General Fiat Cinquecento as first car?

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General Fiat Cinquecento as first car?

jusxusfanatic

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Fiat Cinquecento as first car?

Do they rust at all? and need maintenance often are my main questions
 
It's fine as a first car.

But it's old and Italian, so yes it will likely have rust and will most likely need maintenance quite often.
 
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I think dac69er may be being a little pessimistic; the Cinq isn't a classic Fiat that plays to the stereotype of rusty and unreliable. It's a basic car from the 90s, an era where cars where modern enough to have ECUs, but not modern enough to have planned-obsolescence.

Rust:
Unlike older Fiat cars, the Cinq's body was galvinized, so it's less prone to rust. Ofcourse, it's still made of steel and if they do rust they tend to rust in the rear arches, but the Cinq is not of the old italian stereotype... it's just as solid as any other car if you treat it like any other car.

Maintenance:
The Cinq is due a service every 9000 miles. So it depends how much driving you're doing really. I've done 18k in the last year of owning mine, and in addition to the two services the only maintenance I've had to do is fix:
- an earth wire snapping
- a plastic pedal joint snapping
both of these cost a tenner to fix. Hardly problematic, and the old bits did well considering they were 26 years old.

First car thoughts
The cinq has heavy steering, the gearbox isn't particularly refined but you'll get used to it, the upholstery hasn't aged well (but that's subjective and can be changed). Some folk will see it as The Inbetweeners car, and whilst it's not noisy, you can hear wind noise more than a modern vehicle. If you want decent speakers you might want to fit these.

I imagine insurance is cheap, parts are too, it's a small car so it's fun to drive... a little weird at first. Not particularly safe comparatively, which is something to consider given the stats on new drivers crashing. I record about 52mpg on average (so a full tank does 350 miles for £30)
 
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there are better cars out there for a first car if you dont want to do much maintenance on it.
rust isnt a huge issue, but 90% have had welding already or require it.
this would be the same for quite a few cars of the era, but it is still something to consider.


everything is cheaply made on it as it was made to a price. therefore, things do need to be replaced more often than some cars. the bonus is bits are cheap and are mostly easy jobs to do.

insurance isnt exactly expensive, but its more than my modified, engine swapped japanese import!!!!
 
Hi.
If you ever need any help with insurance at all then please feel free to drop me a line, oh and I had 2 Fiat Cinquecento Sportings when I was younger. Loved them!
Regards,
Dan.
 
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