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500 Hello from a newbie

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500 Hello from a newbie

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petrolpete

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Just a little hello from a new 500 Twin Air Lounge owner. Bought a used example a couple of weeks ago (2 yrs old) and have been getting to know each other...

First impressions are good, its a cracking little car, good chassis that handles well, seems pretty well built, and when provoked its pretty zingy - obviously with the Eco button firmly off! :D

Main downside, which I'm guessing has been done to death on here (will be searching later), is the MPG being nowhere near the claimed figures. I'm quite an experienced (Advanced) driver. I've come from a Golf GT TDi, with lots or torque (easily over 50 mpg on my 25 mile e/w commute), I can be pretty economical when I'm not -making progress-. The 500 is struggling to get to 50. Tried Eco mode on and off, coasting where possible (ssshhh, not supposed to do that!) and I tend to carry speed quite well too. So gawd knows how they got those lab figures without frigging something.

Used to have a Smart Roadster Brabus - kinda similar - small engine, small car, turbo petrol, but more power (101 bhp v 85), and again easily 50 mpg including enthusiastic pedaling on the same commute. So its tarnished an otherwise great package. I know sometimes published figures are erm, optimistic, but not seen anything this far off. Guessing its case of they all do that, but let me know if I'm missing a special trick (y)

Would like to be able to contribute where I can, but not sure where that will be... I'm quite a petrol head, but this is really a commuting car...

Do we have a section for car history (ala Topgear)?

Thanks for setting up and running this forum, they are great sources of info :worship:
 
Welcome to the forum, Pete. I'm pretty new to it myself and have found it a great source for ideas, tips and discussion. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here and you'll get plenty of sound advice.

I don't know much about the TA (mine is a 1.4 100hp) but I've spent a bit of time in a mate's 500C TA and know what a characterful, burbly beaut of an engine it is! Way below official fuel consumption for this engine appears to be a common experience.
 
My Parents have had a 12 plate 500 TwinAir from new in March 2012. It started off giving about 45mpg, went up a couple of mpg after the first oil & filter change at 11,000 miles and has since hovered between 46 & 50mpg. It had it's first main service at 21,000 miles and that, combined with the recent warm weather seems to have helped boost its mpg to 48-52 recently. However I suspect as the temperatures drop and the oil wears, it'll go back to mid-late 40s. It's now on 24,000 miles.

The Parents seem very happy with it, but I did say to them before we bought it that they won't get close to the claimed mpg and the dealership said the same, so we were under no illusion. I think this makes a big difference.

However, for the performance (and/or feel of performance), the mpg is actually pretty good. I had a 1.4 16v Clio a few years ago which felt a lot slower and only got 39mpg, plus cost me circa £150/year in Tax, so the 500 TwinAir ain't too shabby.
 
Hello and welcome to the forum :wave:

petrolpete said:
Main downside, which I'm guessing has been done to death on here (will be searching later), is the MPG being nowhere near the claimed figures. ... ...The 500 is struggling to get to 50.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's been done to death on here and if you can get 50mpg from a TA, you're doing better than most folks.

Fiat's official mpg figures for the TA are a joke.

The 1.2 will easily beat it for economy, but the TA wins hands down for fun & smile factor.
 
My 2012 just took me to London from Lincolnshire. On the way back it did 212 miles on 1/4 of a tank and still has 230 left in the range.

On my normal weekly commute (roughly 38 miles a day) it's not the greatest sadly.
 
You've not done 212 miles on 1/4 of a tank sadly. My record from a tank is 600 and that's pushing it, most will be lucky to get low 400's from a good tank.
 
Yes, I'd have to agree with maxi on his last point.

Ours now has just under 5k on the clock and is averaging 45mpg on a 17 mile round trip commute. It is going in for its first service in just over a week's time, so oil and filter change only, plus the usual health check and oh, some warranty work, broken rear hatch micro switch, recall for dash wiring and dodgy stop/start issues.

However, as far as mpg goes, we've decided, much to my disappointment because I'm sorry, I am a big car fan, that in October, we're going to take the Wife's TA on a 500 mile round trip to where I originally hail from. I'm hoping we'll see a considerable increase in mpg on that trip as it is mostly motorway/dual carriageway running, plus the car will be on relatively fresh oil. Happy to trundle along at 65mph if it gives us a good return on mpg.
 
If you want the best fuel economy on a motorway then tuck into the slipstream of a coach, you don't have to get dangerously close for it to work. It means 60mph and earache from the wife, complaining that you're going too slow, but it works well for me, especially when my wife has gone to sleep.
It doesn't seem to affect journey times too much either, I find that whether I'm driving sedately or "making progress" I always average 60 mph over a long journey, why?
 
frupi said:
Yes, I'd have to agree with maxi on his last point.

