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General 36,000 miles on

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General 36,000 miles on

306maxi

306maxi

STOP! Hammer time!
Joined
Mar 3, 2008
Messages
24,547
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Location
The Welsh Riviera
The 500 ticked over to 36,000 miles just whilst pulling into the petrol station after its service on Saturday.

It's a 1.2 lounge bought on scrappage for £8720 and came with red leather, 16" multispokes and a side rubbing strip with chrome 500 badge :)

In the 36,000 miles I've had it

It's had 3 full fat services
So
12 spark plugs
9 litres of Selenia KPE plus a litre of oil burnt (only burnt when driving it really hard or at high speed)
3 oil filters
3 air filters
3 cabin filters
1 brake fluid change
1 x tappets being set

It's had a front disc and pad change (though if I'd taken the brakes apart and lubricated the frame the pad sits in they'd have lasted longer)
Not needed any tyres replacing. Both sets of tyres are at 4/5mm all round so another year or two to go.
I've had one puncture
A few stone chips on the front, quite a few on the sides of the car
No parking dings :D
No wheels kerbed :D

Warranty bits
1 washer motor
3 big breather pipes
2 or 3 small breather pipes
2 airboxes
1 x driver seat leather

and will soon have
2 x front strut top mounts
2 x rear dampers
1 x side view mirror glass as it's not heating up

Over the last 36k miles it's averages 11p per mile in fuel costs which is 48.2 mpg and has guzzled nearly £4200 worth of fuel!

I did order some replacement aftermarket strut to mounts on the weekend but have just had my order cancelled due to parts not being available so the search continues for that. Just need to check with insurance as to the implications of coilovers on my premium and I'll get some B14's for it.

All in all it's been most enjoyable 34 months. Not sure if I would buy another 500 with my own money, but if the insurance was paying for it I would and I'd probably upgrade to a twinair. It's a funny little thing, I've never had a car which has needed so much work doing on it in such a short amount of time and really that should be inexcusable but I'm a fairly laid back person in real life so I'm happy for the warranty to deal with it or sort it out with decent parts myself :)
 

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jrkitching said:
Nice summary. Do you reckon the two airboxes were needed because they're flimsy & the hamfisted mechanics broke them when replacing the breathers?
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One of those hamfisted mechanics might have been me *cough* But I would hardly say I was hamfisted, it just kind of came away like part of the bodywork of a 30 year old Lancia built with Russian steel, honest!!!!! The other was the dealer technician of course. The fact that a dealer technician who'd probably service a hundred 500's before broke one kind of says it all.
 
Useful summary Maxi and despite the niggles that's cheap motoring from a car that you have clearly enjoyed driving. It's a pity that prices have risen so much on the 500 because it raises the expectations of the 'new owners'. Fiat might find that the new customers may not be as complacent about what is acceptable 'wear & tear'. I would imagine that the profile of the owners now is quite different to those who were buying the 500 when scrappage was on offer and Fiat might find that the 'healthy' profit margin will get eaten away. Have noticed a different level of 'assertiveness' elsewhere in customers exercising the 'goodwill' clause. Spending 15K as opposed to 10K on a small car means that your customers will be more demanding and that is at odds with the profile of a typical 'Fiat' owner.
 
superb write up on ownership experience to date including the niggles

i reckon B14s would be a superb move as bilstein stuff is top notch and i'm looking forward to some getting some B16s in the next few weeks

not withstanding running of winter tyres the wear rate on the bridgestones has really impressed me on the 16s
 
wigit said:
superb write up on ownership experience to date including the niggles

i reckon B14s would be a superb move as bilstein stuff is top notch and i'm looking forward to some getting some B16s in the next few weeks

not withstanding running of winter tyres the wear rate on the bridgestones has really impressed me on the 16s
Click to expand...

Yeah they're quite decent tyres. Only issue I had with them is how they just seem to switch off come autumn and turn the car into a silly wheelspinny thing when there's the tiniest bit of moisture on the road and it's cold. But when you've got winter tyres that's no problem :)

Now do I order the Bilstein's tomorrow or go and have a look at that Alfa on ebay? :chin:
 
i think i changed before the true winter horrors just not great on greasy roads but i'm not going all out in the 500

a friend of mine who has been through his fair share of suspension set ups went B14 on his golf last week and has been singing their praises in terms of damping, trouble is they are what i refer to as an investment so you are right thinking how long you are keeping the car and how many potential owners would appreciate them
 
here's a pic I wanted to attach this morning but it was at home so I couldn't.

It's my favourite bit of quiet moorland road where I got for an Italian tuneup :) I've probably driven over that bit of road maybe 20 or 30 times whilst I've had the 500 and it never ceases to put a smile on my face. If you're committed you can get the air freshener to go past the horizontal :D

There are some true comedy handling moments in that video where I think the ESP light would be lit if I had ESP....

