Hi
I have to say that Priory Fiat in Manchester have been quite helpful considering the amount of times we have been in there, but they do not have a clue about the car.

Its all down to training. I believe the staff r not being trained correctly

My husband went in and was actually telling the staff what they needed to know. There reply was "howcome u know so much about this car"??. My husband replied " because i've done my homework", and nobody can help me, so I have to find these things out for myself.

Dealers r definately letting this car down big time.
Also r car was in for its 12mth service, a week later, we had to take it back as the oil cover underneath was flapping. They had failed to tighten it properly, emmmm £165!!!!

Bev
metalic scilla red stilo abarth

The handling of the fuel tank recall for cinquecentos was an embarrasment too. Allegedly, owners were supposed to be contacted to arrange the work, in reality most owners weren't. Many people are now finding that no effort was made to track down owners, only those whose cars were regularly serviced at Fiat dealers seem to have been guaranteed the work. Allegedly, this recall is now closed. Tell me - How on earth can you close a safety recall?

I rang them to ask if mine needed it, was first told 'if it does, we'll contact you' Surprise surprise, no phone call.

Second, I was told 'sorry, we can't check your car on the database because that computer isn't switched on at the moment' -?!?! still no returned call.

Third time, I actually spoke to someone who checked up and found out mine hadn't been done. Was told fuel tanks were on 6 weeks back order and anyway 'they hadn't seen a rusty one yet' - were they trying to get me to say 'ah well, it doesn't matter then'?

Fourth call, many weeks later, they finally arranged to book the car in for replacing the tank. Did the work, but failed to ring to say it was complete, also left the car a sight dirtier than when it went in - blobs of black grease on the inside of the driver's side window, gearknob and steering wheel.

Fiat's cars are good, entertaining machines with spirit, if a little fragile - a world apart from sterile Micras etc. though. - but the dealer support seems to be insufficient.

Pete.
Cinq sporting 1242cc
Cinqs&Seis Yahoo group
Clubcento

www.caledonia-motors.co.uk/Preston are totally useless! my daughter made an appointment to purchase a new punto (yes her heart was set on one!). she travelled miles to the dealership only to be told that he was to busy to deal with her because someone else was buying a more expensive fiat!! they didnt even offer her a cup of tea!! every time u ring for info u just get ?????! [!]

http://www.yamahaforums.co.uk/

THe secret to Fiat ownership

1.) Never buy one brand new. Its just stupid.
2.) Always buy just outside of warranty.
3.) Never take it back to Fiat -EVER
4.) Find a good independant garage
5.) EXPECT it to go wrong, then it invariablly will not

Then enjoy.

Mook

Ah yes but that whats gives Italian cars there character

It were proper Bo i tell thee!!​

I would agree with the majority of the postings - the dealer we use (Thames Slough)(my wife has a Punto Sporting, I have a Stilo MW Dynamic) is fine up to and including the sale, but after sales service is poor to say the least. The day after I picked the Stilo up, the roof rail trim fell off. 2 months later it was finally replaced. It fell off again ( I found it this time) due to the fact that the broken clip which caused the first one to come off hadn't been replaced. This time, they had to replace the entire roof rail - just for one clip. The boot lock fault which I reported the day after delivery has just been sorted - 6 months later, and having asked the garage to phone me when it was ready, they didn't bother so I ended up racing there to catch them before closing time. To their credit, service reception waited for me. It's not all bad - the Stilo was broken into a few weeks back, entry gained via the opening tailgate window. Autoglass had to get the part from this dealer, which wasn't in stock. The parts and service managers got involved and managed to get the glass to Autoglass 2 days before we went on holiday in the car, and also managed to get a new key sorted out at the same time. Sadly it seems that the customer service only gets good when the you involve or complain to the management - not the way to go, Fiat dealers! Love the car, but dread having to take it to the dealer.

Stilo 1.9JTD Multiwagon 2003

my local is an arnold clark in dunfermline and to be fair they are good, dont know about service cost cos i do all that myself but i couldnt get into gear, the mechanic gave me his advise that it was a release bearing and that id be cheaper in the long run to buy a complete clutch and not to get them to fit it, speakin to the part dept, he offered me a reconditioned clutch for a bargain of £60 with a years warrenty as long as i returned my old knackered clutch to him(it would hav gone in the bin). at the end of the day its all down to the individual who u speak to, obviously its easier to get a job for fiat than mcd's in sum dealerships! ah well, thumbs up dunfermline fiat (arnold clark)

andy

It dont matter if u win by an inch or a mile ... winnings winning!