Ours now has just under 5k on the clock and is averaging 45mpg on a 17 mile round trip commute. It is going in for its first service in just over a week's time, so oil and filter change only, plus the usual health check and oh, some warranty work, broken rear hatch micro switch, recall for dash wiring and dodgy stop/start issues.

However, as far as mpg goes, we've decided, much to my disappointment because I'm sorry, I am a big car fan, that in October, we're going to take the Wife's TA on a 500 mile round trip to where I originally hail from. I'm hoping we'll see a considerable increase in mpg on that trip as it is mostly motorway/dual carriageway running, plus the car will be on relatively fresh oil. Happy to trundle along at 65mph if it gives us a good return on mpg.
Click to expand...
in my opinion fresh oil does not improve fuel consumption. new spark plugs do.
 
Thankfully ahmett and in light of some of your previous posts regarding service intervals and what you personally would or wouldn't do, I stopped valuing your opinion quite some time ago lol!

Apologies in advance if you take any offence! :devil: (y)
 
360maxi - why decide that i am wrong? It's all too often on here that there is somebody ready to slap you down!!

As mentioned in my post, i don't get that one my regular weekly commute, but on this occasion, i did 212 on 1/4 tank! Do i think that means i will get 848 from a full tank? no!

It just means that on this commute, a clear A1, great conditions and (for once from me) great driving... that's what it did.

Why be so adamant that i'm wrong? I'm the one who did the drive, who looked at the milage compared to fuel consumption.

Maybe it's a once off - it may well be... but i hope not.
 
bplanky500 said:
360maxi - why decide that i am wrong? It's all too often on here that there is somebody ready to slap you down!!



As mentioned in my post, i don't get that one my regular weekly commute, but on this occasion, i did 212 on 1/4 tank! Do i think that means i will get 848 from a full tank? no!



It just means that on this commute, a clear A1, great conditions and (for once from me) great driving... that's what it did.



Why be so adamant that i'm wrong? I'm the one who did the drive, who looked at the milage compared to fuel consumption.



Maybe it's a once off - it may well be... but i hope not.
Click to expand...


Well to be fair the segments on the gauge are not linear if that's what you are measuring a quarter of a tank by. If you really did get 212 miles over a quarter then you were averaging around 120mpg!!! Having said that I'm sure you got a good result whatever it was, the TA can return great mpg under the right conditions.
 
:yeahthat:

bplanky500 said:
360maxi - why decide that i am wrong? It's all too often on here that there is somebody ready to slap you down!!

As mentioned in my post, i don't get that one my regular weekly commute, but on this occasion, i did 212 on 1/4 tank! Do i think that means i will get 848 from a full tank? no!

It just means that on this commute, a clear A1, great conditions and (for once from me) great driving... that's what it did.

Why be so adamant that i'm wrong? I'm the one who did the drive, who looked at the milage compared to fuel consumption.

Maybe it's a once off - it may well be... but i hope not.
Click to expand...

You got that mileage over 2 blobs on the tank, which it not nessecarily 1/4 of a tank, as it's not a linear gauge (y)
 
bplanky500 said:
360maxi - why decide that i am wrong? It's all too often on here that there is somebody ready to slap you down!!

As mentioned in my post, i don't get that one my regular weekly commute, but on this occasion, i did 212 on 1/4 tank! Do i think that means i will get 848 from a full tank? no!

It just means that on this commute, a clear A1, great conditions and (for once from me) great driving... that's what it did.

Why be so adamant that i'm wrong? I'm the one who did the drive, who looked at the milage compared to fuel consumption.

Maybe it's a once off - it may well be... but i hope not.
Click to expand...

Because the blobs aren't linear and because if you brim the tank then you've got an extra 7 litres that the gauge doesn't know is there.

I've done 68 thousand miles in my 500, I've travelled the farthest (as far as I'm aware) of anyone with a 500 on a single tank. I went 600 miles on a brimmed tank and was ten miles from running out of fuel (I've done this before as well!) and there is absolutely no way you're going to go 800 miles on a tank. It just isn't going to happen.
 
Btw I went 600 miles by going from North Wales down to Kent and back doing 50mph and occasionally doing 60 to overtake. I kept my lights off as much as possible, fan on 1, air con used only in small bursts, steel wheels with narrow tyres and not touching the brakes. It was utterly infuriating and annoying.

If you can manage 200 miles on a quarter tank in a petrol 500 then I shall eat my hat.

I'm not shooting you down, you act as if this would bring me joy, I'm simply pointing out that the segments on the petrol gauge in the 500 aren't really a reflection of what is going on, especially if you brimmed it.
 
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