I dont trust the car reliability index as i found that the reliable cars that they stated were not so reliable when i checked the feedback from their owners. I am suprised to see that the older cars are also loaded with problems as friends had advised me to buy an older car as they said they were more reliable than the newer computerised cars.
Fiat Mechanic's Opinion of Fiats
- Thread starter Steven
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Fiat Mechanic's Opinion of Fiats
Modern cars are more reliable than older cars,there are only 2 reasons for people saying otherwise...
1)they have limited technical knowledge
2)they dont understand modern car systems
(p.s.Rolls royce have their problems
)
1)they have limited technical knowledge
2)they dont understand modern car systems
(p.s.Rolls royce have their problems
)
Don't forget their rose tinted glasses!T14086 said:Modern cars are more reliable than older cars,there are only 2 reasons for people saying otherwise...
1)they have limited technical knowledge
2)they dont understand modern car systems
(p.s.Rolls royce have their problems
Yes quite true...........
3)rose tinted glasses
p.s.I have nothing against 'older' cars/bikes...all some of us can afford
3)rose tinted glasses
p.s.I have nothing against 'older' cars/bikes...all some of us can afford
I think the problem with newer cars is there are less owner servicable parts. On older cars there is more things that you can easily change yourself. You do these things because they are part of owning the car. You only take the car into the garage when something actually goes wrong big time.
Newer cars need a trip to the garage for these minor things (headlamps on a Stilo anyone?) and based on the idea that a trip to the garage means something has gone wrong you get the idea that newer cars are less reliable.
Well that's my view anyway. Not any less or more reliable, but percieved.
Newer cars need a trip to the garage for these minor things (headlamps on a Stilo anyone?) and based on the idea that a trip to the garage means something has gone wrong you get the idea that newer cars are less reliable.
Well that's my view anyway. Not any less or more reliable, but percieved.
Hellcat said:
yes i agree people iver cant be bothered geting fings fixed at the dealer untill they escalate into something big
or they try and do it their self and fudge it up cos they dont know what their doing
it also amazes me how many people dont read and understand their manuals
for example how many people do you get driving around with the engine light flashing at them and they seem to think it is alright to drive to the garage or on holiday first mabey by wich time they have done untold damage
i had a guy ask me if it was ok to drive his punto to manchester from cumbria and back with one of his coil drivers in the ecu failed on a punto so i said yes if he dosent mind paying for a cat aswell
turns out he needed to so in the end i just unpluged the injectors to the non firing cylinders to try and minimise the damage even thou it whould still be running rich from the excess oxigen in exhaust
in my opinion the stupidist people are the ones that dont have a clue what their doing but want to take fings into their own hands like an older customer i have dealt with whou desided he whould change his coolent himself as he thought it needed doing more often than the servise book sujests
he had that biodegradable stuff you know the pink stuff and he changed it for the old blue stuff as he thought this was better for the winter
and i'm sure you all know what happens when you mix these together
well to cut a long storry short you get breenybrown jelly everywere
you have to dismantle half the car to get rid of it heater matrix rad need replacing and it was a rover so the head was warped cos it got so hot and sucked in a hole load of this jelly and cracked the block too good one
he obviousely ignored the temprature guage and then he asked if it whould be covered by waranty
completly clueless
this may be true. but usually when an old car breaksdown it can be fixed relatively simply, and usually cheaply.DanGil said:
A modern car can still be quite easy to repair, i've traced a faulty lambda before and confirmed it with a blow torch and multimeter, the gearbox and clutch was a complete pain to change especially when its the middle of winter and you've only got axle stands:slayer:
I'll agree with a couple of things that I've seen in this thread:
(1) The reliability of cars has improved markedly over the past 10-15 years or so.
(2) The badge on the front doesn't always mean much.
The last car I owned before I left the US was a Saturn SL1, which is a sedan roughly the size of a Grande Punto or Jetta - I think was only available in the US domestic market. (It's the car that was supposed to save GM, and just look at them now!) They don't have a great reputation, and they're practically worthless on the used market. Mine cost maybe half what I would have paid for a comparable Jetta or Civic and probably 20% less than I would have paid for a comparable Hyundai or Kia. It was a 2001 model, and I paid US$2800/UKP1400 with 89,000 miles (143000 km) on it in very nice shape.
