General Newbie

[Highlander]

Hi folks, I'm Ian, and my wife and I took delivery of a new Qubo 1.3 Dynamic just prior to Xmas.

We had searched about for a while to get a car that ticked all the boxes. Price, was the main one then we had the wifes parents, and Hamish the Labradoodle.

We had planned to buy a Trekking, but after a quick dheck with a tape measure it was spotted that the Trekking would not go under the up and over garage door so we decided on the Dynamic, which goes in with half an inch to spare.

So far no probs, my daughter used it to go from Edinburgh to kirkcaldy when the snow was bad ( her Mini was in getting snow tyres and wheels fitted), and she was quite impressed with it on bad roads, but she has not tried it on the Forth road bridge in a 60mph wind yet........lolol.

If it runs as well as both the Panda's did i'll be well chuffed.

cheers Ian

 

[JTD_Liam]

Glad to hear of another Qubo purchase. I don't own one (as a single 27 year old who doesn't own a pushbike or surf board, or dog) i don't really have much need for one. However, it's great to see another Fiat other than the 500 being purchased.

As good as the 500 is, Fiat do have a range outside of it. Unfortunately people, including Fiat UKs marketting team, seem to forget that.

Would be great if you add yourself to the 'Number of Qubo's' thread - for some reason knowone else has bothered

Liam.

 

[Highlander]

My wife had a 500 between her two MJ Panda's, and to be honest it was the one of the worst cars purchased, i'd put on a par with the 1.6 Montego we once owned. ( and it was bad ).
In the 18 months we had the 500, a 1.2 pop. it burst 4 breather pipes on the top on the engine, plus in the cold weather you got more ice inside the car than out. ( both probs seem to common throughout the range).
Fiat seem to be putting all their eggs into one basket, and its not a good idea.
The Panda is far better thought out, but like all Fiat models they dont seem to put enough models in the range. They did the Panda Sporting ( a tarted up diesel), but only 400 made........WHY?.

So now we have a Qubo, with plenty of toys and a blue / me system that does not like my wifes phone, thus saving me a fortune.....lol.

As for playing about with the bits and bobs, I will leave that until Spring, or the first day I feel a little heat on my back.

cheers Ian

 

[ivantate]

I thought you had a Sporting previously, did you also make the second Panda look like a Sporting?

Good choice with the Qubo, we went to look at them to replace the Panda after having a baby and needing to carry him and my bike everywhere. A combination of them selling the demonstrator on the day we were meant to have it and finding the immaculate Idea for 1/5th of the price meant we had to try the Idea!! It hasnt disappointed yet and we have found the sliding 40/20/40 seat really useful combining pushchairs, bikes and babyseats. But conventional rear doors make it difficult with baby seats, £150 road tax and 38mpg make it a bit of dearer to run than the Qubo or Panda.

We cant really work out whether to sell the Panda yet but as I have 5 cars at the moment a couple of them should go.

What colour Qubo did you go for?

 

[ivantate]

I forgot the whole point of the previous drivel post, the blue&me.

If you are having problems with compatibility you can update the software using a usb stick and a download off the fiat site. I cant remember the details but a combination of searching on here and google got me enough information to attempt it on the mother-in-laws 500C over christmas. She wanted her ipod to work on it but we then found the build date of the car was too early and the actual hardware wasnt compatible either.

Not sure what other updates are included but it might help.

 

[Highlander]

Your correct Ivantate, we had a Panda Sporting, but were having real probs getting it insured, as Fiat had cocked up the V5's for the car. All the 400 Sportings were V5'd as being Heavy Oil Dynamics, which was wrong it should have been Heavy Oil Sporting. It took a year of wrangle between Dealer, Insurer, and Fiat before we got a letter stating Fiats fault, and a new V5 was sent out.
After that each time we tried to insure the car it was still coming up at there end a Dynamic, so rather than have amy more probs purchased a 500, (BIG MISTAKE ), AND VERY QUICKLY WENT BACK TO MJ PANDA.

We had not had the car that long when I was informed at local eye hospital that I had cracks appearing on both my retina's, and that there was nothing they could do about it ( in other words I was going blind ).

Over the next year I got paired up with Hamish my 35 kilo guide dog, now he liked the Panda but did not fit the boot, and took up all the back seat, hence the Qubo. So the only thing I drve these days has four legs.....lol

cheers Ian

 

[ivantate]

sorry to hear about bad situation, one any of us would find difficult.
sounds like you have made a new buddy though, and are finding good solutions.