The 500 is extremely unlikely to ever get sold for anything other than scrap metal so what anyone thinks of the Bilstein's is somewhat irrelevant. Never say never though, so I will probably keep the old suspension. Called up Admiral tonight to find out how much extra it would be on insurance to have coilovers. The answer? For the next month and a bit to run on the policy it will be £18.36 including a £17.50 admin fee. So that's 86p on the premium for a month so insurance won't be a problem! :)
 

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A good write-up. Not unlike the long-term strip-down tests they used to do in one of the car magazines a while back, but don't seem to anymore!

Some of the warranty items shouldn't have needed doing - the breather pipe's for example dragged on far too long without Fiat taking action, but thankfully the revised pipe appears to have done the trick for people who have had it fitted to their cars.

Suspension parts wearing out at 36,000 miles isn't very encouraging either, but when you put Fiats questionable suspension components with the UKs questionable road surfaces i suppose there's never gonna be a happy ending :rolleyes:

That said, when you consider all the parts that can fail on a car, the ones on the list that have failed are small change. Totally agree that with the increased prices of the 500 will come increased expectations - our 500 TwinAir Lounge was circa £13,500, so i don't intend to be fobbed off with the 'it's a cheap small Fiat' line by anyone. However, it doesn't seem like there are too many horror stories lurking, and from my dealings with Fiat UK i trust they'll respond favourably should they be called upon. (y)
 
JTD_Liam said:
A good write-up. Not unlike the long-term strip-down tests they used to do in one of the car magazines a while back, but don't seem to anymore!

Some of the warranty items shouldn't have needed doing - the breather pipe's for example dragged on far too long without Fiat taking action, but thankfully the revised pipe appears to have done the trick.

Suspension parts wearing out at 36,000 miles isn't very encouraging either, but when you put Fiats questionable suspension components with the UKs questionable road surfaces i suppose there's never gonna be a happy ending :rolleyes:

That said, when you consider all the parts that can fail on a car, the ones on the list that have failed are small change. Totally agree that with the increased prices of the 500 will come increased expectations - our 500 TwinAir Lounge was circa £13,500, so i don't intend to be fobbed off with the 'it's a cheap small Fiat' line by anyone. However, it doesn't seem like there are too many horror stories lurking, and from my dealings with Fiat UK i trust they'll respond favourably should they be called upon. (y)
Click to expand...

When your parents car comes up to MOT time I would suggest you take it into a trusted garage and get them to have a good look over the car while it's still in warranty. Maybe the design of the rubbers on the rear dampers has been changed for the twinairs, but I suspect that you may encounter the same issue if you put some miles on it and your roads have a few potholes on them.

The suspension really is comedy bad though, having bits dying on 500's and being replaced with some decent aftermarket kit will be a blessing in disguise methings.

Wandering front end anyone? :D
The camera kind of underplays how much the front end was weaving about under braking, it was certainly controllable but not very confidence inspiring. Probably not something most will experience in their car if they're just driving down to the shops for a pint of milk but I've never driven a car that has such bad roadmanners :)
 
Last edited:
Yeah i think i'll make sure they get it checked over before the warranty ends. I dunno if changes will have been made to the suspension but the roads here are rough as hell in places & after 3 years it will have taken a battering :(

Funny you should post that video - I took our 500 on a 140 mile round trip to London & back on Saturday evening, involving minor roads plus the A40 in Oxfordshire, M40, and then A40 into Central London. It kept up with traffic no problem & i found myself going quite abit quicker than i would in my Stilo, mostly because the road & engine noise is quite alot lower in the 500 so i didn't notice my speed.

However, the one thing that did keep me hankering after a different car was the suspension - my Stilo thumps into large ruts & sounds like it's dying in the process, but it is on upgrade 17" alloys and hard tyres & does behave fairly well on smoother surfaces. The 500 on the other hand just picks up every little cats-eye or crack in the surface & makes it feel like a huge crater. At town speeds it seems no worse than many small cars but on the M40 i just wanted to be back in our old Laguna. It's such a shame because i just couldn't relax & kept looking out and swerving (where possible) to avoid bumps :( The Parents don't seem to care but they don't do the motorway miles that i do. To be fair it's not designed for high speed jaunts on the motorway, but if Fiat had sorted the suspension it would be leagues better. God knows what the early ones without the rear ARB are like :eek: I couldn't own one in their current form, purely because of the suspension.

