Just got the cinq in the garage and the first thing he said was 'Sounds like the cambelt slipped', does that sound likely? I've never heard of a cambelt slipping, only snapping and it certainly hasn't snapped.

Also, if it did snap, is the engine non-interference like Punto?

Slipping cambelt is common on high powered cars and rarely happens on stock engines, as for the belt snapping, i don´t know what engine you refer to so can´t help you there

If its a Sporting...then yes the engine is non interference. Its the same engine as is in the Punto. The 1242 is too.

The 899cc, I think is not a non-interference design. That will make some rather nice mechanical noises if the timing chain slips.

Sorry, forgot to mention, it is a sporting 1.1, I wouldn't call it high-power though, well hopefully thats all it is.

They can slip if badly worn or badly adjusted. Wear on the tensioner pulley can affect it too.