<blockquote id="quote"> face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Donz
i agree with matt(centoevo), it isn't fiat itself that lets the brand down it is the dealerships. and in scotland we only have the choice of arnold clark dealerships for fiat, who are especially bad.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
(better late then never)
Seems to be a universal thing...same here in Finland
Customer service isn't something they can take credit for..
whenever I used to rang the dealership asking for all kinds of info conserning tuning my Punto it always practically turned into a fight coz they just would tell eventhough they obviously had the information [}]

________________________

Italiana

Ive only had to approach my dealership once, to have my brake pipes checked; product recall on P reg's. When i took it along i knew it needed a new petrol filter cos it was leaking, when i went to collect it 4 hours later they told me they had noticed a couple of problems, they told me the list of which the petrol leak was not one of them. When i told them of it they looked quite sheepish cos i had noticed nd they hadn't. 4 weeks later and im still waiting for the brake pipes as well.

As I mentioned in another post. I was quoted two different prices for a rear hub assembly for a Fiat cinquecento at my local dealer, Benfield Fiat in Newcastle. £61+VAT and £65+VAT a week later. And much higher than the £18.54+VAT which I had to pay from an independant fiat specialist.

Was the wife's but its mine now!!
Lowered 40mm: Its a go-kart!!!

[8D]i've had my cinq sporting for about a year now, only bought it to advertise my business (window tinting) but i've had so much fun driving it,anyway i agree fiat parts dep let us down bad! i have to use arnold clark in kirkcaldy,very slow,not much knowledge! i needed a speedo cable,they asked which one i needed 1 or 2 piece,the one i removed was a 1 piece so i ordered a 1 piece! turns out previous owner had used another fiat cable (maybe punto/brava?) so i really needed a 2 piece,they wouldn't exchange my 1 piece for a two (and the cable was still sealed in the bag!) had to go to local breakers as it was a saturday afternoon and the car had to be fixed! so i still have a 1 piece lying doin nothing! so much for customer relations! ps i'm new here so hi to everyone!!!!

Welcome to the forum fella.

That's appalling service from Fiat - if they were unsure they should have taken your number for spares from the vin plate and found the correct one from their cd's.[!]

Pete.
Cinq sporting 1242cc
Cinqs&Seis Yahoo group
Clubcento

Message to Boywonder, did you ever send off any posts to the guys at FIAT then? What sort of response did you get? How about an update? How about posting their address for us all to write to them?

The 2 piece cable has been replaced by a one piece cable as far as i know !!!!!!!!!!!!! Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree, never take your car to Fiat to be fixed and if you want parts look them up on the parts CD yourself and just give them the numbers.


www.puntoforum.co.uk

Evil-Punto AKA Evilution.

*hahhahahaha*
Sorry I'm laughing already just from the thought so I have to share this with you folks
I used to have Punto 55 which I had tuned into a Sporting look-a-like especially the dials where from Sporting.
Anyhow I had some problems with my Punto and took it to Delta-Auto which is the biggest/main Fiat dealership in Finland.
Since the 55 and Sporting dials differ so that in 55 you only have the orange light letting you know that the motor is getting too hot and in Sporting there is a ** (<-- dunno the word but look at the pic below) which I had made out of a match. So the repair guy is looking and looking at the dials and then he gets a heureka and says why isn't that *** (<-- still dunno the word) moving eventhough the machines are showing the the motor is overheating !?
I took and deep breath and said to him if it was I'd be very worried since it's only a match !!! You'd think they'd be the ones to know what a 55 has and doesn't have !



PS. The sad thing is that this is where the trouble started and about 3 months later the engine blew up thanks to Delta-Auto's mess-up [V] *long story*

I have another good story about how they used to test me since I was a woman..but I'll save it for later.

**
Italiana

That's totally rotten! Made me laugh for the first time in days!

Tell us the other story now go on go on go on! [8D]

Cinq owner, Punto on the way!

96 N Cinqo Sporting
Rosso Sporting Red
57k

Are you shure ?
Well okey...
The oil signal light was on all the time eventhough there was enough oil etc and I knew it was just because the detector was broken but I hadn't bothered to change it.
So I went to Delta-Auto again about some other thing and like always they sent me to the cafeteria to wait and so I did.
When I came back about ½ hour later the mechanic took a wise-ass attitude and asked if I knew that oils needed refilling.
I told him it was just the detector that was broken and that he need not bother about it.
He replied "Oh yeah, I noticed the detector was broken and yeah the oils are just fine".
What is that !? [!]

**
Italiana

I hope you laughed and pointed at him and made him feel like the idiot he is!!!

Cinq owner, Punto on the way!

96 N Cinqo Sporting
Rosso Sporting Red
57k

Judging from all of the bad experiences we've had from the FIAT dealerships, from salesmen to greasemonkeys do you think it's a pre-requisite in the Fiat application form for employment.

It must say "essential to this post is that you are completely brain dead, thick, unskilled rude and couldn't give a toss about our customers"


Are we in agreement? [}][}][}]