We bought our Fiat 500 Twinair Lounge almost 5 years ago. It has been a great car, my wife drives it most of the time - in ECO mode - and gets over 60 mpg. I enjoy driving it too but tend to take the ECO mode off and enjoy the performance. I find it a lot of fun to drive (and my other car has a 5 litre V8). It's a nice place to be as well with the red leather upholstery and climate control.


We are just about to replace it with a 500c as my wife has always had a yearning for the open top version. We're picking up the new one on Saturday.


One thing that surprises me is that Fiat have changed the service interval from 16000 miles on the old car to 8000 miles on the new one. This might be worthwhile if they did something useful at the intermediate service like changing the oil and filters but they don't. I think they just kick the tyres and charge you for it. Progress?


If any one is interested, our "old" 500 is for sale in the classifieds and on Ebay. We are in Hampshire.

k2397 said:

I think they just kick the tyres and charge you for it.

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I think they pretend to kick the tyres and charge you for it. You could get a far more copmprehensive safety inspection for about half the price by taking it for an MOT*. However they do one other thing, which is important from a warranty and resale perspective; they stamp the service book. Since they don't change the oil (which IMO is the one thing that is worth doing at this sort of age/mileage), the benefit to the long term life of the car is probably nil.

Effectively this adds £200-£300 of hidden cost to the price of the car without providing any meaningful benefit to the customer.

*Probably the best value you'll ever get from the motor trade; 45mins or so of an experienced motor mechanic's time and knowledge for at most £54.85, and there's no VAT to pay either!

Folks buying new cars who wish to do their own servicing from day 1 do not fit comfortably into the current system.

This is absolutely a cynical money spinning exercise, very disappointing and as above achieves nothing with respect to longevity.

You can get this inspection carried out by any vat registered garage who Wil stamp the book and therefore maintain the warranty.

There is a slight risk that doing so will create a loop hole that fiat may choose to use in the event of a subsequent warranty claim. I'd still do it though and of course gives you the chance to have an oil change as well as long as they can be trusted to use the correct spec. oil and use a fiat filter.

haha i am almost relieved i do not have a fiat 500 under warranty! just drive it to the ground and ignore the minor problems unless i physically can't drive it. oh and i replace it with much better parts than fiat oem!

so like a fine wine, the car gets better with age except one thing.... ELECTRONICS

While other manufactures are extending service intervals, fiat seem to be the only company shortening them, to me it suggests fiat are nervous about something.

Given how reliable the 1.2 8 valve had always been this situation seems very strange indeed

AndyRKett said:

While other manufactures are extending service intervals, fiat seem to be the only company shortening them, to me it suggests fiat are nervous about something.

Given how reliable the 1.2 8 valve had always been this situation seems very strange indeed

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must be something to do with the twinairs maybe? they don't sell the 1.4 v16's anymore anyway for the EU Fiat 500 so I'm not worried at all. This engine seems very reliable so far for me! It's barely using any oil at 115,000 kms!

AndyRKett said:

While other manufactures are extending service intervals, fiat seem to be the only company shortening them, to me it suggests fiat are nervous about something.

Given how reliable the 1.2 8 valve had always been this situation seems very strange indeed

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The new intervals for the 1.2 are basically the same as the old ones. All Fiat has done is force new owners to bring their cars in at year 1 or 9,000 miles to do an inspection, where you can request an oil or filter change if you like. Before of course you could wait 2 years to keep in line with the warranty (unless you did less than 6,000 miles, in which case you needed to get an oil and filter change).

I would suggest they aren't worried about anything mechanical as such, they would just rather create more business for the dealers, and I guess give them more room to wriggle out of paying warranty claims if a customer doesn't bother to follow the schedule.

Nothing else to it as far as I can see

18000 mile service intervals have caused problems on some cars - VWs with chain cam engines being an example. I get an oil and filter change on my 2011 TA Lounge every 10,000 miles or annually, whichever sooner. 8000 miles does seem quite low, though.

Full service at a dealers means they go over it with a damp leather.

People, it's just a simple inspection at 9k miles or 1 year and fortunately it isn't very expensive. FIAT just wants to make a little more money. Nevertheless I'm glad my 2014 TA is just old enough to have the old maintenance interval.

AGH1965 said:

People, it's just a simple inspection at 9k miles or 1 year and fortunately it isn't very expensive. FIAT just wants to make a little more money. Nevertheless I'm glad my 2014 TA is just old enough to have the old maintenance interval.

