sem973 said:

Hi All

Well a week away in the sun & return to an update!.....and a result!.....

Certainly a drop from the £2000 + fitting orginally quoted!......

Dear Mrs ..........

I have completed my enquiries into your concern.

I would like to begin by apologising to you for the level of customer service you have recently encountered from my colleagues. This isn’t the level of service we expect to offer and, reading your comments, it certainly seems to be unacceptable, for which I apologise. You originally contacted our Managing Director, Mr Steve Zanlunghi, so he is aware of your dissatisfaction.

I turn now to your disappointment with the repair you have recently had carried out on your car, only for it to go wrong again. I see that your disappointment is made all the worse because your car, although 2 years out of the warranty period, is of low mileage and has a full service history.

As the manufacturer, we make every attempt to ensure the reliability and durability of all the components and we offer a three year manufacturer’s warranty should any part fail during this period. Outside of the warranty period and, as vehicles age, repairs will be required. However, when a vehicle is outside of the warranty period, and wherever possible, we endeavour to support our customers on a goodwill basis. Nevertheless, any such requests must meet certain criteria in order for us to be able to assist. These include, but are not limited to, the age of the vehicle (a vehicle must generally be under 4 years old), ownership of the vehicle from new, mileage and the vehicles’ service history within our network of authorised Fiat dealers.

I am prepared to extend our parameters and consider your car and I am therefore pleased to confirm we can offer you the replacement part for £457.63. There will be a charge for the fitting of this part, of £157.20. This brings the total cost to you to £614.83. The new part will come with a 24 month warranty.

Should you wish to proceed with the repair at the reduced cost, please do let me know and I will arrange for the part to be ordered and sent to the dealer directly.

I do hope my response has gone some way to restore your faith in the Fiat brand.

Kind regards


Parts and Services – Directors’ Office

On behalf of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles UK Ltd.

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UFI said:

I think Fiat are actually on the record with this as the reason for fitting an Aisin to the NAFTA cars. The new model is supposed to standardize the 500 worldwide so it will be interesting to see what 'auto' the Euros get.

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sem973 said:

Hi All

Well a week away in the sun & return to an update!.....and a result!.....

Certainly a drop from the £2000 + fitting orginally quoted!......

Dear Mrs ..........

I have completed my enquiries into your concern.

I would like to begin by apologising to you for the level of customer service you have recently encountered from my colleagues. This isn’t the level of service we expect to offer and, reading your comments, it certainly seems to be unacceptable, for which I apologise. You originally contacted our Managing Director, Mr Steve Zanlunghi, so he is aware of your dissatisfaction.

I turn now to your disappointment with the repair you have recently had carried out on your car, only for it to go wrong again. I see that your disappointment is made all the worse because your car, although 2 years out of the warranty period, is of low mileage and has a full service history.

As the manufacturer, we make every attempt to ensure the reliability and durability of all the components and we offer a three year manufacturer’s warranty should any part fail during this period. Outside of the warranty period and, as vehicles age, repairs will be required. However, when a vehicle is outside of the warranty period, and wherever possible, we endeavour to support our customers on a goodwill basis. Nevertheless, any such requests must meet certain criteria in order for us to be able to assist. These include, but are not limited to, the age of the vehicle (a vehicle must generally be under 4 years old), ownership of the vehicle from new, mileage and the vehicles’ service history within our network of authorised Fiat dealers.

I am prepared to extend our parameters and consider your car and I am therefore pleased to confirm we can offer you the replacement part for £457.63. There will be a charge for the fitting of this part, of £157.20. This brings the total cost to you to £614.83. The new part will come with a 24 month warranty.

Should you wish to proceed with the repair at the reduced cost, please do let me know and I will arrange for the part to be ordered and sent to the dealer directly.

I do hope my response has gone some way to restore your faith in the Fiat brand.

Kind regards


Parts and Services – Directors’ Office

On behalf of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles UK Ltd.

Click to expand...

sem973 said:

Hi All

Well a week away in the sun & return to an update!.....and a result!.....

