Just bought a brand new Fiat Doblo 1.9 diesel, but twenty miles down the road, we discovered the reverse was unobtainable. Fiat dealer(s) all implied finding the problem would be time consuming and involve dismantling the gearbox, and in consequence due to a busy schedule we had to drive it to France where we got it fixed (in a week). Seems it was a small fault involving a protective device in the gearbox which stops you slipping into reverse when moving forwards at speed!

The European warranty backup was excellent, but we were very surprised to get a new vehicle with a fault like this. Is this a common problem with Doblos? I'm surprised the UK Fiat dealer where we bought it couldn't guess the problem. One mechanic (at another dealer) implied it was probably a major fault which was rather demoralising.

In any case, would be interested to hear if any other Doblo owners have experienced similar faults.