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Some people have reported getting quotes for the inspection that are more than a proper service for the swift at the main dealer. That sounds chuffing expensive to me.

As above, this is just about putting a bit of extra work through franchised dealers. Whilst I despise "extended interval" service schedules (and, as above, they've caused many problems) I don't think this is FIAT responding to concerns about that sort of thing as otherwise they'd put an oil and filter change in there. The only reason I can see that they haven't spec'd that is for press reasons.

zanes said:

Some people have reported getting quotes for the inspection that are more than a proper service for the swift at the main dealer. That sounds chuffing expensive to me.

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A colleague of mine told me it costed him about € 60, which equals £ 44.

zanes said:

I don't think this is FIAT responding to concerns about that sort of thing as otherwise they'd put an oil and filter change in there. The only reason I can see that they haven't spec'd that is for press reasons.

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Why should FIAT respond to concerns and whose concerns should that be? Yours? In my opinion FIAT should only prevent problems. Nothing more, nothing less.

AGH1965 said:

In my opinion FIAT should only prevent problems. Nothing more, nothing less.

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That is exactly what a 9000 mile oil & filter change would do.

It all depends on whether you want the engine to be trouble free for the life of the car, or the life of the warranty.

Most technically informed owners who plan on keeping their car will change the oil & filter at 9k anyway (though I doubt most would use a franchised dealer for this). Having a mandatory 9k inspection as part of the warranty conditions is either profiteering, or a***e-covering.

There's a parallel thread on this subject in the Mk4 Panda section.

Personally I think the 500's servicing costs may put some folks off buying the car.

I agree that the increased cost of servicing is a disincentive to buy a new Fiat. And it's crazy to pull the car in after 9000 miles and not change the oil and filter. Another disincentive to buy Fiat is the relatively poor warranty.


As far as I am concerned, buying a new 500c is not a rational choice, but it is the car my wife wants (short of a new Mercedes SLK).


The cars sell on cuteness more than anything. They are decent cars and fun to drive, but Fiat does not treat its customers particularly well.


That's probably why they don't sell so may of the less cute cars any more.

zanes said:

Some people have reported getting quotes for the inspection that are more than a proper service for the swift at the main dealer. That sounds chuffing expensive to me.

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May I ask where you saw that? So far the quotes I have seen on the 500 and Panda section for this basic 9,000 mile inspection have been around the £60 mark.

AGH1965 said:

In my opinion FIAT should only prevent problems. Nothing more, nothing less.

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jrkitching said:

That is exactly what a 9000 mile oil & filter change would do.
...
Most technically informed owners who plan on keeping their car will change the oil & filter at 9k anyway

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Well, that's your assumption. In reality it really depends on how the car is used. FIAT knows this. That's the reason why the owner handbook says:

If the vehicle is used mainly on urban routes or the annual distance travelled is less than 10,000 km, the engine oil and engine oil filter must be changed every year.

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This means that lots of 500 owners have to change oil every 6000 miles. Only some have to change oil every 18000 miles. Any technically informed owner understands this.

I have had a inspection and oil and filter change done at 12 months, i think i had covered about 7500 miles, done at my Fiat dealer and it cost £97, which i think is reasonable.

jrkitching said:

That is exactly what a 9000 mile oil & filter change would do.

It all depends on whether you want the engine to be trouble free for the life of the car, or the life of the warranty.

Most technically informed owners who plan on keeping their car will change the oil & filter at 9k anyway (though I doubt most would use a franchised dealer for this). Having a mandatory 9k inspection as part of the warranty conditions is either profiteering, or a***e-covering.

There's a parallel thread on this subject in the Mk4 Panda section.

Personally I think the 500's servicing costs may put some folks off buying the car.

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The thread ended with it being £99 including oil and filter, and £59 without,

Is it just me and i am talking about most of the forum now not just this thread, should we be
asking the owner to change the name of the forum to the "dislike or hate fiat forum"

I admit to not being on the forum as much recently, but i think it has changed since i joined back in 2012

Officina red said:

The thread ended with it being £99 including oil and filter, and £59 without,

Is it just me and i am talking about most of the forum now not just this thread, should we be
asking the owner to change the name of the forum to the "dislike or hate fiat forum"

I admit to not being on the forum as much recently, but i think it has changed since i joined back in 2012

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I quite agree with you. Not sure about the other sections but the 500 section seems to be suffering from too many rants...