General About to buy a 1.6 diesel Cross plus
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General About to buy a 1.6 diesel Cross plus
Diesels are not the best thing to buy now unless you do very high mileage. Dirty, noisy, fuel is expensive and they are being taxed out of existence. The 1.4 multiair petrol is quiet, smooth and responsive. I would never buy another diesel.
A 2016 diesel will be on the old tax system. So cheap to tax. Diesel fuel is not particularly more expensive than petrol and does get better economy.
The 1.6 is fairly refined for a diesel, especially compared to older cars.
I don’t know of anything specifically bad or problematic about the 500x, it’s the only new car in the fiat line up I think I would buy at the moment if I were in the market.
The 1.6 is fairly refined for a diesel, especially compared to older cars.
I don’t know of anything specifically bad or problematic about the 500x, it’s the only new car in the fiat line up I think I would buy at the moment if I were in the market.
My old Stilo 1.9JTD which is the great uncle of the 1.6 is a little bit noisy at idle but pretty smooth under way and as torquey than the last petrol engine I had, which was a 1.8 T/Spark @ 144bhp, vs 115bhp for the JTD.
The oil is 128p at the moment, which compares to 124p for the benzina. The beast sips it at a real 54-56 mpg compared to petrol @ 38mpg so a tankful costs me £60 compared to £50-ish.. but lasts twice as long. It seems cheaper to run, to me.
My beast takes 7 miles to warm up, so if you regularly drive 10 miles, it'll get warm enough to not bother the DPF or whatever fandango the 1.6 has fitted. Mine has an EGR valve that became clogged with soot and oil from an overfilled breather.. but once I hosed it all out, it's been fine.
I'm not sure the 500X has many vices... so it ought to be quite a low maintenance car.
The danger is that in future the Govt might increase fuel duty. To a certain extent they can't, otherwise all the hauliers will throw a fit.. so I reckon diesels will be safe from too much persecution for a while yet.... but more councils are declaring Low Emissions cash Generation Zones (LEGZ) so if you drive into any major city or town centre every day, you might find your diesel is as welcome as someone just off the plane from Wuhan.
If you only intend to keep it a few years, you'll probably be okay.
Ralf S.
The oil is 128p at the moment, which compares to 124p for the benzina. The beast sips it at a real 54-56 mpg compared to petrol @ 38mpg so a tankful costs me £60 compared to £50-ish.. but lasts twice as long. It seems cheaper to run, to me.
My beast takes 7 miles to warm up, so if you regularly drive 10 miles, it'll get warm enough to not bother the DPF or whatever fandango the 1.6 has fitted. Mine has an EGR valve that became clogged with soot and oil from an overfilled breather.. but once I hosed it all out, it's been fine.
I'm not sure the 500X has many vices... so it ought to be quite a low maintenance car.
The danger is that in future the Govt might increase fuel duty. To a certain extent they can't, otherwise all the hauliers will throw a fit.. so I reckon diesels will be safe from too much persecution for a while yet.... but more councils are declaring Low Emissions cash Generation Zones (LEGZ) so if you drive into any major city or town centre every day, you might find your diesel is as welcome as someone just off the plane from Wuhan.
If you only intend to keep it a few years, you'll probably be okay.
Ralf S.
Which depending on the actual price per litre could be about 6% more expensive, but then about 20-30% better mpg in a diesel car.
Hi.
Read all the ownership threads on the 500x here.. looking for daft niggles.. and expensive repairs.
What are you looking to replace.. what use has that had?
With any DPF equipped diesel you need to do enough miles for effective regens.
Oggles for perspective
Charlie
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Probably a lot more often than you think..
Unless you make a regular m.way trip..
Visit rellies?..
Then its probably going to be a problem
And petrol would work faultlessly
Oggles
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We had the diesel as originally did a lot of motorway miles but after a few years this was cut back due to job change so ended up doing mostly suburban and country miles.
It was still running sweet when we traded it in at 40k miles/3.5years but I did have a decent NSL stretch on my commute for any DPF regen required.
The thing that stands out about the one you mention is it’s done a lot fewer miles for a 3.5/4yo car which suggests a runabout.
Mine only got 38mpg urban/extra urban which is exactly what the 1.0 petrol gets, so fuel costs work out cheaper for us.
Saying that, the tax on the dirty diesel was £30 where we now pay £145, so go figure!! I don’t think we do enough miles for the cheaper fuel to break even on the new tax rules.
It was still running sweet when we traded it in at 40k miles/3.5years but I did have a decent NSL stretch on my commute for any DPF regen required.
The thing that stands out about the one you mention is it’s done a lot fewer miles for a 3.5/4yo car which suggests a runabout.
Mine only got 38mpg urban/extra urban which is exactly what the 1.0 petrol gets, so fuel costs work out cheaper for us.
