General how to care for a dualogic!

[fiatfan200]

hi all,

i was just looking for some advice & tips from other owners of a fiat 500 dualogic. mine is a 1.2 12 plate, 64k miles!

i've already had a 'brake switch' failure on my first day of ownership which was a lot, and a slight petrol smell in the cabin, but anyway - i feel like all i see is hate towards the dualogic which i can understand, i've been doing so much research and i get that this car can just end up being a complete and utter pain and cost you more than what it's worth.

but i'm looking to hear from other owners who actually ENJOY their car, and how they maintain it (i also have still got warranty so that helps). all my posts on here have just been riddled with people telling me to bin her off, which i don't really have the choice of doing. i also only have an auto licence so manual isn't an option! seems as if everyone is really making me second guess my purchase which is upsetting. i was always sought out to go for an Audi A1 so going for a fiat was a big difference that i am now starting to regret from what others are telling me.

i'm not much of a technical person myself, we have mechanics for that reason i suppose! i've already got a family mechanic who specialises in fiats as he owns one himself, so that's a bonus.

but yeah; just looking for some maintenance and care advice, things like the proper start up/stop like, should i be in N or not...i really want to look after my car as much as possible.

anything that you think might be useful for a first time fiat dualogic owner would be great.

thanks all

 

[jrkitching]

i also only have an auto licence so manual isn't an option!

Tbh most of the current crop of small automatic petrol cars don't have a much better reputation. Something with a torque converter and epicyclic gearbox will almost always be both more reliable and smoother in operation, but environmental considerations have seen most manufacturers move away from these to some form of robotised manual system.

More than a few younger drivers now will only have an auto licence; you are by no means alone in this regard. It's becoming increasingly hard to find a new car with a manual gearbox, and bolting any kind of automatic transmission onto the current crop of low powered 3cyl engines results in something that's far from ideal to drive. I recently test drove the latest automatic i10 and it was dreadful; even the manual version wasn't much better.

If I could only have an automatic car and I wanted something small, given what's currently available, I'd go electric.

just looking for some maintenance and care advice, things like the proper start up/stop like, should i be in N or not...i really want to look after my car as much as possible.

The user manual that came with the car will tell you the proper procedure for driving it. If this didn't come with your car when you bought it, you can download a copy for free from this forum. Just search in the downloads section for '500 dualogic supplement' and pick the one that's closest to the manufacturing date of your car.

There's not a great deal of preventative maintenance you can do on these transmissions; most problems are the result of seals failing and wearing components wearing out, which is going to happen eventually whatever you do.

If the transmission develops a major fault once out of warranty, you will likely lose whatever you have invested in this car.

If you must keep it, I'd suggest you scan the transmission for any fault codes on a regular basis (MES is one affordable tool that can do this), and be prepared to trade it away if you see that it's starting to have problems.

More than a few informed owners do exactly this, which is another reason why it's a good idea to be ultra wary when buying a used dualogic.

On a more positive note, the 500 dualogic is a nice car to drive when it's working properly; the folks that bought brand new and traded in before the expiry of the manufacturer's warranty have generally said good things about them. And there's at least one that's been around on here for a long time, it's had more repairs than my grandfather's axe but is still going strong; have a look for posts from @ahmett .