I'd never buy a French car again.

 

Same here.

 

My previous car was a Schitroen, which I owned from new.

Although it never actually broke down on the road, all manner of components failed prematurely or fell off.

 

My Roomster is in a different league.

Fiat? Seriously?

Fiat? Seriously?

We have two of them. Neither has broken down or failed an MOT which is better than my last two Octavias.

We have two of them. Neither has broken down or failed an MOT which is better than my last two Octavias.

 

My dad's on his fourth Fiat in the past few years.

 

First one he had fried it's entire wiring harness during a harsh winter (wet road + salt/grit got in to the electrics somehow?) and was quoted £900 to fix, not covered under warranty. So he traded it in for another one. That one had park assist that was neurotic and the driver's side door mechanism broke (could only open it from the inside), luckily he had 2 months warranty left so got a free repair on that one. Then the Punto Evo came out and he realised he was at the time paying in the region of £100/month more than he would be doing with the Evo.

 

Evo was a nice car actually (ride height seemed a bit high to me, just a preference thing), althoughhe's now running around in a Bravo after a new batch of grandkids came along which so far (touch wood) he hasn't had any problems with other than a slightly 'firm' ride in it and the fact the dealer simply refuses to sort out the fact he doesn't have a service book for it (and they've never delivered him the AA membership details he was supposed to have been entitled to with all 4 of them).

 

Not entirely sure why he keeps going back to that dealer if I'm honest :-/

 

Edit: Forgot, the dealer's also recently told him that 60,000 miles/4 years = cam belt change at a pretty high cost. He's not happy about that. If he'd had a service book he might well have noticed that well in advance, wonder if that's why they're not being helpful on that issue  :think:

Sounds like more of an issue with the dealer than the cars to me.

 

As for the cam belt, what engine does he have? Some are 4 year and 60k, some are 5 and 72k and the dealers don't always know the difference. I got mine confirmed in writing as being the latter by Fiat.

 

FiatForum.com are a useful source of information too. Not as good a forum as here (of course), but worth a look.

Edited 1 August, 201312 yr by Dr Zoidberg

Sounds like more of an issue with the dealer than the cars to me.

Apart from the blown electrics and dodgy door mechs  

 

From what he's told me it's made me decide to steer well clear of that dealer in the future. I keep trying to subtly hint to him that it's time to find a new dealer to use if/when he changes the car again.

 

As for the cam belt, what engine does he have? Some are 4 year and 60k, some are 5 and 72k and the dealers don't always know the difference. I got mine confirmed in writing as being the latter by Fiat.

 

I'm not 100% sure on that, I'd have to find out - cheers for the heads up though.

 

FiatForum.com are a useful source of information too. Not as good a forum as here (of course), but worth a look.

 

Ta

I have owned a number of Skoda cras and to be honest the least reliable by a big margin was my MK1 Octavia, the first VW Skoda I had owned.  My previous Felicia's were just Favorites with a very light VW brush.  The Felicia's were all rock solid reliability while the Octavia had numerous engine sensor faults and then the drivers door fell off due to metal fatigue in the hinges.

Although it never actually broke down on the road, all manner of components failed prematurely or fell off.

 

My exact experience of Renault too. Traded it in with the clutch pedal held together with cable ties after yet another pin failed.

 

Car was plagued with failures in 10p parts that required a £200 kit to fix.

Having owned both citroen and skoda, going by that table as the cars are equally reliable this would mean that in the skoda the service department would know me by sight and have a coffee waiting for me. And every month would require some sort of warranty work carried out.

Lucky Skoda is vastly more reliable than citroen, and frankly I'd rather stick my man parts in a blender than buy a ****roen......I mean citroen.

Seriously in my experience of ownership having the clap would be more enjoyable!

This of course is just my personal opinion.

I like to judge on merit even though i appreciate things have changed over the years.

 

I dont see many 80's/90's era Renaults Citreons or Fiats kicking about these days, speaks volumes!!!!, or Peugeots with the exception being the Peugeot 205 diesel which i see a surprising amount of so they must have made that good by mistake.

 

I regularly see old Honda Civics & i can also say my most reliable car so far was a Honda.i dont see many old Mitsubishi's though.

 

I often see old Golfs around.

Not seeing many around is possibly to do with the scrappage scheme the UK  government run as much as how these cars would have lasted.

 

Many pretty good cars got scrapped because it suited the owners, many lovely and good running cars, but old enough.

Some that i would prefer to be the owner of now and maybe still in another 10 year.

 

Plenty of 6 year old cars about that i would not want to own in another 6 years.

 

Some on sale new now that i am not sure i would want to own a 12 year model of.

 

george

Not seeing many around is possibly to do with the scrappage scheme the UK  government run as much as how these cars would have lasted.

 

 

The scrappage scheme was extremely silly, the cars had to have a valid MOT to qualify - so scrapping road worthy cars. Insane.

Having owned both citroen and skoda, going by that table as the cars are equally reliable this would mean that in the skoda the service department would know me by sight and have a coffee waiting for me. And every month would require some sort of warranty work carried out.

Lucky Skoda is vastly more reliable than citroen, and frankly I'd rather stick my man parts in a blender than buy a ****roen......I mean citroen.

Seriously in my experience of ownership having the clap would be more enjoyable!

This of course is just my personal opinion.

Like all makes, you get good ones and bad ones. I've had two citroens and 4 skodas both citroens were more reliable than all four skodas. I'm not saying the citroens were better cars though.

Like all makes, you get good ones and bad ones. I've had two citroens and 4 skodas both citroens were more reliable than all four skodas. I'm not saying the citroens were better cars though.

 

 

 I think it depended on the cars too. Had Pug 205, 306 and Citroen ZX and all were great cars. No fancy gubbins, no OTT electrics. Boggo the lot and nothing to go wrong like the current vehicles Francais offers. My Octavia has more kit on it than my 407 and unlike the Pug everything still works perfectly on it even though its thirteen years of age. 407 was shot after four years.

 

 

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/news/best-worst-cars-own-2013-150808404.html

 

 JD Power survey would seriously disagree with the OP's link too.

Edited 4 August, 201312 yr by sparks03

I think it depended on the cars too. Had Pug 205, 306 and Citroen ZX and all were great cars. No fancy gubbins, no OTT electrics. Boggo the lot and nothing to go wrong like the current vehicles Francais offers. My Octavia has more kit on it than my 407 and unlike the Pug everything still works perfectly on it even though its thirteen years of age. 407 was shot after four years.

http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/news/best-worst-cars-own-2013-150808404.html

JD Power survey would seriously disagree with the OP's link too.

I agree 100% the 407 has proven to be a disaster and those listed are brilliant cars, I've had a Xantia and a MK1 C5 and despite all the rubbish about the suspension neither suffered a single fault despite some pretty heavy mileage.

With these JD power survey I find a lot of people exaggerate the faults and cars with cult followings will get more responses than other makes. It says Ford is in the ten worst makes and I cannot disagree more. We've used them at work for the last 7 years and you honestly couldn't ask for anymore in terms of reliability.

My wives previous KA cost more to service than my 110 Toldeo and her current Fabia. It ate front springs for fun and just wasn't s particularly good car.