beware of buying new fiat!!!

[wish mine was orange]

if you are the trusting type like me, i have some advice for you.
i helped my son buy a brand new t-jet 1.4 sports not a cheap car , but we picked it because it came with 5 yr warranty so said the sale man,"everything madam is covered for 5 yrs no worries"
so we have had a few things go wrong and have had them sorted, but in june the wheels we showing rust.now fiat will only referbish wheels not replace and i only get warranty on these wheels untill the end of the manufacturs warranty, in our case that will be sept 10 so 1 month.
as the follwing dealers warrwnty does not cover then something else i didnt know.
so the moral of the story is DONT BUY NEW and get conned like me buy good second hand and save money which you can use to buy spare parts with
cheers fiat you have just stoped me buying for myself a new panda i was about to get your loss my gain
hope some else learns from this :bang:

 

[sledge]

but we picked it because it came with 5 yr warranty so said the sale man,"everything madam is covered for 5 yrs no worries"

Well I suggest you take the matter up with the salesman and his employers as they are the ones who it would appear have lied to you, not Fiat.

Looks like you have learnt the hard way so if I may suggest...next time you buy a car dont be so trusting and take everything thats not in writing with a generous pinch of salt. You may have morals and standards but not everyone else does particularly when large sums of money are involved. If a car salesman, probably desperate to hit his monthly target, earn his bonus, feed his rugrats and pay this months mortgage told me the sky was blue........I would still want to go outside to double check

 

[Kop32]

if you are the trusting type like me, i have some advice for you.
i helped my son buy a brand new t-jet 1.4 sports not a cheap car , but we picked it because it came with 5 yr warranty so said the sale man,"everything madam is covered for 5 yrs no worries"
so we have had a few things go wrong and have had them sorted, but in june the wheels we showing rust.now fiat will only referbish wheels not replace and i only get warranty on these wheels untill the end of the manufacturs warranty, in our case that will be sept 10 so 1 month.
as the follwing dealers warrwnty does not cover then something else i didnt know.
so the moral of the story is DONT BUY NEW and get conned like me buy good second hand and save money which you can use to buy spare parts with
cheers fiat you have just stoped me buying for myself a new panda i was about to get your loss my gain
hope some else learns from this :bang:

Where have you heard that Fiat will only refurbish the wheels and not replace them?, I had a brand new 56 plate Grande Punto Sporting 1.9 MJET and Fiat replaced my wheels after 12 months or so due to rusting,once again as Sledge remarked I think the Salesman and not Fiat have lied to you.

 

[wish mine was orange]

fiat head office custmor service have stated they will only refubish these wheels which are less then 2 yrs old so what else can i do?
suggestions

ps fiat no longer offer the alloy wheels i have, the diamond cut ones so head office know there is a problem with them and still wont budge.

 

[T14086]

so exactly how old are the wheels?

 

[sludgeguts]

TBH, I reckon you're lucky they offer to refurb them free. I'm amazed at how many alloys out there look as if the driver uses the kerb to steer.
When I bought my car it was 1 year old but the alloys had no end of grazes.

I suppose the only bone I can throw you is if you could get a reputable alloy refurb company to look at them and give you an honest report - should alloys rust? if so, would you expect them to rust after such a short time. If not, what is wrong with your alloys that is causing them to rust?

 

[sledge]

I suggest you read the Ts and Cs of the warranty agreement that you or another family member will have signed at some point. You will find that Fiat reserve the right to repair, refurbish or replace components at their cost under warranty AS THEY SEE FIT. Like everything else in the world its all about money and they are under no obligation whatsoever to replace without question faulty or substandard components if there is a cheaper option available for them. By signing the warranty agreement the buyer will be deemed to have agreed upon this condition.

Besides.....what is your problem with refurbishment? There will be a guarantee for the work and for all you know the process may even prove to be more reliable than the original finish. Its not as if its going to cause you a major inconvenience or knock 000s off the value of the car. No one will ever know whats happened unless you tell them so if its such an issue dont tell anyone.

Lets look at the flip-side for a minute.....the fact the alloys have been refurbed might even INCREASE the value and appeal of the car, all be it by a small amount.

I suggest you accept whats on offer instead of moaning whinging, making yourself look like a sore looser and demanding they play by your rules when you havent a leg to stand on. Next time read and take time to understand the small print, make yourself aware of what may and will happen in any given circumstance and if you are not happy vote with your feet and walk away.

 

[wish mine was orange]

wheels were 18mths old in june when i showed them to fiat

 

[T14086]

Sledge is right, accept the refurbish. For all they know you could of kerbed them etc or damaged them yourself. Protective laquer will only stop so much before it breaks down due to stone,grit or salt etc and moisture gets in underneath.

 

[TallTom]

fiat head office custmor service have stated they will only refubish these wheels which are less then 2 yrs old so what else can i do?
suggestions

ps fiat no longer offer the alloy wheels i have, the diamond cut ones so head office know there is a problem with them and still wont budge.

I have been told by a guy from chips away that when car firms started offering diamond cut wheels someone said they will not last more than 4-5 years if your very lucky. The reason being is the diamond cut is so smooth they cannot realistically expect the lacquer to stick/bond completely so there will always be small imperfections that eventually show.

