Hi guys, I'm a neewbie and would like some advice if its OK?

I currently have a Punto Sporting Speedgear and its going in a couple of months time for something ...else.
I've been looking at Doblos over the past few weeks ( harder than you may think, I have at least 5 FIAT franchises within 45mins drive and I've so far seen 1 in the flesh, it was in for a service... ! ).

From FIATS site and the brochures I think a 1.9JTD Dynamic would be good (the Citroen and Peugeot I had also looked at didn't come with standard air-conditioning which for 'vans' with big glass areas must be fun in the summer). From your experience are they as tough as they look? I intend holding on to it indefinately using it as daily transport and for lugging kayaks about at the weekend, I'd be happy to service it myself after the warranty has expired and it appears to be quite straight forward. So any views would be welcome.

Thanks again guys,
Alex

I had a 1.9JTD Doblo ELX for three years and have recently bought another one, a 1.9 JTD Dynamic. I've used it for carrying everything from paving stones to six bags of golf equipment all of them on trolleys. I've had many new cars in my time and this is the first time I've changed a car for the same type as I've already owned.
My wife and daughter and I went to France and managed to get all our luggage under the rear cover behind the rear seat, we covered 1800 miles with no problem, there seemed to be a lot of them in France. Apart from niggling faults I've nothing to complain about in the vehicle.
The only compaint I do have is the very expensive cost of servicing charged by my garage in Carlisle, County Motors, I don't know if it's just the or it's the same everwhere?
If you aren't bothered about the looks the Doblo is a great car, easily the best and most practical I've owned. At 43 miles to the gallon in town average spee 22mph you can't complain.

Thanks for the response.

Unlike some of the other vehicles I'd considered the Doblo appears to do 'exactly what it says on the tin' - which is what I guess is its appeal?

A work colleague mentioned that his father is running a 1.9 JTD Active as a Taxi, has been for about 8 months now, he's impressed in particular with its ability to still produce 'oomph' even with a good sized load aboard as well as its economy.

Funny you should mention France. I've used my current Punto, plus a Mk1 before that and a Cinqucento before that to holiday there, so I would expect the Doblo to excel on that sort of trip.

Again, thanks for your response, it's greatly appreciated!

Alex

Hallo, I am from The Netherland, and I hope I'am excused fore mistakes in the lanquits.
I have had booth types of the Fiat Doblo 1.9 jtd van.
The types are the model with 100 hp end the 105 hp.
Booth of them ware very good cars and I drive them prived.
I drove them on my holliday with a caravan and that was going fine.
The Doblo drove with 1 litre of diesel 17.5 till 20.0 km without caravan and with 11.0 till 14.5 km.
So I hope you kann make a good choise.

Pandavriend (NL)

Thank You, Pandavriend.

Towing a trailer with kayak/canoes will be one of my needs.

A 1.9JTD Dynamic is my choice.

Alex

Thank you, greats from holland.
Andoy your doblo its a good choose

Pandavriend

I think you've made a good choice. If you are carrying anything in the space behind the back seats you can buy a Fiat boot mat to protect the carpet. it's very nice has a ridge around the outsidet to keep everything in place but as with all Fiat goodies it's expensive, or you can get a trailer cover from Machine Mart for about a fiver that will fit if you fold it in half and you can use it outside the car ie. if you ever feel inclined to sit on wet grass etc? Best of luck when you get the car.

We have owned our Doblo 1.9 JTD ELX estate for over two years (it was 6 months old when we bought it). It doesn't get a mechanical beating, but it does get used by a young family. So far NOTHING has fallen off, torn , come loose or worn in the interior. The plastics show a little light scratching. It has performed flawlessly on the road, the only problem being heavy front tyre wear along one edge. ( But they are not expensive tyres). There are a few rattles, but this may be because of all our rubbish inside and in the cubbyholes. The engine is a bit diesely on startup/ around town but not intrusive, and it cruises quietly. (Except when you accelerate hard which gives a pleasing ROOOAAAR). Performance is more than adequate, and it actually cruises even better at 90mph + than at 70mph (as I found out by accident one day - honest!). The handling is good; it is easy to manoeuvre. My wife loves it; my Mini Cooper driving boss bought one on my recommendation and enjoys driving it and his wife thinks it is the best car she's owned. Her father then bought one... Fuel consumption is around 50mpg (mixed commuting) with 700 miles plus range.

So if you don't care how it looks (you grow to love it) it should suit you. Owners seem very happy!

We also have a jtd 1.9 the performance is excellent! its one of the best cars on the road. we get as much as 60 mpg with ours! it will sit at 95 all day and power in reserve. My only complaint would be that it has loads of pep in first and second but then the power flattens off till your in 4th and 5th.

Seriously get one! you will not regret it! check out mine in my photo gallery.

My 3 yr old doblo takes some beating. It's nearly covered 120,000 miles on arduous emergency response work as guess what? A glaziers van, fully equipped and always well loaded. Apart from my previous posts regarding silly little things going wrong over the years I have to say you have a job to beat it. The reason I post this tonight is that we have just had a head-on accident with another vehicle. Both vehicles are total write-offs, all parties escaped with only minor injuries. The impact must have been a combined 50mph plus at the time, but the fact its so strongly built, the airbay deployed and the driver escaped. Although we're in the market place for a new van, to run alongside our latest addition a new ducato JTD, it has to be another doblo... Go ahead and buy one, your enjoy it like we have.

Hi Everyone!

First of all I'd like to thank everyone for your great, and detailed responses. I'd also like to apologise for not responding sooner as I was on 'nights' and had a busy time over Christmas and the New Year.

