for the diesel because of the torque and noise. I find modern petrol engines boringly quiet and liked the diesel thrum. Its not noisy at all when warmed up and the torque in high gears is fantastic. I go abroad a lot and the 1.2 would feel hopless accross Europe on the many long inclines... each to their own but I wouldnt buy a small petrol again.
The FIRE engines are good, but were better in the lighter Fiats they were designed for in the 80s... nowadays I personally feel they are outclassed in the heavy modern cars of today.

Cant wait to try the 1.2 and 1.3 500s. Have got a Panda Diesel at the moment and it is the best choice in that car as the updated 1.2 isnt available.

It is averaging 60mpg running around and if you stick with the trucks 80mpg is achievable. Makes the 43mpg average in the Seicento 1100 we had look bad, oh and the road tax is £95 a year cheaper than the Seicento.

lots more torque
also much better mapping possibilities

Oh, and its cheaper to service too

Nero500 said:

Noisy? No. Top Gear? :bang: Black Smoke? Not with the particle filter.

Have you actually driven a 1.3 Mjet?

Thought not.

Click to expand...

yes i have drove the diesel and it was through driving it i wrote this i thought the extra money spent buying the car didn't provided enough plus points to having the diesel engine! and even with the particulate filter you still get black smoke granted not like a ford transit but it is still there
finaly i want to appologise, top gear didn't say the engine is noisey they actualy said it's utter rubish (u tube top gear fiat 500 )

smoke good, smoke means engine is working each of us is different, and some of us prefer the mjet... thats what makes everyone individual Someone at work queried my choice of engine, I asked them why they thought it not good... answer was "because James May said so"... so I asked him if Mr. May told him his wife was no good would he get rid of her James May is a plonker, end.

white 500 said:

yes i have drove the diesel and it was through driving it i wrote this i thought the extra money spent provided not enough plus points to having the diesel engine! plus even with the particulate filter you still get black smoke granted not like a ford transit but it is still there

Click to expand...

Each to there own. I had the 1.3 Mjet in a Punto and loved it due to the tuirbo and torque. Easily to get more power too.

Here's my pennetn worth to fuel the fire

I drove both the 1.2 and the 1.3 on Friday last week.

1.3 - punchy engine, sprightly, quiet - only issue is its easy to hit 3-3.5k revs in first gear pulling away from junctions. Great ingear acceleration - whilst unscientific i counted 8 seconds to accelerate from 45 to 60, and 10 seconds 50-70mph in top gear.

In comparison 1.2 painfully slow, dangerous pulling out onto roundabouts as you need to rev it to go anywhere. Drive it hard and you get some performance, but the fuel eco plummets. Nowhere near the open road acceleration available for overtaking etc. The quoted figures for 0-60 are based on side stepping the clutch to get off the line - not exactly real world. BHP gets you rolling, torque pushes you down the road !

Diesel worth £1400 extra ? - maybe not on fuel savings, but if you want anything beyond a city car, or a low performance car, i'd say go for it. You save £85 a year in road tax which has got to be good giving less to the robbin' government.

Will i buy one ? - afraid not - its cute and makes you smile just looking at it; but the boot is pathetic, the seating position more like a transit van (you sit on it , not in it), the ride quality even on 15" alloys isn't that great and the handling in spirited driving is rather rolly polly (although it grips well when its settled on the hard worked outside tyres).

I can see the attraction, but its not for me - Grande Punto is a far more accomplished car for the money, even if it isn't cute (the 1.2 engine is useless in that car too btw!)

Thats a pretty good write up and pretty much what I thought... interesting about the GP, I tried a couple, 1.4 and 1.9 sporting and both bored me to tears... hence why I probably like the 500

diesel engine seem to live about 100k more miles than a petrol too

Exactly each to there own
in my eyes the extra you get from the derv is not worth the extra outlay.
p/s to my understanding the 1.3mjet isn't turbo'd it's actualy supercharged (acording to the fiat 500 brochure) plus how do you save £85 per year road tax when the 1.2 is only £35 p/y to tax

Italians call a turbo a supercharger, always have done end of the day is a 500 worth the money full stop, no is probably the answer but for me it was £1400 extra for the 1.3 or nothing at all... so in that respect I had to fork out the extra cash.