Saying that, the tax on the dirty diesel was £30 where we now pay £145, so go figure!! I don’t think we do enough miles for the cheaper fuel to break even on the new tax rules.
I have the 1.6 diesel Gp, i work about 500m by bike from my house and maybe 1000m by car. My general motoring is, the car sits there until I need to go somewhere other than work, but due to some Achilles surgery I have used my car shamefully to commute 4 times daily( I go home for lunch) and with a short run up the A1 every couple of weeks I never have dpf issues, touch wood. (10 miles 60mph ish in 5th as 6th means it’s about 1600rpm and my experience is is needs to be around 2000rpm, and cruise control doing the work)
I considered a 1.0 and 1.2 petrol and tested it but for the times I do long journeys I enjoy having a proper engine, and whilst I can do 50/60 mpg, with 120bhp and 30 quid tax I shall stick with it
I fully appreciate the emission issues and cost of fuel and ULEZ issues but as I’m recovering and my legs are starting to work fully, the car sits on the drive and only becomes a planet destroyer a few times a week. If I get penalised for hardly ever using my diesel financially in the future I shall probably get a 3 cylinder 24hp misery car but for now I fully recommend the 1.6 it is a great engine to be pulled along with.
I considered a 1.0 and 1.2 petrol and tested it but for the times I do long journeys I enjoy having a proper engine, and whilst I can do 50/60 mpg, with 120bhp and 30 quid tax I shall stick with it
I fully appreciate the emission issues and cost of fuel and ULEZ issues but as I’m recovering and my legs are starting to work fully, the car sits on the drive and only becomes a planet destroyer a few times a week. If I get penalised for hardly ever using my diesel financially in the future I shall probably get a 3 cylinder 24hp misery car but for now I fully recommend the 1.6 it is a great engine to be pulled along with.
The 20 mins once every couple of weeks probably isn't enough to keep the DPF clean.
The car uses a sensor to tell when the filter needs cleaning. It will try and regen when the filter reaches that point. However if you happen to miss that point then its going to be another 2 weeks of city driving before the car can properly regen. diesels can take a lot longer to warm up as they run much cooler than a petrol engine, therefore most of your 20 min run will be spent just warming the car up. realistically you need a 30 min or more run to make sure everything is warmed up before the car will regen.
It won't tell you when it needs doing it will just tell you when its doing it by a little light on the dash.
It will need doing more often on a car that does mainly town driving.
the choice would be to go on longer runs, visit a garden centre once every couple of weeks that's a good 30 - 60 mins drive away, or else maybe better to consider a petrol car.
When I do use my cars (all diesels) they are generally getting a very long run as I live in a rural location, at least 20 miles to work or about 45 mins in rush hour traffic. because of this I have never had a car perform a regen while driving (to my knowledge) as the filter never does short journeys to cause it to clog.
The car uses a sensor to tell when the filter needs cleaning. It will try and regen when the filter reaches that point. However if you happen to miss that point then its going to be another 2 weeks of city driving before the car can properly regen. diesels can take a lot longer to warm up as they run much cooler than a petrol engine, therefore most of your 20 min run will be spent just warming the car up. realistically you need a 30 min or more run to make sure everything is warmed up before the car will regen.
It won't tell you when it needs doing it will just tell you when its doing it by a little light on the dash.
It will need doing more often on a car that does mainly town driving.
the choice would be to go on longer runs, visit a garden centre once every couple of weeks that's a good 30 - 60 mins drive away, or else maybe better to consider a petrol car.
When I do use my cars (all diesels) they are generally getting a very long run as I live in a rural location, at least 20 miles to work or about 45 mins in rush hour traffic. because of this I have never had a car perform a regen while driving (to my knowledge) as the filter never does short journeys to cause it to clog.
I've had my 2.0 MJ for 4 years and nearly 50,000 miles now and I have never seen the regen light come on once yet
The light only comes when it's had 3 unfinished regens in a row
Not everytime it does a regen
Nello
Established member
Got my wife a 1.6 MJ Cross Plus 3 years ago. I'm no oil-burner lover but the price was very good on the car we bought. We have put 27k on it now and its been absolutely perfect. Yes sounds proper Diesel on startup and under 20mph but over that its fine. Its Euro 6 so £20 a year to tax. Wife does around a 25 mile round trip to work in it daily and we tend to use it now at weekends for muddy Rugby trips for our lads so it has the occasional Motorway sprint. Performance is quite surprising in Sport mode too! Only problem I had to sort was a blown headlight bulb but I managed to source a Xenon replacement from a write-off for £25. Occasionally the lights don't flash on lockup for some reason even though its set to and work again the next time but it is Italian. Honestly not a single issue other than that.
