Right I just need to get all this off my chest!
I picked my A500 almost two weeks ago and pretty much none of the things which where meant to have been fixed on it that where put on the order form where done, it wasn't even properly valeted!
Anyhow, after having it for a week, not really able to drive it properly due to the gear selector getting harder and harder to change gear the longer you drove it AND it shaking like an old dog having a s#!t when accelerating thru 40-60mph, I dropped it off last Monday, pointing out that they also hadn't bothered to fix the dent\scratch on the roof or the scrape on the rear of the near side skirt, and also that the passenger door handle was sticking and the tracking was way out.
So they call me on Tuesday afternoon telling me it's ready to pick up, that's quick I thought but no they have ordered the parts and wanted me to bring it back when they are in, I might have lost it a bit at this point, and they said someone would call me, 10 mins later, same guy calls back, seems he made a mistake and he shouldn't gave been told come and get (oh what is he like!) and they will keep hold of it till it's done and to keep the lovely white 500 Pop, it will be ready by the end of the week though!
Friday comes and goes, the drive shaft "spider cups" haven't arrived, great!
Sat morning, they have arrived but the service dept only works till 12 and there's 5 hours work to be done to my car (cos they've not bothered to fix the gear selector yet, thought they would do it all in one go!) This time I really did loose it................
Anyhow, the service manager calls me back, he's very sorry about all this, he's only just been told about the mess (hmmm!) and he wants to make sure that the car will be ready on Monday, he will personally go over everything that needed doing (it's been in the body shop the last few days) and they will deliver my car back to me on Monday save me driving all the way to Stoke from Manchester (prob to keep me out of the showroom! lol) He says it will be properly valeted this time (actually don't want them to as I clay barred, polished and stuck two coats of Techwax on it last weekend, but he says they have to as it's had bodywork done).
I am actually feeling like I don't really want the car anymore, I've never had anything like this when buying a car before, even new and used Vauxhalls (tbh Network Q is pretty good), this is meant to be an "Approved" used Fiat!


Vent\rant over.

Wow... What's the age and mileage of the car...?

What made you want to buy this dog

It's a 10 plate, just turned 35k, one owner, full Fiat service history, it was a really good price and I stupidly assumed all the faults with it would be sorted before I picked it up, like all the prev used I've bought from dealers. Oh well you live and learn, I'm sure it will be fine once it's fixed, both issues with it I've seen reported by other owners online soooo in theory mine won't break again and will be uber reliable from here on in..................

A really good price? Well there you go! Hope you get it sorted.

Yeah it was the cheapest one of the year\mileage at a main dealers I'd seen, prob didn't help that none of the options on it where listed in the advert, I saw them in the pics (red leather, skydome, climate) but thought maybe they weren't pics of the actual car, called them, the sales guy checked it and confirmed they where pics if the car, went to see it, the salesman had already noticed the gear selector issue and told me about it, the battery was proper knackered and the check engine light was on due to it (even after a 40 min test drive it still held no charge!) myself and the salesman assumed the shuddering was due to it being in limp mode but he said it would be sorted as well before I collected it, I pointed out the couple of bits of bodywork damage, they also went on the list, tbh I only really wanted the roof dent properly sorted, the small scrape on plastic sill trim could have touched up, I live and work in Manc and my cars always get battle scars from being parked in car parks, seems they have now done both bits of bodywork properly though, oh they changed my pick up time 3 times as well which was frustrating too!


It did come with a 12 month Fiat premiere warranty which I got bumped up to 2 years at a very reduced cost.


Now I just await to see if I will get it back tomorrow or not, have got to drive to my family's today in North Wales, would gave been nice to be in the Abarth, the lanes to their houses are great fun, but my sis-in-law got a new Corsa VXR last week so I will vent my frustrations out on it!

Breath in,Deep Deep intake of Breath! hold it,hold it,slow slow slowly let it out,there there,feel better No You did your best go round and chin him!! Feel better? You will

Hope you get it sorted.enjoy.

Thanks, I'm calmer now after a good blast around some nice North Wales A roads in the Corsa VXR, a whole lot of fun, quicker and better handling than I thought it would be, makes a lovely noise to, prob shouldn't drive a car with only 400 miles on it like that but it's leased.........

Well I've got my Abarth back at last, had to go get it myself as they couldn't deliver it until tomorrow and being in work would make it a ball ache, anyhow the scratches look to be ok (nothing a bit if clay bar and a polish wont sort!) and tbh it's like driving a different car, gear change is spot on and no shuddering at all, I'm a happy man and soooo glad to have my car back, she gave me a few pops and bangs when I was erm accelerating up to motorway speeds on the slip roads, which made me smile, hopefully some fun driving ahead in my future!