Secondly... having had a good look at the responses (and just about anywhere else I could find a review or magazine test) I went to Reg Vardy's in Glasgow today and ordered a nice new Capri blue 1.9 jtd Active!

FIAT have just begun a '£1,000 off all models in the Doblo range' so I couldn't resist seeing what else I could get off the price; I was happy with the price they could up with so signed on the dotted line after 30 minutes of 'thinking about it'.

The Doblo finally got the vote after I'd test driven a Citroen Berlingo last week. It had 130 miles on the odometer but the interior creaked like a ten year old vehicle! The Doblo on the other hand, though described by a work colleague as hideous, handled far better than it has any right to, had amazing pulling power and was so quiet out on the motorway compared to the Berlingo & Kangoo (how DO they managed it with a vehicle that shape???).

Thanks again everyone! I KNOW to expect problems with it when I finally get it ( it'll be my fourth Fiat after all... ) but I think the positives will more than out-weigh the negatives.

All I need to do now is get a good price for the installation of a Webasto auxiliary heater for next winter...

Alex W.

Regarding my previous message about my crashed Doblo. We've done it and taken delivery of another brand new one.

Here's to the next 120,000 miles throughout Wiltshire...

Hello All

I have test driven a Doblo and think that it is excellent value for money and would fit my requirements, especially the drivers seat which has the same amount of adjustment as my 10 year old Nissan Primera Estate. However, having driven 167000 miles in the Nissan with the only non-service parts being a new fuel pump, alternator, and starter motor I am not confident that I can expect the same reliabilty from a FIAT. Their reputation for dubious build quality and less than adequate dealers is making me think twice about spending my hard earned cash on a Doblo. I will test drive a Doblo again and will let you know if I decide to take the plunge but their reputation is probably too big a hurdle to overcome.

All the Best

David

Most modern day Fiats will out live their owners if maintained by the right personel. Personally I'd get it serviced by the main dealer for the first 3 yrs while under warranty and then take it to a local fiat/lancia/alfa specialist after this. Thats what i've done with my fiats and touch wood, alls good.

Most main dealers are poor, but i wouldn't let that make your decision. Grin and bare it for the first 3 yrs as any problems they will have to pay, for then just find a specialist.

Good Luck with your choice.

Yeah, as I mentioned earlier this will by my fourth FIAT, so you begin to get a feel of how the warranty works

I'd be looking to the main dealer for the first three years of servicing and then it would be a mixture of servicing the obvious there-after & using an independent for the more 'exotic' problems...

I haven't really seen any obvious competition other than the Citroen/Peugeot and Renault; the Ford Tourneo Connect being available at a significantly higher cost. I have had it highly recommended by more than one taxi driver, not all of which actually HAD/HAVE one at the time so I hope that would be a good omen?

Alex

Hello everyone

Just to let you know that I have now had another test drive of a 1.3 Multijet diesel Doblo and am still impressed by the vehicle. The 1.3 engine seems to provide adequate performance and is a shade quieter that the 1.9JTD. My local FIAT dealer even let me have the car for the weekend so that I could see how I got on with it using it as my own car. A pity more dealers aren't as obliging when you want to test drive a car.

I have a couple of questions which I hope you lot might be able to shed some light on. The first concerns the oil consumption, the manual states that the maximum oil consumption is 400gms per 1000kms, now this sounds like a lot to me and is probably FIAT being over cautious. Does anyone know how much oil I can expect to put into the engine between services? I can't see the point of getting 50mpg if you have to top up the oil every 1000 miles or so.

Secondly, does anyone know how the 1.3 engine performs with a full load. I have only been able to drive it with two people on board and wonder how it would perform with four people and some luggage on board.

I look forward to hearing from you Doblo fans and it is looking more likely that a Doblo will be my next car.

Big car + small engine= greater work done, so quicker wear & less fuel economy???
Go for the 1.9JTD, a very relaxed and capable unit with excellant fuel returns and plenty of torque when needed.
Fully laden uphill performance has to be experianced to be belived!!
Mine has 58Kmiles and has not used 1 drop of oil between services.
Cheers John.

Having only had petrol engined cars in the 0.6 to 1.4 litre area I would say that power is not everything. The combination of power & torque is quite amazing in the 1.9.
Since taking delivery I've had it two up with about 160kg in the back and it EFFORTLESSLY accelerates up hill with a pleasing roar. I thought long and hard about taking the 1.3 (money being a big concern) but I had the impression that it seemed as though it was working at '90%' all the time to keep up with other traffic on the type of roads I'll be using. The 1.9 may be noisier but on the move it's fine and for want of a better way of putting it, will easily do the same but at '50%' if you catch my drift? I just feel that fully laden, at 70, on the motorway it will have that extra 50% spare to play with where as the 1.3 wouldn't have much left.

Would it be too easy to class the 1.3 as more of a town car ?

Alex

I would agree that it does depend to a large extent on how you intend to use the vehicle. We have a Doblo family (seven seater) with the 1.3 multijet. Most of the time I am driving one up around town with an average speed of less than 20mph and do not need a large engine. Instead, we benefit from the lower cost, smoother running and improved urban MPG that the multijet offers.

With all the family aboard (2 adults + 3 Kids + luggage) the 1.3 multijet is still more than adequate, however, I can fully appreciate that on the open road the 1.9JTD with more UMPH would be a more satisfying vehicle to drive.

The 1.3 multijet would probably be OK 95% of the time, but carrying 7 people it might struggle slightly especially on an incline.
Forget about the engine size & look at the bhp & torque it has to offer, not much more than the non turbo 1.9 or the 1.2 petrol.