About 18 months ago I changed my 500 Lounge Twinair (bought new in 2011) for a 500X. My wife misses it so much that she is looking at changing her Suzuki SUV for a 500C, since my 500X can serve as the larger car. We are going to look at a couple of 65 plate 1.2 Lounges at the weekend. As a long term subscriber to this forum, I'm fairly familiar with the usual 500 problems, which luckily mine didn't suffer from.

My question concerns issues specific to the convertable. I don't recall many reports of roof malfunctions, but I probably didn't pay too much attention when I didn't have one. For some reason the search function has a gremlin on my tablet at the moment.

I'm aware that the flexible boot loom problem can occur, as on the hatch.

You are correct, the roof seems pretty reliable.

There were a couple of reports of roof problems some time ago relating to broken runners but they're few and far between and can likely be put down to external causes. We have two 2013 500C's and neither has had the slightest problem with the roof - and my car's roof get used a lot, practically daily!

The boot wiring loom on mine, however, does show signs of stress, with the outer sleeving split, but no failure (so far!). When the boot's open the cabling is stretched tightly from the body across the edge of the boot lid. The other car, built some months later, has double the length of cable which is clipped to the hinge arm and not stressed at all.

No issues as far as I am aware, just make sure you keep it cleaned every few months, I use a wet vac to help and then add some waterproofing - Fabsil Is excellent and easy to brush on. I also lubricate all the rubber seals with Gummi Pfledge and add a thin coat of grease to the runners twice a year.

Be sure not to use a petroleum grease at it will devour any rubber bits over time, silicon grease is best, you can get it in diving shops as it’s used on wet suits

Thanks for the feedback folks, good to hear. We are going to look at a couple of facelifted models. These have a very similar infotainment system to my 500X. The facelift downgraded from climate control to manual aircon, but that's fine. The 1.2 won't have the pep of my old TA, but I had one as a courtesy car when my 500X was serviced and the performance was still perfectly acceptable.

I'll let you all know what transpires.

TrevC said:

The facelift downgraded from climate control to manual aircon, but that's fine.

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If you're making use of the roof down then it won't matter, you'll either turn the heating/cooling off all together, or if its really hot like it has been here the last few weeks now, Turn the aircon on full blast just to try and cool off (with or without the roof down)

TrevC said:

The facelift downgraded from climate control to manual aircon, but that's fine. The 1.2 won't have the pep of my old TA, but I had one as a courtesy car when my 500X was serviced and the performance was still perfectly acceptable.

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One less thing to go wrong - lol...

Maybe for the same price you could have a 2014 Abarth 500C like mine! I’m guessing 65-plate is 2016. The Abarth just seems more ‘serious’ and settled, quite apart from extra performance.

-Alex

Just don't get into an accident and have to wait months for glue to refit the roof.

We'll try not to have a crash!
Alex, 65 plate is September 15 to March 16, and these are advertised as 2015 cars.
An Abarth would be great, but we wanted something a bit newer than her present car which is May 2014.

Well, we've done the deed and my better half should receive her Glam Coral 65 plate 500C next week. The buying experience from Lyons Farm Cars near Horsham was very relaxed. It's certainly not a shiny dealership, but the people were pleasant to deal with, not at all pushy. They have about 70 500s for sale, and sold 2 others while we were there. We also got a top part-ex price for her Suzuki.

The Fiat warranty runs until mid-September, and we have been offered a 3-year RAC Platinum warranty for just under £300. This seems a bargain, but having read the booklet there are so many exclusions that we probably won't bother - our previous 500 ran for 6 years with only a minor coolant leak fault that was fixed for less than £100. If anyone has experience of claiming on an RAC warranty I would be interested - there is lots of bad feedback online.

Enjoy. Major service bits under £70, keep air con on, don't play with the roof when it's middle of winter and am sure it'll be fine.

Thanks Al. I've left the a/c on in all our cars for years, and none of them have needed regassing.
Presumably your advice on not using the roof when it's cold is because ice could freeze the runners etc?

I don't agree with keeping air con on. It saps some engine power, effects mpg and most nowadays are reliable enough to last year's before regassing

lsgraham_uk said:

I don't agree with keeping air con on. It saps some engine power, effects mpg and most nowadays are reliable enough to last year's before regassing

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I'd agree with all but the last part; it's advisable to run the system for 15 minutes or so about once a week to keep the seals from drying out.

The best advice I can give is to use it when it's needed (it also makes a great dehumidifier on damp winter days), but otherwise leave it switched off.

As always, there will be others with different views.

Anyone seriously concerned that lack of use might lead to A/C failure would never buy a secondhand car, since many will sit on the lot unsold for months at a time.

Well, as I've never had a gas leak (!) and can't detect any difference in economy I'll continue to leave the a/c on permanently. Needless to say I checked it blew nice and cold on the test drive.

Quick update - we picked up the car on Tuesday, and are very pleased with it, in fact I can't remember my wife being so enthusiastic about any other car we've had. We had a small hiccup as we discovered the next day that a small length of stitching has come adrift on the passenger seat. We kicked ourselves for not spotting it when we looked at it, and phoned the selling dealer. He apologised profusely and has arranged for us to take it in next week when an upholsterer will fix it. Good experience from them so far.

Was it a fiat dealer or a third party dealer?

jrkitching said:

I'd agree with all but the last part; it's advisable to run the system for 15 minutes or so about once a week to keep the seals from drying out.

The best advice I can give is to use it when it's needed (it also makes a great dehumidifier on damp winter days), but otherwise leave it switched off.

As always, there will be others with different views.

Anyone seriously concerned that lack of use might lead to A/C failure would never buy a secondhand car, since many will sit on the lot unsold for months at a time.

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Sorry I wasn't clear, I use it same as you - dehumidify in winter and first 15minutes or so of driving on a hot day.

I wouldn't bother getting a wind stop if you're ever tempted, they don't make enough difference to be worth the cost.

Enjoy the car, then in a year nor two upgrade to an abarth 500c for the added noise bonus!