We had a Fiat 500 thread before with real men Briskoda members that surprised the odd Van Man when they realised it was a hairy assed 

workie driving the wee Babe machine.

& a member with the M135i that had adventures in the Abarth.

Edited 14 November, 201411 yr by goneoffSKi

We had a Fiat 500 thread before with real men Briskoda members that surprised the odd Van Man when they realised it was a hairy assed

workie driving the wee Babe machine.

& a member with the M135i that had adventures in the Abarth.

Yeah i remember that thread! Haha. Thats why i said it .

Furbytom is that?

I genuinely know a guy thats mrs has a pink 500. He drives it to work some days and doesnt give a ****e.

Hes up the there with some of the strongest i know aswel though. So maybe thats why he doesnt care lol.

Someone earlier mentioned this being discussed on Fiat forums so had a little dig and found this thread which seems to have started before the Watchdog program and starts off complaining about a poor throttle response:

 

http://www.fiatforum.com/500/339820-euro6-1-2-throttle-response-hill-start-issues-watchdog-report.html

 

I didn't think much of the Watchdog segment as the expert waffled on for a while and although he did mention they were seeing a problem with the throttle response, it wasn't clear what else they'd seen as there's a lot of references to Euro VI but they didn't say anything about the power output from the engine or possible changes that had been made.  Nor did they get an older 1.2 Fiat 500 to compare it against, I did find it convincing that it's not a case of just low power output and poor driving though and the suggestion on that Fiat forum is that not all cars are affected.

 

John

My daughter has a Fiat 500 with 1.2 petrol engine, it's a so called Sport limited edition model by Diesel. Cracking looking wee car in black, and once you get used to driving it you can make the wee car fairly scuttle along if you need to. Hills are not a problem as such, it's a matter of momentum really with the wee car, and making sure you use the gearbox. Our Chloe is a demon in hers, not sure if it's one of the ones referred to with the problems as her car is a late 2010 model and seems fine.

 

And just so that folk realise that it's not only Skoda garages that can make a monumental f'up, here's a cautionary tale about a Fiat garage, albeit it too was a Parks of Hamilton one.

 

Chloe's wee car, like all the Fiat 500''s, has daytime running lights. Control of whether or not these lights are on can be adjusted using the dash menu, fairly straightforward. Similarly, should a bulb go out then a warning appears on the dash to advise you to check the DRL's. An orange light is left on until the bulb is replaced.

 

Chloe had a DRL bulb go, so when passing the Parks garage decided to pop in and ask them to put a bulb in for her. They took the car straight away which was very good of them, but then kept it for 2 hours. When Chloe asked what was going on with her car they told her there was a problem, it looked like either the wiring was gone or the unit itself was gone. Wiring wouldn't be covered under warranty, the unit would be. But to find out which one it was, they wanted to put it onto the diagnostic machine at a cost of £48. Chloe called me, and I asked if she had told them she had switched the lights off at the dash, she had told them. I told her not to do anything until I got down, roughly 10 minutes or so away.

 

When I got there they told me none of the DRL's were coming on and suggested an electrical problem. I took the keys, went onto the dash menu, adjusted the setting to read DRL's on, and one of the bulbs came on. Ah ha the service engineer chap says, it is an electrical problem otherwise both would have come on. I said I would take the car up the road and get back to them. On the way home I went in to the local workshop where the chap who looks after the cars removed the bulb to find that they had fitted a single element bulb instead of a double, and worse still had incorrectly fitted the bulb, basically jamming it in. 2 minutes later, one double element bulb and a fiver for his trouble and job was a good un.

 

So, it's not just Skoda garages that can get it wrong.

My daughter has a Fiat 500 with 1.2 petrol engine, it's a so called Sport limited edition model by Diesel. Cracking looking wee car in black, and once you get used to driving it you can make the wee car fairly scuttle along if you need to. Hills are not a problem as such, it's a matter of momentum really with the wee car, and making sure you use the gearbox. Our Chloe is a demon in hers, not sure if it's one of the ones referred to with the problems as her car is a late 2010 model and seems fine.

And just so that folk realise that it's not only Skoda garages that can make a monumental f'up, here's a cautionary tale about a Fiat garage, albeit it too was a Parks of Hamilton one.