Certainly a drop from the £2000 + fitting orginally quoted!......

Dear Mrs ..........

I have completed my enquiries into your concern.

I would like to begin by apologising to you for the level of customer service you have recently encountered from my colleagues. This isn’t the level of service we expect to offer and, reading your comments, it certainly seems to be unacceptable, for which I apologise. You originally contacted our Managing Director, Mr Steve Zanlunghi, so he is aware of your dissatisfaction.

I turn now to your disappointment with the repair you have recently had carried out on your car, only for it to go wrong again. I see that your disappointment is made all the worse because your car, although 2 years out of the warranty period, is of low mileage and has a full service history.

As the manufacturer, we make every attempt to ensure the reliability and durability of all the components and we offer a three year manufacturer’s warranty should any part fail during this period. Outside of the warranty period and, as vehicles age, repairs will be required. However, when a vehicle is outside of the warranty period, and wherever possible, we endeavour to support our customers on a goodwill basis. Nevertheless, any such requests must meet certain criteria in order for us to be able to assist. These include, but are not limited to, the age of the vehicle (a vehicle must generally be under 4 years old), ownership of the vehicle from new, mileage and the vehicles’ service history within our network of authorised Fiat dealers.

I am prepared to extend our parameters and consider your car and I am therefore pleased to confirm we can offer you the replacement part for £457.63. There will be a charge for the fitting of this part, of £157.20. This brings the total cost to you to £614.83. The new part will come with a 24 month warranty.

Should you wish to proceed with the repair at the reduced cost, please do let me know and I will arrange for the part to be ordered and sent to the dealer directly.

I do hope my response has gone some way to restore your faith in the Fiat brand.

Kind regards


Parts and Services – Directors’ Office

On behalf of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles UK Ltd.

Click to expand...

ahmett said:

not true. Fiat developed the selespeed gearbox originally for the Ferrari 355 F1 in like 1995 or so , to show F1 technology in their supercars. And after that they just trickled it on down to cheaper Alfas and Fiats, while barely spending any money on development in the mean time.

So the 2015 Fiat 500 Dualogic has essentially the 1995 Ferrari 355 F1 system. 20 year old technology with barely any development.

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ahmett said:

i think the new DCT gearbox. it would be about time.

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ahmett said:

good job it worked. get it done, keep the car for 24 months and then sell it on = )

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JTD_Liam said:

ahmett, I totally understand that you've had a cr*p experience with your Fiat, and I also won't sit here with rose tinted glasses on & sing Fiats praises 365 days a year because I know they're far from perfect.

However it's getting beyond tiresome when every post I read from you is basically you moaning about how awful Fiat are. I dunno if you still own the 500 - I can't keep track of the amount of things going on with your car, but if the car and Fiat are really that bad, why not just get rid of it and quit the constant moaning & digs at the brand on here?

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ahmett said:

I refuse to sell my car at a low price and spend a lot of money for a new one. That will be fiat winning! I actually now want to drive it to the ground.

I have 1 year warranty left on the gearbox I'll drive it until then most likely.

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JTD_Liam said:

I can understand that, a difficult position to be in unless you have plenty of money to throw at a replacement car, which many people don't.

Oh well fingers crossed it behaves for the next 12 months and we can both look forward to you getting rid of it after that

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liav24 said:

Well, i own a second hand 2010, Dualogic 1.4
78000 KM over it, should i worry? =/

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ahmett said:

So my advice; the first time you see a warning light or anything like that, sell the car.

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jrkitching said:

That'd be my advice too.

Anyone contemplating the purchase of a used dualogic might wish to bear in mind that the previous owner may have done exactly that.

Buyer beware.

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liav24 said:

I think im gonna replace my 500 to one with a manual transmission

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liav24 said:

Well, i own a second hand 2010, Dualogic 1.4
78000 KM over it, should i worry? =/

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alexGS said:

I own a third or fourth-hand 2008 Dualogic 1.4 and I'm not worried - it's an excellent system compared to the original Alfa 156 Selespeed of ten years earlier - they were problematic and no-one knew how to fix them, I did and had several years trouble-free. The 500's system is much smoother and better coordinated than the earlier design, even when the earlier design was working properly.