He stated that if I wanted to get my wheels refurbished at a later date that the only place he knew that offered more than a 3 month guarantee was a place down in Kent somewhere ("relatively close")

My wheels are fine, but I dont use acidic based wheel cleaners like many people do, those cleaners attack the slightest imperfections and can cause problems/tarnishing.

I would suggest you accept the refurbishment from Fiat and then once they come use non acid based cleaner e.g. Billberry wheel cleaner (pink liquid) that is PH neutral and really shifts brake dust, and then seal the wheels to protect the lacquer from brake dust.

Hope this helps, sorry to hear about your wheels.

Tom

 

[Ffoxy]

Just have them powder coated & be done with it...
Jeez is it just me or do some people make a real drama out of something so small? I know maybe BMW or VW or whatever perceived quality manufacturer, would probably do a no-quibble swap but for a far higher initial purchase cost for the car...

It's swings & roundabouts IMO.

 

[Adrian Bravo]

I think the refurb offer is more than fair, and will probably be a better finish than the original.

Wheels have a hard life. Curbing, people using acidic wheel cleaners, stone chips, some tyre fitters and garages causing damage, hard snow and ice rubbing on them in winter.

If the wheels had been taken off the new car then put in the garage they would probably last a lot longer than 5 years, but thats not the point of a car.

 

[volxstu]

I negate to see what the Problem is in this thread and your Warranty.

Ok so your tryimg to say that Diamond Cut wheels are rubbish. Right im sure a lot will agree with that but its not a reason to bash Fiat and its dealerships.

They have agreed to rectify the problem by way of a refurb. I think that is a suitable resolve. In this day and age how much stick do you think a company would get for just throwing away perfectly serviceable parts made from such a precious resource (alloy).

Did you look into what a warranty is? You cant expect everything to be covered for 5 years thats madness. They will drop parts as they become wear and tear items such as Brakes, Tyres, Oil Filters and Wheels.

I fear that you are annoyed with your dealership and are taking it out on your Fellow Fiat lovers. We are trying to inform you that your anger is unjustified. Now if Fiat had told you to **** off, then we would be talking a different story.

 

[wish mine was orange]

i am not taking any thing out on my fiat fellow and i have asked for this thread to be removed

 

[AlmightyJu]

I thought I'd come and share my 2 cents on this. The general feeling is that fiat isn't the problem and its the dealer, its only refurbing the wheels thats fine and its all hunky doory.

If we (for those who dont know wish mine was orange is my mother! ) were out to bash fiat i'd make a nice list of, scratched paintwork, leaking door seals, drop links knocking, that of couse was the custom exhaust noise from the front of the car knocking not the drop links at all , car going for a joy ride in the garage and fiat wanting to put the milage back since someone entered the new milage into the new dash incorrectly, not bad how a broken dash can lead to petrol loss and incorrect milage, who knew hey.

So before the whole "Your problem is with the dealer not fiat" idea, I ask who represents Fiat? who do you think of when you think fiat? do you think italians or do you think of the garage closest to you with the fiat badge?

The reason I dislike the refurb idea is because my car is in the garage again for the what, the 4th or 5th time... more times than my old S reg bravo ever had been, and the big annoyance is, ok fair enough they are going to refurb the wheels, but when the refurb company says that the wheels will go and corrode again in the future once they have started and you tell this to Fiat for them to they say Oh sorry but we will only refurb them while the garage says were happy to replace them is a bit strange. So yea great cover the problem up today so when it next goes wrong its outside its warranty (that being 1 month) and the only reason they wont do new wheels is because of the area manager, who is Fiat.

Just for those who are curious about how corroded wheels look: http://newbeetle.org/forums/paint-body/34668-alloy-wheel-corrosion-problem.html

mine aint as bad as that yet but he must of curbed em a fair bit for that

And no I'm not having a go at the fellow fiat drivers, i'm purely saying if you dont want a hassle car dont by a new fiat, buy an old one since both my old bravos had no where near these amounts of problems! (my 2 old cars had 3 problems between them, my new car has had 4 or 5 on its own)

 

[T14086]

hey everyone lets get this straight...wish mine was orange & AlmightyJu are good forum members and Fiat fans

I dont know about these diamond cut wheels but I agree with sledge in that accept the refurbishment because it can be taken away, so grab it while you can. However yes I do agree that having the wheels off again is a pain, are fiat offering a courtesy car, spare steel wheel in the meantime?

The list off faults you have had and especially the cluster incident would drive me to another dealership.

 

[dave]

new wheels we be another set of mass produced wheels, refurbed will be carried out by probably 1 person who is going to take pride in their work, so you will end up with wheels better than the new ones

 

[wish mine was orange]

well go with the refurbish was the idea. 10 days to make my wheels look like new i dont think so

 

[wish mine was orange]

photos

 

[AlmightyJu]

lol now who said
"Besides.....what is your problem with refurbishment?"
or
"Just have them powder coated & be done with it...
Jeez is it just me or do some people make a real drama out of something so small?"
or
"I think the refurb offer is more than fair, and will probably be a better finish than the original."

the end result you can see above ^.^, and they now say "ahh well we'll spray the hubs to match the wheels, non-standard ring any bells there?

so i stick to my original statment, NEVER buy a new fiat, by an old one with no warrany

Its safe to say I'm never touching a fiat again out of principle of the company!