Repuatation aside, the thing was fantastic - great fuel economy (by American standards, at least - on the highway I got about 45mpg if you use UK gallons.), rock solid reliability, and the only thing I had to do to it (beyond replacing the tires when I bought it) was repair some damage after somebody tried to steal it. My brother is now driving it, and between my use and his we've put about 20k miles on it without a single fault.
By comparison, my mom has a 2001 Jetta which was a complete nightmare from new - electrical problems, suspension problems, fuel system problems, etc. Goes to show the badge doesn't mean everything.
So we'll see now - my Cinquecento was pretty cheap; (a '95, CHF3500 with 113000km, or UKP1500/US$3000 with 70000 miles, depending which language you speak). The other car I was interested in at the dealer was a Daihatsu Move 850, which was 2 years newer, 50% more mileage, and cost CHF1200 more. (Oh, and it was pink. Or at least pink-ish.)
Yes, my American friends made fun of me for buying a Fiat, but the 1100 motor has quite a good reputation, the car really is very nice to drive (even on the motorway), and there was nothing in comparable shape in that price range. We'll see if taking the less desireable badge pays off again (did I just classify Daihatsu as a premium brand?), but I suspect that it does.
Any modern car should be able to provide 100,000 trouble-free miles. In the US, Hyundai, Kia, and Suzuki back this up with a powertrain warranty that lasts this long. They've been doing it for some time, so presumably it's not costing them too much. And none of these are cars that have huge margins to work with - I don't think Hyundai is paying for a ton of repairs out of the massive profit they make from an $8000 Accent. A "non-premium" brand _can_ compete on quality; it remains to be seen whether Fiat is trying to go this route, but the good reputation enjoyed by the new Panda seems to be a good sign. If we end up staying in Switzerland long-term, we might even buy a new Panda, though that would interfere with my plan to take a photo of the Cinquecento in every European country.
(1) The reliability of cars has improved markedly over the past 10-15 years or so.
(2) The badge on the front doesn't always mean much.
The last car I owned before I left the US was a Saturn SL1, which is a sedan roughly the size of a Grande Punto or Jetta - I think was only available in the US domestic market. (It's the car that was supposed to save GM, and just look at them now!) They don't have a great reputation, and they're practically worthless on the used market. Mine cost maybe half what I would have paid for a comparable Jetta or Civic and probably 20% less than I would have paid for a comparable Hyundai or Kia. It was a 2001 model, and I paid US$2800/UKP1400 with 89,000 miles (143000 km) on it in very nice shape.
Repuatation aside, the thing was fantastic - great fuel economy (by American standards, at least - on the highway I got about 45mpg if you use UK gallons.), rock solid reliability, and the only thing I had to do to it (beyond replacing the tires when I bought it) was repair some damage after somebody tried to steal it. My brother is now driving it, and between my use and his we've put about 20k miles on it without a single fault.
By comparison, my mom has a 2001 Jetta which was a complete nightmare from new - electrical problems, suspension problems, fuel system problems, etc. Goes to show the badge doesn't mean everything.
So we'll see now - my Cinquecento was pretty cheap; (a '95, CHF3500 with 113000km, or UKP1500/US$3000 with 70000 miles, depending which language you speak). The other car I was interested in at the dealer was a Daihatsu Move 850, which was 2 years newer, 50% more mileage, and cost CHF1200 more. (Oh, and it was pink. Or at least pink-ish.)
Yes, my American friends made fun of me for buying a Fiat, but the 1100 motor has quite a good reputation, the car really is very nice to drive (even on the motorway), and there was nothing in comparable shape in that price range. We'll see if taking the less desireable badge pays off again (did I just classify Daihatsu as a premium brand?), but I suspect that it does.
Any modern car should be able to provide 100,000 trouble-free miles. In the US, Hyundai, Kia, and Suzuki back this up with a powertrain warranty that lasts this long. They've been doing it for some time, so presumably it's not costing them too much. And none of these are cars that have huge margins to work with - I don't think Hyundai is paying for a ton of repairs out of the massive profit they make from an $8000 Accent. A "non-premium" brand _can_ compete on quality; it remains to be seen whether Fiat is trying to go this route, but the good reputation enjoyed by the new Panda seems to be a good sign. If we end up staying in Switzerland long-term, we might even buy a new Panda, though that would interfere with my plan to take a photo of the Cinquecento in every European country.