Hooking up MultiECUScan shows me that everything is working correctly and will, I expect, give advance warning of any failures. For example, checking the system pressure shows whether the pump and accumulator are working correctly or are 'marginal'.

I know that at some point around 120,000km I shall need to put a new clutch (in my 500), maybe a little sooner (15,000km sooner?) than for a regular manual gearbox, but it will be about the same job to do.

I also know that at some point it might spring a leak and require regular top-ups until I either fix the leak or replace the actuator. That was a cause of two failures I know about.

Based on experience of the earlier design, when it's ten years old, the accumulator (pressurised sphere) may lose its gas charge and need to be replaced. These are available for around £100.

After about 200,000km it's likely that the pump will need replacing - I will probably change just the brushes, though I doubt I will still have the car by then. Though, my 156 Selespeed had 261,000km on the clock - three years trouble-free, remember

I doubt there will be any other problem other than those... and for those feeling smug about their choice of a manual gearbox instead, well good on you but one day you MIGHT need new gear lever cables, a new clutch pedal, a new clutch, driveshaft seals, input shaft bearing... who really knows what the future holds - will we be allowed to drive petrol-powered cars anyway?

Meanwhile, a friend keeps buying champagne-beige-coloured Volvo XC70s. He's on the fourth one now. He had the Japanese auto transmission rebuilt on the first one, and it failed again six months later, so he bought another car, on which the transmission lasted nine months, and a third, which lasted a year (all three failed before 120,000km).

I really don't think the Dualogic is any less reliable than some of the other options out there - Volvo? who would have thought?! - but I do agree that maybe the manual transmission is a cheaper and safer bet if you're buying second-hand and don't mind driving a manual (not an option for many people these days!)

-Alex

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alexGS said:

I own a third or fourth-hand 2008 Dualogic 1.4 and I'm not worried - it's an excellent system compared to the original Alfa 156 Selespeed of ten years earlier - they were problematic and no-one knew how to fix them, I did and had several years trouble-free. The 500's system is much smoother and better coordinated than the earlier design, even when the earlier design was working properly.

Hooking up MultiECUScan shows me that everything is working correctly and will, I expect, give advance warning of any failures. For example, checking the system pressure shows whether the pump and accumulator are working correctly or are 'marginal'.

I know that at some point around 120,000km I shall need to put a new clutch (in my 500), maybe a little sooner (15,000km sooner?) than for a regular manual gearbox, but it will be about the same job to do.

I also know that at some point it might spring a leak and require regular top-ups until I either fix the leak or replace the actuator. That was a cause of two failures I know about.

Based on experience of the earlier design, when it's ten years old, the accumulator (pressurised sphere) may lose its gas charge and need to be replaced. These are available for around £100.

After about 200,000km it's likely that the pump will need replacing - I will probably change just the brushes, though I doubt I will still have the car by then. Though, my 156 Selespeed had 261,000km on the clock - three years trouble-free, remember

I doubt there will be any other problem other than those... and for those feeling smug about their choice of a manual gearbox instead, well good on you but one day you MIGHT need new gear lever cables, a new clutch pedal, a new clutch, driveshaft seals, input shaft bearing... who really knows what the future holds - will we be allowed to drive petrol-powered cars anyway?

Meanwhile, a friend keeps buying champagne-beige-coloured Volvo XC70s. He's on the fourth one now. He had the Japanese auto transmission rebuilt on the first one, and it failed again six months later, so he bought another car, on which the transmission lasted nine months, and a third, which lasted a year (all three failed before 120,000km).

I really don't think the Dualogic is any less reliable than some of the other options out there - Volvo? who would have thought?! - but I do agree that maybe the manual transmission is a cheaper and safer bet if you're buying second-hand and don't mind driving a manual (not an option for many people these days!)

-Alex

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