However, a positive to come out of the journey was the fuel economy. It's been getting no better than mid 40's to the gallon lately, so when speeds on the M40 quickly climbed to the legal limit & at times abit beyond, i thought i'd had it for MPG, but a quick calculation on the amount used for the 138.8 miles done since i topped-up revealed a figure of 51.5mpg. Considering i was sat at traffic lights for much of the Central London part of the journey, and sat at between 70 & 80mph for much of the M40 stretch, this seems very good. Especially since the car's only just done 2000 miles (y)

Overall so far, 8 out of 10. Sort the suspension & it'd be a nats whisker off getting 10 out of 10.
 
306maxi said:
When your parents car comes up to MOT time I would suggest you take it into a trusted garage and get them to have a good look over the car while it's still in warranty. Maybe the design of the rubbers on the rear dampers has been changed for the twinairs, but I suspect that you may encounter the same issue if you put some miles on it and your roads have a few potholes on them.

The suspension really is comedy bad though, having bits dying on 500's and being replaced with some decent aftermarket kit will be a blessing in disguise methings.

Wandering front end anyone? :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Lg0t_FcI0&The camera kind of underplays how much the front end was weaving about under braking, it was certainly controllable but not very confidence inspiring. Probably not something most will experience in their car if they're just driving down to the shops for a pint of milk but I've never driven a car that has such bad roadmanners :)
Click to expand...


You know maxi i have the 'new' suspension on the Fiat 500 and i believe its much much better than the one you have on yours. Of course Blistein's will be much better, i was told by my garage that Koni's are quite hard.
 
loveshandbags said:
Useful summary Maxi and despite the niggles that's cheap motoring from a car that you have clearly enjoyed driving. It's a pity that prices have risen so much on the 500 because it raises the expectations of the 'new owners'. Fiat might find that the new customers may not be as complacent about what is acceptable 'wear & tear'. I would imagine that the profile of the owners now is quite different to those who were buying the 500 when scrappage was on offer and Fiat might find that the 'healthy' profit margin will get eaten away. Have noticed a different level of 'assertiveness' elsewhere in customers exercising the 'goodwill' clause. Spending 15K as opposed to 10K on a small car means that your customers will be more demanding and that is at odds with the profile of a typical 'Fiat' owner.
Click to expand...

I think it helps to go in with your eyes open. If I hadn't been on the forum for however long I've been on here and known before buying our 500 that things like droplinks and rear dampers were prone to failure then I'd probably be really disappointed that things have gone wrong with my car. If I was to buy another 500 new, I'd know that S&S only works when certain criteria are fulfilled and S&S not working isn't necessarily indicative of an actual component failure on the car.
 
stu0710 said:
and will soon have
2 x front strut top mounts
2 x rear dampers
1 x side view mirror glass as it's not heating up

Hi Maxi - are these all being done under warranty?
Click to expand...
Suspension bits yes, mirror not sure about it though it's not a costly item :)
 
JTD_Liam said:
Yeah i think i'll make sure they get it checked over before the warranty ends. I dunno if changes will have been made to the suspension but the roads here are rough as hell in places & after 3 years it will have taken a battering :(

Funny you should post that video - I took our 500 on a 140 mile round trip to London & back on Saturday evening, involving minor roads plus the A40 in Oxfordshire, M40, and then A40 into Central London. It kept up with traffic no problem & i found myself going quite abit quicker than i would in my Stilo, mostly because the road & engine noise is quite alot lower in the 500 so i didn't notice my speed.

However, the one thing that did keep me hankering after a different car was the suspension - my Stilo thumps into large ruts & sounds like it's dying in the process, but it is on upgrade 17" alloys and hard tyres & does behave fairly well on smoother surfaces. The 500 on the other hand just picks up every little cats-eye or crack in the surface & makes it feel like a huge crater. At town speeds it seems no worse than many small cars but on the M40 i just wanted to be back in our old Laguna. It's such a shame because i just couldn't relax & kept looking out and swerving (where possible) to avoid bumps :( The Parents don't seem to care but they don't do the motorway miles that i do. To be fair it's not designed for high speed jaunts on the motorway, but if Fiat had sorted the suspension it would be leagues better. God knows what the early ones without the rear ARB are like :eek: I couldn't own one in their current form, purely because of the suspension.

However, a positive to come out of the journey was the fuel economy. It's been getting no better than mid 40's to the gallon lately, so when speeds on the M40 quickly climbed to the legal limit & at times abit beyond, i thought i'd had it for MPG, but a quick calculation on the amount used for the 138.8 miles done since i topped-up revealed a figure of 51.5mpg. Considering i was sat at traffic lights for much of the Central London part of the journey, and sat at between 70 & 80mph for much of the M40 stretch, this seems very good. Especially since the car's only just done 2000 miles (y)

Overall so far, 8 out of 10. Sort the suspension & it'd be a nats whisker off getting 10 out of 10.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there really is nothing majorly wrong with the car other than the suspension. I found the standard pads very on/off but that was sorted easily enough. The rest of it is down to personal taste/preference.
 
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