Mine is one yr and 9000 miles old... just been first serviced.
I've written up my impressions in various posts.. but in short;
a) The 120bhp engine does *not* seem small/slow/underpowered.
b) Nothing has broken or gone wrong at all
c) My tyres are 4-5mm front, and 6mm rear left over from new so would seem to be good for 27k (fronts) and 54k (rear) if I don't rotate etc.
d) My engine oil consumption has been 0.5 ltrs
The recommended oil is a specific Eco2 version of Selenia 0W20 with a DM-1 (from memory) suffix to the Fiat 93335 standard which is tricky to find in the UK and c. £20 a litre from UK sellers. In Italy it's c. £70 for 4ltrs plus postage (just £130) ... so "what oil for me Firefly?" and "where do I gets it?" will soon become trending topics...
e) Electronic handbrake seems weird at first but once you give it half a second to disengage before trying to move, it's okay/you get used to it... but I've not had to touch the rear pads/calipers yet, so I may change my mind about it.
f) The lane assister, auto lights, speed sign detector, collision/proximity/missile lock warning and cruise control, etc. all work well.
g) The big screen doodah in the dashboard is quite easy to use and has lots of options on it. Radio is digital but some of the smaller/unknown digital stations are rubbish so drop out fairly often.
The pains in the 'arris are few, but they get on my tits.
1) The TomTom Sat Nav is tricky to set up. Every single TomTom since 1836 has had a feature to navigate to the "city centre" of Milton Keynes or wherever.. 500X's TomTom forces you to enter a street name in Milton Keynes before it will take you there. Milton Keynes has a High Street, so it's not too tricky.. but I live in Wales and combinations of Llanffachellhwcywdd or Cwmfrangernacchwm etc. don't always get a match..
Latest: The other day I *think* I found a way to do it.. but I was stuck in some light drizzle (English would call it a downpour) so I couldn't try repeating it. I'll give it a try, to see if I've accidentally found out how to do it.
2) The "smart" wipers properly get on my tits. Instead of one click down for more, like every Fiat ever, the "Auto" setting either panics at the sign of a cloud, or refuses to wipe, even in the middle of a light drizzle. The old days of two "intermittent" speeds and two constant speeds (Stilo) are no more. I spend more time flick-wiping or going to constant then back to "Auto" trying to get a basic regular intermittent wipe than I do swearing at it.. but it's a close thing. Other times, the wipery is good.. it speeds up if the rain suddenly increases and goes back to "not bad enough to swear at" when it's cleared.
3) Rear wiper washer seems to be unadjustable.. shooting into the top corner of the screen, not on the wiper blade/swept area, so the rear wiper now goes "GRRRREK! GRRRREK! GRRRREK!" every time I use it. I might try "persuading" the rear washer to point more where it needs to .. but I forgot to do it before my service (in case I broke it and the warranty would fit me a new one) so I've left it for now..
Ralf S.
