General FIAT 500 reliability

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General FIAT 500 reliability

We've updated our reliability stats for the 500 to include owner experiences through September 30, 2013.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2013 500: 16, low
2012 500: 69, high

We have two additional statistics, "Nada-odds" and "Lemon-odds", to indicate the percentage of cars with no repairs in the past year and those that required 3+ trips to the repair shop:

2012 500: 62, 4

We'll have further updates in February and in May. The more owners participate, the more comprehensive and precise these will be.

To see how competitors compare, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Fiat 500 reliability ratings and comparisons
 
We've updated our reliability stats for the 500 to include owner experiences through December 31, 2013.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2013 500: 21, low
2012 500: 58, high

We have two additional statistics, "Nada-odds" and "Lemon-odds", to indicate the percentage of cars with no repairs in the past year and those that required 3+ trips to the repair shop:

2012 500: 61, 4

We'll have further updates in May and in August. The more owners participate, the more comprehensive and precise these will be.

To see the repairs behind these stats, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Fiat 500 reliability ratings and comparisons
 
Our reliability stats for the 500 now include owner experiences through March 31, 2014, making them nearly a year ahead of other sources.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2013 500: 19, low
2012 500: 64, high

We have two additional statistics, "Nada-odds" and "Lemon-odds", to indicate the percentage of cars with no repairs in the past year and those that required 3+ trips to the repair shop:

2013 500: 87, < 1
2012 500: 58, 2

Thank you, once again, everyone who has been helping. Next update in August.

For a deeper dive, including the stats for other cars and repair descriptions, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Fiat 500 reliability ratings and comparisons
 
Bare in mind Mexican build cars aren't really indicative of Euro models.
 
Bare in mind Mexican build cars aren't really indicative of Euro models.

Also, owning a 500 in the US is a very different proposition from owning one in Europe.

Due to their huge fashionability & following, they're pretty much everywhere on the eastern side of the pond; hence there's a healthy aftermarket in good quality pattern parts, the car and its technology are familiar to most independent garages, and consequently owners have many options for servicing and repair.

OTOH, I'd expect that in the US, you're going to be much more dependent on the franchised dealer network for parts, service and repairs - and we all know that can add considerably to the cost of ownership.
 
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I've got a 1.4 lounge. Mine was one of the very early customer order cars in the UK. I'm told it was from the second batch to arrive in the UK after the press fleet and dealer demonstrators.

I've done almost 90k miles in it over almost 5 years. I am not shy in thrashing her hard. Some items that have been replaced:

- Bearings I've done five times on the front, once on the rear. They're consumable if you're using one of these on track days.

- Hub flanges I've done half a dozen times. A lot of swapping wheels and track abuse will be the thing that gets you in trouble here if you're not using a torque wrench. Most shops use airguns and the result is overtorqued bolts that mash the threads.

- Service items are about normal. I work to a 10k cambelt and general plugs/oil/filter schedule are done about the same with oil changes before each track day

- Shocks were dead to the world after about 80k but what really finished them off was 30 flat out laps of the Nurburgring. And I had a set of cheap and nasty lowering springs on her from day 3 so it was never factory levels of spec or use.

- Exhaust manifold I've done once. This I'd have expected to last longer but I had the undertray off the car last winter and the salt and muck caused the lambda sensor boss to pop out and rust went through in several other spots

- Filters, I use a cone filter and induction kit and have changed the filter about 4 times.

- Brakes pads I've lost count of the types and times I've changed. So much so that swapping front pads is now down to about 15 mins works

- Standard discs front are rubbish and die quickly with spirited driving. EBC turbo groove last much longer

- Rear braking last much much longer and typically the slider in the caliper is what starts to grind from road muck long before you're worried about pads/discs

- Steering wheel leather is terrible. Easily the worst thing by far on the car. I pulled mine and had it covered in Alcantara, there's a thread on here somewhere about it.

- General wear and tear on the interior is not a problem. 306maxi took mine for a thrash the other day and commented how 'new' it felt on the inside after all that time and abuse

- Leather gets a bit creasy and wrinkly after a while, many have had good results with the leather cleaners/conditioners. I just live with it.

