General Buying a 500, need to use free customer spend

[sebdangerfield]

Hi, we're about to buy a 500 Lounge in either 1.2 or twinair variants. We'll be having a test drive of both before we make the decision.

I'm able to buy the car through the Fiat group affinity staff purchase scheme which doesn't offer any discount to the car but gives us £1800 to spend on options. The value is the same for both 1.2 and 0.9 variants.

Does anyone have any info on what to spend it on? I like the idea of sat nav, bluetooth and an upgraded stereo but are these any good? Any other ideas for it? I'd like heated seats but can't seem to find it on the options list.

Any help appreciated.

 

[dave]

set of winter wheels an tyres

 

[sebdangerfield]

Ah, I didn't even know Fiat did these. That would be useful.

 

[306maxi]

lounges come with Bluetooth already. I'd say go for leather, some nice wheels and possibly a sunroof? Perhaps money left over for interscope too.

 

[sebdangerfield]

Thanks, is the interscope good?

Is the sat nav worth it?

Is the blue tooth good? I had it on my old Alfa and it rarely worked.

I'd forgotten the lounge came with bluetooth, we spent so long with the dealer yesterday! It's been two years waiting to finally come to order the car! House moves and holidays always came first!

 

[306maxi]

Sat nav is ok. Interscope is meant to be quote good though.

 

[nottsfiat07]

I would say leather seats, opening glass sun roof, interscope (got it on my abarth, it's meaty) a nice sport stripe and some nice alloys. I like the two tone sport ones that I had on my lounge.

 

[RobinPJ]

I wonder if this would be a rare case of it being better to buy a low spec model Pop and spec it up to a Lounge spec with the £1,800 saved (alloys, leather seats, Blue & Me, leather wheel, sun roof) to get the advantage of the lower list price (rather than buying a Lounge that has some of those goodies included in the higher list price).

The main reason against it seems to be the impact on residuals - but if you plan to keep it 5+ years that is probably less of an issue.

 

[deeyup]

Use it as the deposit, it is allowed. Even if you are a cash buyer, put the car on fiat pcp for near enough zero percent, then settle it a month later if you like.

Fiat will not allow the £1800 off the car price, and this is the way around it.

 

[jnoiles]

The opening glass sunroof is terrible. Huge heavy clunky thing that eats into headroom and looks daft. Stick with leather and wheels.

 

[FloJo]

Esp, the electric dipping rear view mirror, different from standard alloys and the rubbing strip are all options that I would consider spending it on. But if you can use it as the deposit as stated above that sounds a sensible way of getting the car.

 

[ahmett]

I did auto box, leather and interscope. The lounge came with everyone else i needed! The interscope is worth it.

 

[jnoiles]

Interscope wasn't available when I ordered

 

[arorat]

Esp, the electric dipping rear view mirror, different from standard alloys and the rubbing strip are all options that I would consider spending it on. But if you can use it as the deposit as stated above that sounds a sensible way of getting the car.

yep dipping mirror, xenons, parking sensors (not essential but useful), Interscope, 16 spokes (make the car stand out), the new leather seats are better designed as I read on the forum. But use as deposit instead and dump the car after 3 yrs.

 

[sebdangerfield]

Thanks everyone, I've checked and can't use the £1800 as deposit unfortunately.

That seems a good idea about speccing up a pop to a lounge and get te benefit that way.

To be honest, I'm still non the wiser about must haves. Leathers out as my girlfriend prefers the cloth seats. Interscope and sat nav are definitely in. I'm not sure about the wheels as I haven't seen the range yet. The only cosmetic thing we'll definitely be having are the Italian flags behind the 500 side logos.

Tough decisions but very enjoyable!

 

[deeyup]

Is your dealer sure about not using the £1800 as a deposit?
This is exactly what I did a few months ago.
Maybe things have changed, I'd call another dealer let them know your using the affinity scheme and see what they say.

 

[RobinPJ]

If you go Pop => Lounge then you need to add Blue & Me (which I imagine also requires the leather wheel upgrade at the same time - which you will want). I would also definitely go for at least the fixed glass roof, or the opening one (although I agree with Jnoiles that it looks a bit odd open and you'd want to check head room).

Can you upgrade Pop seats to cloth Lounge ones? The Pop ones are a bit icky and cheap looking (although the Lounge ones are dirt magnets).

 

[deeyup]

Thanks everyone, I've checked and can't use the £1800 as deposit unfortunately.

Just heard back from my friend (sales manager at my dealership) who said you can use the Fiat contribution as the deposit.
We're in South Wales, if you want to do the deal through him, he'll sort it for you. PM me if you want the details.
Looks to me like your sales person either doesn't know the details of the scheme or is just making the most of an opportunity to make a bit more money on you??

Edit:

Just spoke to Marc from the dealership.
He says you can use the £1800 for any one or combination of all of these things.
1, Deposit contribution on finance,
2, Factory fitted options
3, Dealer accessories
4, Version upgrade.

The last one may be particularly of interest? It means you can order a Pop, but receive a lounge, and you will still have £400 left to play with for options.
He said using the Fiat £1800 contribution, you can have a 1.2 lounge with metallic paint for instance for £10,010

 

[Super Uwe]

Just heard back from my friend (sales manager at my dealership) who said you can use the Fiat contribution as the deposit.
We're in South Wales, if you want to do the deal through him, he'll sort it for you. PM me if you want the details.
Looks to me like your sales person either doesn't know the details of the scheme or is just making the most of an opportunity to make a bit more money on you??

Great work deeyup!

By the way, which dealer are we talking about here? Feel free to PM me with your answer if you don't want to say on here, just intrigued to know who is the king of the dealers in South Wales!

 

[deeyup]

Griffin Mill, Upper Boat. The Fiat dept is not big, but they are very good.