As before - what's the basis for this fact or opinion?
I spend almost half the year in Italy and see thousands of 30+-year-old Fiats, especially Mk1 and Mk2 Pandas that must have well over 100,000 miles on the clock. My neighbour has an Uno diesel that has done well over 200,000 miles and a Mk2 (ie FIRE-engined) Panda 4x4 that's not far behind. Neither is pampered or garaged and (like my 4x4 TA) they go up and down a very steep and deeply-rutted white road several times a day. Some years back I had a Tipo Tds that only suffered a (Bosch) alternator failure in over 150,000 miles. Some vehicles are unreliable - including VWs, Audis, BMWs, etc - and it may be convenient to suggest a mileage where the problems set in; 100,000 miles is a usefully round number but is it anything else? However - though all generalisations have an element of truth - this one needs some backing up before it can be seen as factual.
i have been to italy and seen the state of some of the cars people drive around in. doors missing and driving around with a completely failed wheel bearing were my favourite.
it depends what you class as reliable? lots of people drive cars about that are barely working, whilst i like my cars to be 100%
all cars have there good and bad points and i love my fiat, but it is poorly made compared to the equivalent cars out there and the parts tend to wear out quicker.
my girlfriends 100hp had pretty much 0 problems from 60k miles when she got it and as soon as it got near 100k miles it started to break.
window regulator broke, heating/cooling flap broke, thermostat went, coil failed, suspension parts needed replacing, seat bolster foam went plus a few other bits and peices. clutch is also on the way out.
my cinquecento is the same. it has done 110k miles and it has had a hard life, but the engine is in a right state.
my dad had various fiats as company cars 10+ years ago and they were all ok up until the 100k mark and then started to have problems (albeit 1 had quite a few issues from new).
as mentioned, you can be lucky and looking after the car helps, but they do seem to be made to a cost and their lifespan before starting to break tends to be around 100k miles of average usage.
im sure if you abused it, then it would be less than 100k miles before it starts having issues and looking after it would mean it would last longer, but 100k miles is the average amount of time in my experience.
my experiences and what i have read are never going to be factual as there will always be someone who has done 400k miles in a fiat without replacing anything.
finally; italian stuff in general isnt very good quality. i work in engineering and we purchase italian made valves and some electronic parts and they are cheap and work, but they are a bit nasty and dont have the longevity of some other brands.
