Hi there,

After a period of absence I'm now back in the world of Fiat ownership. This week I'll be taking delivery of a 'Avantgarde Bordeaux' 2016 500 Lounge, but am struggling to find a list of Fiat's supposed "1,800 changes" that were made to the facelift cars...

Aside from the obvious interior/exterior facelift, is there anything of substance that has been changed from the older model?

I suspect the "1,800" changes is marketing BS, though the reworked car looks pretty snazzy!

Yeah, I agree. While I'm not sure of the new rear-lights the redesigned grille on the Lounge certainly looks the business!

I just hope Fiat have managed to attend to the dreaded 'Rear hatch loom' issue that seems to keep rearing its ugly head around these parts...

Doubt it, although mine was ok after 45,000 miles and my friend has had no wiring problems in over 60,000 miles, so by no means are all cars affected. Same goes for the doorhandle breaking problem. Even a "common" problem might only affect 1 car in 20, but it's impossible to get figures. At least these issues aren't too expensive to fix. Other "common" problems I've read about are timing chains on VAG and BMWs, clutch failures on Ford, and others which would be far more serious once the warranty has expired.

Thought I'd post a few pictures of my 500... I've had it a few weeks and absolutely love it.

The 1.4 engine has plenty of grunt, and in combination with the leather seats and glass roof make for a genuinely pleasant drive. [emoji106]

After covering 6k miles in our 66 plate, I think it is a definite improvement . Quieter , slightly more economical and it feels, very marginally, more sprightly . No build issues either .

Tom95 said:

Thought I'd post a few pictures of my 500... I've had it a few weeks and absolutely love it.

The 1.4 engine has plenty of grunt, and in combination with the leather seats and glass roof make for a genuinely pleasant drive. [emoji106]View attachment 187204View attachment 187205

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Congrats on your choice - looks lovely I really like seeing new cars in some colour other than black, white, or silver (our 500’s black, sadly). I see the chrome mirrors have gone.

The 1.4 engine hasn’t been available in Europe for quite some time, I think.
Those look like very large wheels - 17”?

Also do you have the fixed glass roof (originally fitted to the Lounge) or the opening type? Most Lounges here in NZ seem to have received the opening type, to the detriment of headroom.

-Alex

Yeah thanks, the seat colour matches the paint as well. A little bit of an assault on the senses at first but I'm certainly warming to it... Hahaha.

The wheels are actually only 16"s. The trade off is of course the lower profile tyres effect the ride quality ever so slightly. All of the Australian Lounges get the fixed glass roof. It doesn't seem to affect headroom all that much luckily.

It's proving to be quite efficient too. I'm able to match the claimed 6.1L/100km.

Good work with the 6.1L/100, we get about the same over a 5000km average, found it very consistent.

Our wheels are 16” too but yours look bigger with that spoked design very nice. Good thing these are a nice small car to park, less risk of irreparable curb damage (being a machine cut/polished rim, by the looks). I ended up having to hand-sand and polish ours as the previous owner had ruined them. How wonderful to start with perfect wheels instead.

The fixed glass roof has been available in 500 Lounges from the beginning and as you say, doesn’t affect headroom much, if at all. Definitely the one to have. The opening type of glass roof takes a valuable couple of centimetres due to the mechanism and the reduced size of the ‘window frame’ inside the car. More of a problem for the passenger as the seat on that side is fixed height!

As for a few more of the 1800 changes... I think you have a glovebox (instead of a shelf), the American-style window switches (round, chrome edged), and you get the uConnect system similar to what we have in our Giulietta - far more useful than the original Blue&Me we have in our 500.

I wonder if your windows open/close by holding down the unlock/lock on the key? Ours don’t, the 500 was always a fairly simple little car and ours also lacks rain sensing wipers and auto headlights - maybe these have all been added to yours?

-Alex

One of those 1800 changes I noticed when I tested a Series 4 500C Lounge was the deletion of the driver's side vanity mirror fitted to both our Pop and Lounge 500C's.

I didn't go ahead with the purchase because I felt I was actually getting less for more $ compared with my Twinair-badged model, plus I couldn't get the colour combo I really desired.

I love my Twinair - I just wish people would stop asking me if it's my daughter's car!

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

I just wish people would stop asking me if it's my daughter's car!

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I often drive my wife's 500(cheaper to drive), no ones asked me if its my wife's?
It's(the 500) off to the body shop tomorrow, a guy crashed into the rear of it whilst parked at work , lets hope they deem it worth fixing ?