General New prospective 500 owner

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General New prospective 500 owner

Simon Bell

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Hi

Just thought I'd introduce myself.......we were out today looking at a 500 and hope to buy one soon.

We are going for the following spec:

1.2 Sport
Bossa Nova White
15" diamond cut alloys (439)
Black interior
Split rear seats
Towbar for very occasional use

My wife has sprained her ankle so it will be a couple of weeks before she can test drive one. The local dealer is expecting a 1.2 demo in 3 weeks or so. We should hopefully order then if the test drive goes well......and then its a 3 month wait:(
 
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Hi,

If I was you I would'nt wait 3 weeks unless you really had to before placing an order. My wife was sort of undecided so I took her for a ride in a 1.3mjt 500. Then managed to blag a ride in a 1.2 pop (which was awesome!).
We were'nt even in the market to change our car but soon fell head over heels in love with the charms of the new 500 and placed a order within 2 days of the drive. Saying that we've managed to get a previous order changed so we might see our 500 before the end of march, but new orders now are possibly may/june:cry:

Go on try one......you won't regret it:p

Goodluck

Yoshi:cool:
 
Apparently, a guy on Pistonheads reckons that he walked into a Northampton dealers today and bought a new and unregistered white 1.4 lounge with full climate, glass electric roof etc with mats and air freshener worth £140 chucked in for £11,000!

I wonder if that's £11k like my wife when she says "it was only £40" when what she really means is £49.99.

By my reckoning that's £540 worth of free stuff and he reckons he got "loads of extras" too.

I know that there are no discounts available on the 5oo, yet apparently a dealer's selling off his stock cheap? It's not as if there's no demand! Crazy!
 
That car is £11,720 before any dealer-fitted stuff.

Well in your opinion and in a professional capacity would you sell off something that you had in stock that was highly saleable for less than you needed to to some bloke who just walked in off the street?
 
Put simply, no.

I thought you would say that and if I was in your position neither would I.

Of course the guy could just be bigging it up as in the £49.99 thing I posted earlier. ;)

I was told by FIAT UK that " no discounts are available on the 5oo" Don't dealers get in trouble for discounting the 5oo as it's against all that they're trying to do with the 5oo.

Why discount when you don't need to? :bang:
 
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I was told by FIAT UK that " no discounts are available on the 5oo" Don't dealers get in trouble for discounting the 5oo as it's against all that they're trying to do with the 5oo.
I find it hard to believe that any car manufacturer would be stupid enough to admit to price-fixing, would they? :eek:

;)
Why discount when you don't need to? :bang:
Exactly.

Price-fixing (or whatever the official term is?) may be against some sort of regulation, but dealerships (and indeed manufacturers for that matter) are under no obligation to sell a car for less than the advertised price, so as long as there are enough people willing to pay the advertised price there is no need for them to sell for less, is there?

Aren't loop-holes great? :D
 
I find it hard to believe that any car manufacturer would be stupid enough to admit to price-fixing, would they? :eek:

Price-fixing (or whatever the official term is?) may be against some sort of regulation, but dealerships (and indeed manufacturers for that matter) are under no obligation to sell a car for less than the advertised price, so as long as there are enough people willing to pay the advertised price there is no need for them to sell for less, is there?

Aren't loop-holes great? :D

That's not price fixing. Price fixing is when two manufacturers get together and say, for instance and as a theoretical example, "I reckon we can get another two grand a car each if we ensure that the A6 and the 5 series are within £250 of each other across the range"

That's price fixing. Selling at list price isn't, stating no discounts isn't and neither is sticking up the prices of the 5oo by a £1k in six months time across the range, as the market will determine whether people are prepared to still pay the price or bog off and get a Twingo instead :)
 
I find it hard to believe that any car manufacturer would be stupid enough to admit to price-fixing, would they? :eek:

;)

Exactly.

Price-fixing (or whatever the official term is?) may be against some sort of regulation, but dealerships (and indeed manufacturers for that matter) are under no obligation to sell a car for less than the advertised price, so as long as there are enough people willing to pay the advertised price there is no need for them to sell for less, is there?

