Good afternoon from sunny Surrey in England.

Yet to own a 500, I joined the forum last week to carry out some research before buying one. I am taking my old '72 Mini off the the road for a while and need something small and fun as a temporary replacement. I've always preferred the new 500 over the BMW Mini so Fiat ownership here I come!

Welcome to you, also from sunny Surrey!

I hope you enjoy your 500! Do throw up some pictures when you get it!

SolarB said:

Good afternoon from sunny Surrey in England.

Yet to own a 500, I joined the forum last week to carry out some research before buying one. I am taking my old '72 Mini off the the road for a while and need something small and fun as a temporary replacement. I've always preferred the new 500 over the BMW Mini so Fiat ownership here I come!

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Hello and welcome to the forum :wave:

Good to have you along.

Hi, are you looking at new or used? Need to be good with a spanner if you want to keep it for a while if used.

Hello (waving from Bromley) not far from you.

Thank you for the welcomes.

After a trip to Bromley Sunday morning (hello Typecastboy) status has moved from wanting a 500 to placing a deposit and collecting Wednesday afternoon. I particularly wanted an Twinair and Mrs. SolarB wanted yellow with all the goodies. This narrowed the field somewhat but a car meeting our criteria was for sale at a Mazda dealership. Had a look and a drive and struck a deal. It's a 2011 lounge, yellow (the really bright shade) with grey leather, glass roof, aircon and 14,000 miles on the clock.

And what a cracking drive! The thing has very little torque but that's not the point. Wind it up and off it goes with a thrum from the engine and a brilliant exhaust note.

Wheels have been badly scuffed but I'll fix those over the weekend (if I'm not too busy driving it). I've been luckily enough to learn about cars over the years so maintaining it isn't a problem Now need to get an OBD reader and a manual that covers the Twinair. Looks like Haynes publish a book for the 500/Panda but unfortunately the Twinair isn't covered. Will post a question in the technical section for this.

SolarB said:

Now need to get an OBD reader and a manual that covers the Twinair. Looks like Haynes publish a book for the 500/Panda but unfortunately the Twinair isn't covered. Will post a question in the technical section for this.

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Hello and welcome.

Get yourself a copy of eLearn from the downloads section of this forum. It doesn't cover the TA engine, but most of the rest of what you need to know is in there.

Then checkout mutliecuscan, an excellent third party Fiat diagnostic tool for Windows PCs. Far more comprehensive than any generic OBD reader. A licenced copy of the software (€50), a couple of cables, and a PC or laptop are all that you need.

Hi Jrkitching.
Thanks for the info.
Mutliecuscan looks like a decent tool.
I've struggled with the .rar downloads and they are all corrupt. Will persevere as I assume it's me and not the forum that's at fault.