The 500, like most Fiat's, has it's faults, but again like most Fiat's, they tend not to be hugely major problems. The tailgate wiring breaking in two, door handles falling off, stop-start not working correctly, suspension parts wearing out early are all annoying, but none should really cost a huge amount of money to fix so long as you engage a bit of thought and go to a decent independent (out of warranty) rather than running straight off to the nearest main dealer. In some cases (albeit rare) the dealer prices aren't horrific either.
Generally the fundamental bits of the 500s running gear, as with most Fiat's, is fairly sound. The 1.2s have had that bad run during 2014, but it appears to be software related, and the 1.3 Multijet diesel can self destruct if it's driven round town too much, but it's not a unique diesel engine in behaving like this. I've only ever seen 3 500's on recovery trucks, all more than 3 years old at the time, and look how many there are on the roads. Thousands.
Having a door handle fall off in your hand or a rear wiper going haywire sure is un-nerving, and some people probably think 'jeez if the door handles are this bad, what's the engine like', but that's kindof the point with Fiat (and Alfa) - the important bits are usually fine, they just appear to get bored towards the end of development and let a handful of rubbish components slip through the net. VW on the other hand wooo the owner with plush trim and solid fixtures, but what's underneath often proves itself to be a whole lot more fragile than that in a Fiat - *thinks DSG gearboxes & some VW TSI engines*.
Where Fiat
really falls down is aftercare & the 'customer experience'. The dealers minimum standards appear to run little further than having 4 walls and a roof, the rest is upto the individual franchise to decide, so you could have an excellent one, but you could have a truly appalling one. Unlike makes like Toyota & Honda, Fiat appear to show absolutely no willingness or desire to raise the minimum standards, and show even smaller regard for any customer who approaches Fiat UK with a problem or query.
My Parents 500 TwinAir Lounge, in 3 years & 32,000 miles needed two rear number plate bulbs, a new washer pump (a valve was leaking) and a new front anti roll bar (it was knocking over bumps). Other than the bulbs, the faults didn't need rectifying until the end of year 3 and all were paid for by warranty - that's as good as you'll get from any modern car. The trouble we had with Fiat is that parts take an age to arrive, servicing is very expensive vs the value of the car (£370 for a TwinAir 18k service), and if you ever need to contact Fiat UK (we didn't for the 500 but have done for another car) it's like you're the first customer they've ever spoken to - put succinctly, they're clueless, and largely useless.
So no, 500s aren't bad, it's just that when one of the minor faults crop up (far minor than most new cars) the runaround you get from Fiat or one of their poorer dealers makes it feel like the biggest problem in the World.
Fiat, if you're watching, take note yeah!
