problem, after problem with my Fiat Stilo,poor finish, poor paint, poor textile, poor fitting, poor performance, poor servicing, poor repairs, bad attitude, a don't give a damn attitude from members of Arnold Clark.

My experience of Arnold Clark/Fiat has not been a happy one and it still drags on.............

That be Arnold Clark then

BUT not all of us have problems with the dealerships. I am feeling for you.

So what exactly has gone wrong? And what model do you have?

To be perfectly honest just about everything that could, a copy of the worksheets for jobs already done goes to 30 pages +. In the middle of a case, but never will buy FIAT again or buy from Arnold SHARK, sorry Clark.

aww get another fiat just not from Arnold Clark. do a search of the forum the have a very bad rep

Edit 27/06/07 we have had lots of good arnie clark reports since this thread was made, get the odd up happy customer post up, but over all we see a big improvement in service

Sorry to hear it's been a bad experience for you mate, my Stilo was good, it was reliable and fast, fairly well made for the money and looked rather spiffing. But I was let down by a series of very unfurtunate events, which led me to back out of the ownership, basically my car was damaged 95% of the times it was at the dealers, I then got them to repair it and it was damaged again, and again........

Good luck with the case.

I once eat a bad apple from Tesco. I'll never eat another apple or buy a product from Tesco again.



Best not to judge every Fiat on the experience you had from one from a dealer which is renound as being a rubbish dealer.

Yeh we can all use and say similar statements..........It's not 100% Arnold Shark, the car is a bag of nails, when you've paid the price I have for the car you expect a car to have a value/quality commensurate to the price paid. This one is not.

Venting your frustration here will of course receive sympathetic but biased responses.

But you reach a point where enough is enough and you'll never turn back - I had a similar experience with Renault many years ago and even now I love the looks and packaging but the bargepole remains.

After years of German and Japanese motoring I'm now on my second Fiat, but not without a certain amount of paranoia regarding potential problems and low expectations of the dealer involved. Whether these turn out to be unfounded remains to be seen. So why did I buy? Value for money and bucking the trend. In the case of my Coupe - nothing comes close without another £10k in my pocket. On the Punto, it's fair performance and nearly new for several thousand less than a comparable VAG model, which contrary to popular opinion can give just as many problems.

I hope that your next motoring purchase turns out to be a hassle-free one. Do as much research as you can and look for owner's forums like this one - the're always a good sourch of user-based info without the sales-speak and I've found them invaluable.

Hellcat said:

I once eat a bad apple from Tesco. I'll never eat another apple or buy a product from Tesco again.

Click to expand...

LOL I like that it's so true,however as far as Arnies is concerned they consistently have technicians & dealers in the top Fiat distinction leagues.Being the second largest dealership in the UK and the huge investment they put into training must mean they are doing something right for the customer?

Yep agree with the contrary to popular belief point, my parents had VWs and they were reliable in the early 80s, through to the early 90s and then the later models just stank frankly. I also had a VW Polo, R reg, and it had shocking problems with vibration from the engine bay, then HT leads going within a few thousand miles from new, then the exhaust falling apart at 18,000 miles. The grass is always greener on the other side, except of course it isn't.

Hi Thread,

Ive had my s reg fiat seicento for 3 years now, i bought it as a used car and it has only done 77,000 and i have had the same problem...The car is like a whole new rebuild..it has had:

new fuel tank - £250
2 new clutch cables - £120
Radiator - £200
2 new exhausts £250
Head gasket - £350
new heater system - £110

to add to this:

the rear windscreen wiper hasnt worked for 2 years
indicators are crap
green light to tell me lights are on doesnt work

How on earth can a car have this many problems in the 50'000 miles that i have had it!!!

Im with you never buy a Fiat

nutty_nomi

I brought a Fiat Idea for my Misses and my Sister brought a VW Polo. Experience so far. Fiat---- Works well, handles well, Does not gulp fuel and generally a pleasure to own.

VW--- Faulty door seals, poor dealer service, Engine Control Unit headaches etc!!!!

Although you cannot move away from the fact that your Fiat has done your head in. VW will gladly take more cash and offer even less. Expectation vs Delivery! So to conclude. All manufacturers make duff cars. Its how the dealer clears the mess up that makes the difference. PS Always take a maintenance contract. Far less stress!!!!!

Every car manufacturer will have a dodgy car go off the assembly line. It's one of those things. Thing is, people only moan about the bad things that happen. I'd hazard a guess that 10% of the people on this forum have regular problems with ther car, but love it all the same.

But like I said, you only hear about the problems. Very rarely would you get someone start a thread saying how their car is running fine and has had no problems.

nutty_nomi21 said:

new fuel tank - £250

Click to expand...

This was a recall so you didnt have to pay for it.

nutty_nomi21 said:

2 new clutch cables - £120
Radiator - £200
2 new exhausts £250
Head gasket - £350
new heater system - £110

Click to expand...