- Clutch I've done once. In all honesty it would have lasted another 50k miles but the release bearing was knackered. It literally disintegrated in my hand when removed

- Engine mounts are about to be changed on mine, she's getting a bit floppy there

- Exhausts are terrible. I mean absolutely terrible. Borderline unacceptable in a new car. I replaced mine with a custom bent stainless one. Much better but a tad heavier.

- Hydraulic seals on clutch master or slave (can't remember which) went on mine on day 3 of ownership. It's the only real factory fault I've had. Apparently a bad batch and it was replaced in a day all ready for me.

- The glass roof roller blind is crap, really crap and no amount of fiddling or dealer intervention will fix it. You learn to live with it.

- The undertray attachment screws are a steaming pile of ****e. Remove them, drill them out, use rivnuts and stainless steel screw and your servicing life is a much nicer place to be.

- Top mounts on the front suspension tend to go reasonably quickly. I've done mine about 4 times now. Mind you that's with a lot of track abuse and country lanes thrashing.

- Drop links, what a joke. I've given up counting the number of times I've done them. I recently replaced them with a set of rose jointed ones on a turnbuckle I put together myself (there's a thread on here somewhere if you're interested). That cost me about 3 times the cost of a set of droplinks but they'll last much, much longer.

- Tyres, at £35 a pop I consider these consumable and don't complain too much when I shred a set of fronts on a track day

- The boot cable/microswitch. After a while you get bored of spraying it with switch cleaner and just use the keyfob to open the boot.

- The dash vents slider is quite fragile. I slide one of mine quickly once and it popped out of the ball joint thing that moves the vains. Most annoying and a fiddle to get popped back in.

- Floor rubber on drivers side. Worse than a joke. Expect total separation from the carpet at around 30k miles

- Blue&Me is sometimes confused if you stick a questionable USB key into it. Pull the battery cable, wait 15 mins and you're all good again. Electrics have given me no grief really but then I have an S1 Elise so the bar is admittedly low in my head :)

- The front wipers are a joke. Go straight from the dealer and buy a bosch one. Throw the factory one away.

- Front supension arms. Done these once at an eye watering £265 each I was unimpressed. They've since dropped to £50 a side. Note to self, cars are not designed to fly nor are they keen on abrupt landings. Take special note of this at the Nurburgring.

- Rubber on the pedals tends to go at about 50k. Easy fix.

If you're worried about a specific aspect of the car post here and I'll let you know if I've run into it.

:eek: My '58 1.4 sport has done 27 k and is still on original running gear and exhaust! Looks like I could be due for a lot of wallet pain...
 
:eek: My '58 1.4 sport has done 27 k and is still on original running gear and exhaust! Looks like I could be due for a lot of wallet pain...

To be fair Jason drove his 500 very hard, when you do loads of track days and laps around the Nurburgring stuff breaks. I drove Jason's car a bit over 1.5 years ago and it was a lovely thing :)
 
To be fair Jason drove his 500 very hard, when you do loads of track days and laps around the Nurburgring stuff breaks. I drove Jason's car a bit over 1.5 years ago and it was a lovely thing :)
I know for a fact that mine hasn't had any track days and was driven gently by its former owner, so I should draw a bit of comfort from that I guess :) Under my ownership there are a lot of gear changes at 4000 rpm though (difficult to resist doing this with such a revvy engine) - life has got a bit harder for this car so I should be prepared to replace certain components before too long.

I admire both the driving behaviour and mechanical competence of Mr Noiles.
 
We've updated our reliability stats for the 500 to include owner experiences through June 30, 2014 (making them about 14 months ahead of some others).

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2013 500: 25, low
2012 500: 64, high

We have two additional statistics, "Nada-odds" and "Lemon-odds", to indicate the percentage of cars with no repairs in the past year and those that required 3+ trips to the repair shop:

2013 500: 82, < 1
2012 500: 60, < 1

Next updates in November and in February. The more owners participate, the more comprehensive and precise these will be.

For repair descriptions, the stats of other cars, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Fiat 500 reliability ratings and comparisons
 
We've updated our reliability stats for the 500 to include owner experiences through September 30, 2014.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2013 500: 31, moderate
2012 500: 45, moderate

We have two additional statistics, "Nada-odds" and "Lemon-odds", to indicate the percentage of cars with no repairs in the past year and those that required 3+ trips to the repair shop:

2013 500: 83, 3
2012 500: 73, < 1

Especially need more participants for the 2014 and up.

