Well after 2 years with the 500, the good lady has decided to go back to the Panda again. She took delivery of her new 1.3 Dynamic MJ last Friday.
The 500 to be honest has been a pain, split breather pipes and heavy ice on the inside of the front window during the winter were the final nails in its coffin.
She had had no probs when she had the Panda Sporting, (apart from gitting it insured, and getting a correct V5).so this swung it for the Panda over the Suzuki Splash, 1.3 DDi.
I had hoped by this time Fiat would have started putting the M/J power unit into the Eleganza, but it seems Fiat are always the last to catch onto what the customers want.Yes I could have tarted the Dynamic up, but then it goes over the top price wise
Anyway i'll be back later with some questions.
Nice to be back.

Ian

I think the ice on the inside of the windscreen can be caused by having the aircon on a short period before stopping. The water then evaporates when the car is parked and condenses on the windscreen, then it'll freeze when the temperature drops.

Were you not tempted to go for the new 95 HP diesel unit coming soon? Better economy but more power/torque. Or is that only available in the 500, hmm can't remember now...

With regards to the ice on the inside of the 500's front window it seems that it is quite a common problem, My wifes car was one of 3 500's in the car park at her work, and all were prone to the same problem, It was the same with the breather pipe, of the 3 500's a total of 4 breather pipes had to be replaced.

I was told by our dealer that the 95bhp multijet will only be fitted to the 500 and Punto, and to be honest I not sure about the looks of the new Panda.
From what the dealer stated the new Panda will have the 500 dash fitted (ugh),and will only come in the two ECO engines and the 70 bhp multijet.

To be honest with you, the 500 would have never been bought had it not been for all the problems with the documentation of the Panda Sporting we had, and at that time Faits customer care was as good as an ashtray in a motor bike.

Cheers Ian

Whilst it didn't turn icy, a friends partners 500 was suffering from running with water inside, on the windows and because it was a lounge, on the fixed glass roof aswell.

They thought it was just a design fault, but it turned out that the rear window was leaking - they spotted damp boot carpet one day and lifted it to find the spare wheel well full of water. The window was quickly re-sealed by Fiat under warranty and they cleaned all the carpets, seats & wheel well as these were stained from the damp.

Just a possibility.

Advanced Driver said:

I think the ice on the inside of the windscreen can be caused by having the aircon on a short period before stopping. The water then evaporates when the car is parked and condenses on the windscreen, then it'll freeze when the temperature drops.

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Is this peculiar to the 500? My 100HP has climate control on all the time and I've never had this problem.

The 500 we owned was a 1.2 pop, no air con, and to the best of my knowledge, no leaks.The funny thing was it was only the front window that was affected by ice, as cold as it got up here, smone nights down to -15.
Our local Fiat Dealers Workshop manager has a 500, and he was doing his nut over the same problem.

Ian