Exhaust/cables/radiators dont last forever no matter what car you have.What do you mean by 'new heater system'?

nutty_nomi21 said:

to add to this:

the rear windscreen wiper hasnt worked for 2 years
indicators are crap
green light to tell me lights are on doesnt work

Click to expand...

Not exactly much is it,you car is what 7/8 years old? not going to be like new is,get a manual & fix it yourself!

nutty_nomi21 said:

Im with you never buy a Fiat

Click to expand...

When you selling it then?

lordgeezer...totally right,VW have had(still are!)having loads of problems...just seems Fiat are the butt of alot of realibility jokes which isn't fair,more so these days.

helpimonfire...exactly,hundreds of Fiat customers leave the garage totally happy everyday...would be nice(some members here do I will admit)if they came on here to compliment the garage,but hey everyone is a expert aint they

nutty_nomi21 said:

Hi Thread,

Ive had my s reg fiat seicento for 3 years now, i bought it as a used car and it has only done 77,000 and i have had the same problem...The car is like a whole new rebuild

.....Im with you never buy a Fiat

nutty_nomi

Click to expand...

An S reg would make it approx. 8 years old and 77k miles would mean you've effectively driven round the world 3 times! A seicento is a budget city car made to a low price. Things go wrong on cars and Fiat is no different from any other make. Spend £25k on a new BMW keep it for 8 years and see how that fairs then if you don't want to buy another Fiat

lmao look at our cinq here it's a pain in the arse, and I've spent alot of time fixing it. Most people would look at the rust in those pics and chuck it on a scrap heap. I would much rather fix it, make a loss and have somebody else get a few years of fun out of it! Everytime I look at it sat on the drive it makes me upset, and I cant even drive!!!!!!! Em wants to keep it though lol.

Her current car is an '82 golf 16v gti, and it's fricking fantastic. But last week I replaced the headgasket, and it too has some rust issues. It's also running like a bag of poo due to the crude mechanical fuel injection needing a set up. But again, I love it to bits.

I personally wouldn't buy a brand new car, as I expect issues to arise. I would rather buy a 2 year old car thats had the teething problems Ironed out!!

nutty_nomi21, you do realise that you can see the rear wiper mechanism when you lift the boot? Have you checked that the cable is attached? Or that the wire on the connector has a signal going to it? Try posting in the cento section and I gaurentee that if you cant find the fualt we have someone who can help you. Possibly even come round and help!!!!!! You cant rant about how crap your car is after only a couple of posts!!!!! Ask for help thats why this forum exists, I'd be screwed without it, Dunc's uno turbo restoration has single handedly showed me how to stitch weld (I could weld allready but it showed me what to do...) and I often have had a problem solved in mere seconds. I post, turn my back and 30 seconds later when I refresh I have 15 replies lmao!!

The moral is....

If you buy new, expect hassle. Just because a car is brand new does NOT mean that it is indestructable! Thats what recalls are for.

Jon.

Well I've had my Tipo 3 years... its a 1992 car and I'm the 7th owner.

The problems I've had are minimal, The problem I've currently got is wear on a frictional component the other problems are things wnakers did to my car in an attempt to help and they really didn't

Apart from that its been a great car and very reliable, taken me to night clubs nearly 200 miles away.. then back again.. sometimes to the club and literally turn around as someone got rejected on the door.

The only reason I don't think I'm buying another fiat is because the next car I want is brand new and will cost £20,000 and if I'm going to spend that much on a motor then it should be something I really want and there is no fiat at the mo I'm really feeling.

That doesn't mean Fiats are not good, it just means they have nothing for my tastes at the mo, you never know, by the time I organise this 20G it might be a Fiat I spend it on

There will always be that bastard car from every manufacturer you wish would blow up overnight and you could just claim the insurance from, the majority of them probably run great, sounds to me like the guys complaining about reliability and faults were just unlucky.

well all things will fail with time,some more than others due to sod's law thou most of the time its down to money-cost cutting etc.
Why buy from the dealer then take it back?why not use a vat reg'd garage?.

we'll to those who want to go off on about how unrealiable their car is sell it to some mug who wont see it coming and try a spot of scummy modern public transport for a 6 or more months then buy some super relic like a bedford bank robbin van,Borin german thingy,maybe a austin or better still a wife beater special-ESCORT XR3????
Hell wot ever may be lurkin in the shadows of death then come back to the stairs where the light shines from the pearly gates of FIATism AMEN!eace:

I think these 2 people have come on here, slagged off Fiat and now will never be seen again, apart from broken down at the roadside in some other brands heap one would hope

2 people?

Thing is other readers (guests) will read posts like this & it will put them off Fiats.Course they aint perfect (hey even Rolls royces have know problem areas!)
but dont deserve the reputation they have...not my place to say this but posts like this should be deleted as Fiat are having a hard enough job getting the trust of customers (slowly but surely succeding) as it is.After all search on any search engine & the Fiat forum always comes up quickly