Is it normal for a cinquecento sporting on a P plate '97 and had only covered 47k miles to have rust on the rear inner arches? It had a hole about the size of 2 2pence pieces, a better way of seeing it was to have a look in the boot and pull the carpet up and there it was nearly all the way across the seam of the wheel well! Is this normal place for rust to occur?

Can't say for sure, but how long have you had your car, & has it ever been involved in a rear end shunt? because I would not expect a car of that age to have rusted like that. If it's had a shunt it could have been repaired cheaply, I know this doesn't make good reading but is a consideration,

Aaron.

Depends on the car and who has looked after it in the past. It might have not been well looked after.

I would get it looked at asap though before it gets worse, even more as its winter now.

HTH

David

Sorry guys, i should have made it more clearly, i was viewing it with the thought of buying it! It was very cheap, advertised as £500 but they would take £400! We did ask them if it had been in an accident, obviously they said no! But other than the rust, there was no sign of it ever having a rear ender!

The only other way it could really happen is for something to eat away at the paint, then condensation... for it to rust. This is mainly because all cinqs from 95 (iirc) were galvanised. Not many reasons how this could have happened though, get a hpi check done if youre still interested in it, but youre best bet is to walk away if youre not sure.

petes black one got rust on wheel arch iirc, fiat forgot to galvanise that bit

maybe they ran out of galvanising at the fiat factory.

I'd say it was almost certianly accicent repaired...

I've got a bit of rust there too, mines not been rear ended at all.

If it was rear ended it would've been written off, ask ghost, he knows what happens when one gets rear ended (no offence intended Alex).

Liam

Steve C said:

I'd say it was almost certianly accicent repaired...

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Yeah, my gut feeling was that it was accident repaired! But, is this a weak spot for a normal cinq? Could i expect most cinq's around that age to have rust there?

If it is, and i owned a cinq, then this is the first check id do if of course u havent done it already! Catch it early if there is an sign of rust occuring! Both in the boot and in the inner arch!

Steve

bloomfieldliam said:

I've got a bit of rust there too, mines not been rear ended at all.

If it was rear ended it would've been written off, ask ghost, he knows what happens when one gets rear ended (no offence intended Alex).

Liam

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but you have to bear in mind if it was rear ended when cinqs were new or worth more than they are at the moment anyway, then they wouldnt have been written off as they could've justified repairing them, but yeah from my experience, sadly anything more than 20mph going into back of you will probably deem the car uneconomical to repair (especially with cinqs having such a low value at the moment)

Even if it has been rear ended it doesnt matter as long as it all looks straight aand drives straight if it does and its a bargain like it sounds to be then id buy it especially if you can prove that millage to be genuine

I dont like cars with rust, especially in quite a major place like that! A blown headgasket, fine, i could be persuaded to buy a car cheaply like that, but when theres holes in the body shell, il just find a better example!

There are a few cinq sportings going for £5-800, 1 of them must have a good shell surely!