To view the repairs behind these numbers, check the stats for other cars, and sign up to help improve this information (next update in February):

Fiat 500 reliability ratings and comparisons
 
New stuff this time. We've updated our reliability stats for the Fiat 500 to include owner experiences through the end of 2014. Plus we've added reliability trends graphs. These indicate how a model's reliability has changed as it has aged, and how different model years performed when the same age.

Repair frequencies, in terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year:

2013 500: 35, moderate
2012 500: 66, high

We have two additional statistics, "Nada-odds" and "Lemon-odds", to indicate the percentage of cars with no repairs in the past year and those that required 3+ trips to the repair shop:

2013 500: 75, < 1
2012 500: 56, 10

We'll have further updates in May and in August. More participants especially needed for the 2013 and up.

To see how competitors compare, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Fiat 500 reliability ratings and comparisons

To view the new graphs, select "reliability trends" in the breadcrumbs at the top of the linked page. Or check out the attachment.
 

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Updated stats soon for the 2012 and 2013. We continue to have far fewer owners signed up for the 2014 and 2015. I'm hoping some people here can help fix this, so we can see how recent model years are faring.

www.truedelta.com/join
 
So, how have these cars been doing lately?

Our reliability stats for the 500 now include owner experiences through March 31, 2015. (Others are nearly a year behind.)

In terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year ("low" is best):

2014 500: 32, moderate, very small sample size
2013 500: 46, moderate
2012 500: 52, moderate

Plus, the percentage of cars with no repairs in the past year and those that required 3+ trips to the repair shop:

2013 500: 71, 2
2012 500: 71, 5

No stat for a model year? Then we very much need more participants for it. Same for those with small sample size notes. Next updates in August and November.

For repair descriptions, the stats for other cars, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Fiat 500 reliability
 
1.4 2010 dualigic with 80000 kilometers on mine, im the third owner.
replaced the radiator (original with an original) at 76000km after the coolant heat level went 3/4 cubes, the radiator was clogged for some reason - guess the pre owner used some other branded red coolant.
pocket damage: 780$ +-

the air vents are really crappy quality - the vains inside just broke after i bought it (the air goes anywhere but to me lol), and the frame just keeps braking at some spots.
costs about 150$ in the dealerships to replace - ordered new one from EBAY at the half of the price.

The dashboard - replaced after the passenger side front airbag cover just swelled up in square shape - every 500 in Israel from the years 2008-2012 has this issue - Fiat wont even answer about dozens of people complains, the dealership wont agree taking responsibility over factory defaults, so if you live in a very hot place - take a look at that!
cost me about 500$ after lots of conversations with the dealers.

soon i will have to replace the clutch for the Dualogic unit - the price is about 750$

expensive enough for Fiat? :p

at least the fuel consumption is ok, about 1 liter for 15km city+highways

p.s - recommend to change oils+filters every 10-15k km (10 if you drive a lot for short distance)
 
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1.4 2010 dualigic with 80000 kilometers on mine, im the third owner.
replaced the radiator (original with an original) at 76000km after the coolant heat level went 3/4 cubes, the radiator was clogged for some reason - guess the pre owner used some other branded red coolant.
pocket damage: 780$ +-

the air vents are really crappy quality - the vains inside just broke after i bought it (the air goes anywhere but to me lol), and the frame just keeps braking at some spots.
costs about 150$ in the dealerships to replace - ordered new one from EBAY at the half of the price.

The dashboard - replaced after the passenger side front airbag cover just swelled up in square shape - every 500 in Israel from the years 2008-2012 has this issue - Fiat wont even answer about dozens of people complains, the dealership wont agree taking responsibility over factory defaults, so if you live in a very hot place - take a look at that!
cost me about 500$ after lots of conversations with the dealers.

soon i will have to replace the clutch for the Dualogic unit - the price is about 750$

expensive enough for Fiat? :p

at least the fuel consumption is ok, about 1 liter for 15km city+highways

p.s - recommend to change oils+filters every 10-15k km (10 if you drive a lot for short distance)

Hi, do you happen to have a pic of the dash when the airbag swelled up? I'm trying to find out exactly where the bag comes out so I can make a leather cover ;)
 
Yes i do, i keep them to show people what to watch out for lol
 

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