Aren't loop-holes great? :D


well, its not really a loop-hole as such! if any dealer or online supplier wanted to discount then they could and would...when the supply/demand situation is different there will be discounts, as always with fiats. the 500 may take longer and be a little less, but there will be discounts once the saps, sorry early adopters, have bought their fill and paid their prices :D
 
I dunno....I wouldn't feel like a sap if the prices went up in the coming months....
 
I would never buy a car without test driving one first. I could have tested the 1.3 diesel yesterday but that isn't what I want to buy and there are no 1.2's in NI at the moment.

I don't expect the testdrive to be bad but you never know. A couple of years back I was considering buying a BMW 3 series......I took it for a test drive and really didn't like it......

My other car is a Caterham and when you drive it you become highly tuned to what the car is doing, no other car can equal the driver feedback but some do get close......others are simply horrible to drive.

As the 500 isn't going to set the world on fire in terms of performance I would at least expect it to be fun to drive in a small car / small engined kind of way. If it isn't then I'm not interested, no matter how well it looks.

Simon
 
I would never buy a car without test driving one first. I could have tested the 1.3 diesel yesterday but that isn't what I want to buy and there are no 1.2's in NI at the moment.

I don't expect the testdrive to be bad but you never know. A couple of years back I was considering buying a BMW 3 series......I took it for a test drive and really didn't like it......

My other car is a Caterham and when you drive it you become highly tuned to what the car is doing, no other car can equal the driver feedback but some do get close......others are simply horrible to drive.

As the 500 isn't going to set the world on fire in terms of performance I would at least expect it to be fun to drive in a small car / small engined kind of way. If it isn't then I'm not interested, no matter how well it looks.

Simon

I'd start looking elsewhere now then. However much I like the car it's not one for the boy racers and as a Caterham owner you are going to be sorely disappointed.
 
I'd start looking elsewhere now then. However much I like the car it's not one for the boy racers and as a Caterham owner you are going to be sorely disappointed.

Hang on. That's a bit of a sweeping statement. I used to have an Dealers Collection integrale evo modded to 300bhp and bought the wife a Lancia Y10 FIRE. I used to love chucking the Y10 around through the lanes and it was very nippy around town too.

I also used to love caining it down motorways too and it was a skill to keep off the brakes and keep then momentum and speed u.p Flat out down a slope you could get an indicated 100mph on the speedo and I used to love the faces of BMW Merc drivers as I flew down the outside lane overtaking them. Great fun to drive and that's what I like about small Italian cars. They rock :slayer:
 
The 500 clearly does not handle like a Y10 or an original Mini for that matter. Nothing said calls into question my statement. Anybody looking for sporting handling from the 500 is going to be disappointed and if that is high on your priority list, look elsewhere.
 
The 500 clearly does not handle like a Y10 or an original Mini for that matter. Nothing said calls into question my statement. Anybody looking for sporting handling from the 500 is going to be disappointed and if that is high on your priority list, look elsewhere.

or wait until the abarth version is released ;).
 
I'm not expecting the 500 to handle like a Caterham, it won't. What I want to know is what it handles like compared to similar sized cars on the market. I've driven a clio which I reckon is a fun little car to drive which handles pretty well for the size of car. I won't buy a car purely on looks, I want to assess how the whole package compares to other cars in the same sector.

I only need a small car to get me to and from the station, if I want to go for a spirited drive at the weekend I'll take the Caterham.

The point I was making was that I won't order a car without driving it just to reduce the wait time by a couple of weeks.
 
The 500 clearly does not handle like a Y10 or an original Mini for that matter. Nothing said calls into question my statement. Anybody looking for sporting handling from the 500 is going to be disappointed and if that is high on your priority list, look elsewhere.

That's you opinion, most of the car mags said a Y10 didn't handle - I'd beg to differ as I would with the 5oo.

Have you got your 5oo? If so, which one is it and how many miles have you done. If not how can you comment?

I would be supprised if the 5oo didn't handle and from my test drive in a Lounge I'd say that there will be some fun to be had in my Sport.
 
Simon, as you say the only true way to ensure it satisfies your " Fun to drive" criteria is to try the car. If you were to believe what most sporting drivers say the handling of the 500 is not as good as the Clio/Corsa/Mini/Mazda2 therefore it may fall short of what you are looking for.
 
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