Each case is individual so perhaps the garage had a genuine 'argument', I can only go by my past experiences.
My Mk2 hasn't had a penny (mine or Fiats) spent on it in 6 years (80K), it is alo unfair to mention locks/wishbones because this is not solely down to Fiats but all manufactures. If you had a citroen,vauxhall,ford,peugeot you would no doubt be saying these things on a different forum.
I was also a 'dis-believer' (I accepted the usual pub talk about them) in Fiats until I started working on them but have now done a 180o turnaround, yes they have weak points but no more/less than similar cars.
I dont think Fiat have a 'gearbox' problem, considering the sheer volume of cars sold the amount of gearboxes failing is well under the 'probability' level.
On the other side of the coin, there is little money to be made from running a Fiat franchise which is why so many are doubled up with another make. Training, parts stock, tooling, courtesy cars are a huge expense.[/QUOTE]
Good points T but dealers should take those issues up with Fiat or drop the Fiat dealership, that would get Fiats attention!