First service done...

Check up done...

Oil change and filter at the same time...tried charging me for this AFTER I was quoted £56 for the first service/check up.

Aside from that, Fiat in Abergele have been useless!

BUT my problem is my MPG is now averaging 40 NOT 49 as I was getting before the service.

Do I confront the garage?

My mileage has gone down too - immediately after a 2nd year service ( done 1st myself )

I believe a "software update" was involved.

Now gone from 60ish mpg to 50ish mpg over same roads and same driving style.

Before shouting at the dealer, you should do a proper brim-to-brim check on a full tank of gas - those info displays are calculated and after a software update or even an ECU reset during service, can start to read inaccurately for a while. A 10mpg drop in fuel economy is a lot and needs verified by a properly accurate measurement I think.

I've noticed a similar thing happening after taking cars for an MOT (to an independent testing station). After resetting the trip computer, initial economy is well down for the next 50-100 miles, then it reverts to normal.

When cars are in garages being serviced or tested, they are often left idling for extended periods (it's not their fuel they're wasting). My theory is that this causes a buildup of deposits on the lambda sensor, causing the engine to overfuel until these deposits are burnt away.

I'd suggest waiting another couple of hundred miles or so before assuming that this is down to a software update.

But please do keep us informed - if Fiat really are silently installing updates which hammer the car's economy, it's of interest to us all.

I've commented here before about 'software upgrades'. We have come to 'expect' a software update to be done, like you might with an iPhone. But the reality is that rarely if ever does the 'upgrade' do much more than make the clock keep better time or let Blue and Me work with a newer version of our smartphone's OS. I really do not believe that they alter engine management settings or affect performance figures, except in the case of the first time a major new engine update (eg the Euro 6 version) is released, where 'real life' shows that there are issues to fix.

Much more likely is, as above, lots of idling, or, more 'sinisterly' perhaps, a sign that the car has detected it was being emissions tested and has set itself to operate in a different way during (and for a short time after) testing. Now, who would think a car could know it was being tested... surely no one woudl program that into the system, would they??

You also need to consider it's that time of year again!

Winter has always generated similar MPG related posts, they've been a reoccuring winter feature for as long as I have been a forum user.

I was waiting for the first Panda one to surface this year.

It seems at the first cold snap we all start to notice a drop off in MPG to some degree.

The cold weather obviously requires the engine to work a little harder, from cranking the engine over and a prolonged warm up, to the use of the lights and heated screens on cold and dark mornings/evenings.

It all requires extra energy either through directly injecting more fuel to warm up or generating electrical energy (loading the alternator more will sap more engine power which requires more fuel)

Also cold air entering the engine is a lot denser than warm air and the fueling will adjust to compensate, it's why on cold and crisp mornings you often feel the car is a bit more frisky, it's making the most of the dense air by adding fuel to get the best bang it can from it.

Some hybrid cars can really suffer from the cold, there are a few at my work complaining their MPG's are already dropping like stones.

Not only do they suffer from the effects of cold to the petrol engine mentioned above, but battery efficency drops as the temperature does!

I've got a 2016 1.2 petrol Panda and I've noticed that if for any reason I've left the engine ticking over, the average mpg is reduced!

If you think about it, fuel is being used (albeit only small quantities) but no distance is covered. The fuel computer only does a very basic distance covered divided by fuel used calculation.

I'm currently on 5800kms and the fuel consumption is gradually getting better and better, as is the engine response particularly in higher gears.