Save up to 15% with Adrian Flux insurance!

General Driving a 500 1.2 across Europe.

Currently reading:
General Driving a 500 1.2 across Europe.

arorat said:
Frupi, how are you?

The art is to stop overnight and break the journey, actually the 500 seats are quiet comfy and you can keep on driving until your eyes close. Btw I also did couple of London to Barcelona trips on a motorbike via pyrenees, about 1000 miles door to door, amazing - couldn't do that now.
Click to expand...


Yes, good good. All is well!


Had a busy morning, had to change the front discs and pads on the Wife's i10, she has a lead foot lol! :bang:


I think I've been a bit spoilt in the last couple of years. I regularly drive some pretty high end cars that exude comfort. Even in the Wife's i10, I find it tiring. Maybe I'm just a snob lol!
 
frupi said:
Yes, good good. All is well!


Had a busy morning, had to change the front discs and pads on the Wife's i10, she has a lead foot lol! :bang:


I think I've been a bit spoilt in the last couple of years. I regularly drive some pretty high end cars that exude comfort. Even in the Wife's i10, I find it tiring. Maybe I'm just a snob lol!
Click to expand...

Hahaha we are all snobs when we want to be, good to see you are still passionate about cars :)
 
306maxi said:
Bah! I did Calais to Chamonix in a day!
Click to expand...

frupi said:
That would quite literally kill me off lol! :D


I still get the odd 50 mile drive in a 500 when I'm transferring them between dealerships, but most of the time I'm in a 500 these days for about 5 minutes. I am starting to like the Abarth.......:devil:
Click to expand...

Maxi is younger and single minded to get to his destination, we want comfort.
 
Tbh I wouldn’t take the 500 now that I’ve got the 3 series. But if I had to I’d happily drive it to Chamonix again!
 
We regularly drive over to Germany (once a month?) for a road trip, in the Tesla (have yet to take my TA 105s but I'm excited to do so once I get the opportunity) - I would say there are no real issues driving at under 130kph when the motorways are not busy, we generally set the Tesla to cruise at less than that, and just enjoy the ride. I would say in my experience Germans are better at obeying speed limits, but on the unrestricted parts, they will most certainly generally, make the most of it. We're always wary of Belgian cars though, they drive by their own rules #erratic

I would go in the TA myself. Would be a much more fun ride to the destination, but then mine has an electric sunroof to help enjoy the weather once you are there.
 
This time 2 years ago I was looking for a TwinAir convertible, really as a fun car to do a 6 weeks French and Spanish holiday. I had purchased a normal TwinAir new as a commuter car and loved it so much, we thought we would purchase a convertible version.

I struggled to find a decent 500c TwinAir for the budget of £9.5K it had to be less than 3 years old with no more than 20000miles on the clock.. In the end Watford Fiat offered me a 1.2 with 8500miles for £7.5K in perfect condition. We drove all over southern Frence house hunting and then the complete coast of Spain and Portugal, 4000 miles in total. We loved the experience and all of our luggage fitted in the boot. As we were touring we didn't want anything visible across the back seats if we weren't in the car etc.

We didn't take the roof down during the day or on the motorways (August and September 30C), but it was lovely to drop the roof on the cooler evenings!

We have since moved to Valencia. All of the cars we owned in the UK have done the journey several times... in fact I driven Valencia to London in one day in both the BMW X3 and the 1.2 500 - both are equally very comfortable and then of course the BMW beat the Fiat by 2hours (16hrs instead of 18) but only because it is capable of effortlessly breaking the speed limits etc
 

Attachments

  • 14199212_10154531219521151_236757018845314116_n.jpg
    14199212_10154531219521151_236757018845314116_n.jpg
    120.2 KB · Views: 29
  • 14141696_10154534543401151_8939049960963179890_n.jpg
    14141696_10154534543401151_8939049960963179890_n.jpg
    93.9 KB · Views: 23
  • 14088491_10154509759401151_6517203811074513069_n.jpg
    14088491_10154509759401151_6517203811074513069_n.jpg
    76 KB · Views: 28
Last edited:
schmoosmith said:
How do you guys think it will cope on a long 530 mile cruise at 130kmh (80mph), my concern is that it will drink fuel and struggle to maintain speed up some of hills. Has anyone do a similar journey?
Click to expand...

If you plan to stick to the speed limits, the 1.2 will be fine. Over our 4000mile trip which was mainly motorways - 130kph in France and 120kph in Spain our 1.2 returned 46mpg.

It did struggle a little out of underground garages and to maintain 120kph on steep motorway sections.

We later had the car remapped and it is like a different machine!
 
Just back from a 5 day trip to the Black Forest and through the Mosel/wine region of Germany, (also through the Route de Cretes in France and into the north of Switzerland) - was another lovely, relaxing trip (and drive!) taking in lots of beautiful scenery. Probably going again in July!
 
Update: We just got back from Germany. Did a mamouth 1800 miles and the car was faultless, returned an overall average of 40.6mpg which isn’t bad considering we did around 85mph most of the time, although it was sometimes a little slow on some hills at no point did we ever feel unsafe. Drove into the Czech Republic for a day too and it was great. Weather was baking and we are well pleased we took the convertible. Thank you to everyone who contributed to my questions.
 
Hi.
Did Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1981 in a Skoda 120 LSE with no problem. Also did St Raphiel (South of France) in 1992 in a Skoda Favorit 5 up.

There should be no problem in the 500C

Enjoy........
 
Finally got round to doing my Europe trip, mainly due to airport closures during the most recent 'heatwave' forcing me to! London to countryside between Frankfurt and Luxembourg, in my TA 105. Super comfortable to drive and absolutely smooth as butter on the motorways, and a joy up those winding mountain climbs off the motorway. Tom Tom was faultless and took all the stress out of navigation. Forgot to set the trip so not sure of mpg, but a full tank on the way back took me all the way home to West London, so over 400 miles. Funnily enough, when I got to my destination, our farmer neighbours were more interested in my 105 (Freddie) than my partner's Tesla (they all had vintage tractors with 1 cylinder and loved the fact Freddie 'only' had 2 cylinders!). Doing the trip again in 2 weeks :cool:
 
Last edited:
If you don't mind me asking, who did your remapping? Do you have concerns re clutch wear etc?
p6baseunit said:
If you plan to stick to the speed limits, the 1.2 will be fine. Over our 4000mile trip which was mainly motorways - 130kph in France and 120kph in Spain our 1.2 returned 46mpg.

It did struggle a little out of underground garages and to maintain 120kph on steep motorway sections.

We later had the car remapped and it is like a different machine!
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

G
  • Question
Technical 1.2 500 front suspension
Replies
6
Views
427
Pugglt Auld Jock
Pugglt Auld Jock
A
Technical Fiat 500 1.2 with 3 error codes
Replies
0
Views
151
AntonyB
A
R
Technical Fiat 500 1.2 Petrol, jumped a tooth according to the AA man
Replies
10
Views
459
Reedy123
R
M
Technical My 2013 (63) 1.2L Fiat 500 Lounge Keeps Cutting Out While Driving
Replies
4
Views
344
Ralf S.
Ralf S.
B
  • Question
General 500 1.2 petrol euro 5 , oil leak
Replies
9
Views
554
yann
Y
Back
Top