Chloe's wee car, like all the Fiat 500''s, has daytime running lights. Control of whether or not these lights are on can be adjusted using the dash menu, fairly straightforward. Similarly, should a bulb go out then a warning appears on the dash to advise you to check the DRL's. An orange light is left on until the bulb is replaced.

Chloe had a DRL bulb go, so when passing the Parks garage decided to pop in and ask them to put a bulb in for her. They took the car straight away which was very good of them, but then kept it for 2 hours. When Chloe asked what was going on with her car they told her there was a problem, it looked like either the wiring was gone or the unit itself was gone. Wiring wouldn't be covered under warranty, the unit would be. But to find out which one it was, they wanted to put it onto the diagnostic machine at a cost of £48. Chloe called me, and I asked if she had told them she had switched the lights off at the dash, she had told them. I told her not to do anything until I got down, roughly 10 minutes or so away.

When I got there they told me none of the DRL's were coming on and suggested an electrical problem. I took the keys, went onto the dash menu, adjusted the setting to read DRL's on, and one of the bulbs came on. Ah ha the service engineer chap says, it is an electrical problem otherwise both would have come on. I said I would take the car up the road and get back to them. On the way home I went in to the local workshop where the chap who looks after the cars removed the bulb to find that they had fitted a single element bulb instead of a double, and worse still had incorrectly fitted the bulb, basically jamming it in. 2 minutes later, one double element bulb and a fiver for his trouble and job was a good un.

So, it's not just Skoda garages that can get it wrong.

A fiver for his trouble? You were generous.

No chance he'd of got that out of me.

A fiver for his trouble? You were generous.

No chance he'd of got that out of me.

 

And it's us Scots who are supposed to be miserable....

 

It was more a matter of keeping good faith with the chap, he looks after my daughter's car and my son's car, and will look after the Fabia once the warranty period is out. Nice to be nice and all that.

And it's us Scots who are supposed to be miserable....

It was more a matter of keeping good faith with the chap, he looks after my daughter's car and my son's car, and will look after the Fabia once the warranty period is out. Nice to be nice and all that.

Its not miserable, its a case of 'he should know better than i do'

Its not exactly a tough job. A bulb.

I agree with nice to be nice. But all hes done is wasted about 3 hours of your time?

Anyway. Aslong as you're happy thats all that matters. Just sayin, i would of payed a penny haha.

Im not tight. Im quite the opposite, when somebody does a good job.

If it can't climb a hill, has it got enough poke for modern day driving, overtaking safely etc?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk the free non retired version!

I don't think it helps that Watchdog just over sensationalise a lot of the things they cover recently.

 

Myself and a couple of colleagues (Telecom industry) were watching an episode a few weeks ago regarding people being "tied in to mobile contracts". They had a segment of around 10 minutes with an "interview" with a guy from OFCOM (More like an interrogation) and i think three cases of which only one was a genuine issue where the user was stuck with a contract and no coverage through no fault of their own!!! (As long as you haven't moved house if a network removes a mast and you lose coverage you can end the contract early.... I know because myself and the wife had the exact same issue with O2 when the local mast was removed because the land owner redeveloped the land where the O2 mast was located). I can't remember the details of one of the other two but it was a very dubious case and the final one involved a lass who signed up to a 24 month deal then moved house a few months later to an area where that company had no coverage and expected to be let out of the contract!!!!

 

It's like me buying a car today when i live at a house with parking and then moving to an apartment with no parking in 6 months time and expecting the dealership to just take the car back and cancel the deal because i no longer have anywhere to keep the car!!!!

Its not miserable, its a case of 'he should know better than i do'

Its not exactly a tough job. A bulb.

I agree with nice to be nice. But all hes done is wasted about 3 hours of your time?

Anyway. Aslong as you're happy thats all that matters. Just sayin, i would of payed a penny haha.

Im not tight. Im quite the opposite, when somebody does a good job.

 

I gave a guy £30 for opening my bonnet..

This isn't a new problem or a small engine problem.  The original Ur Quattro was slower from 20-40 in top than the 1.0 Polo of the time.  Wrong gear!!!

I gave a guy £30 for opening my bonnet..

Can i open your bonnet next time please? haha

This isn't a new problem or a small engine problem. The original Ur Quattro was slower from 20-40 in top than the 1.0 Polo of the time. Wrong gear!!!

s

een the video linked above?

I thought that, but im not so convinced now lol

Revving the nuts off and slipping the clutch for a hill start....not fit for purpose.

Changing down and keeping the revs high to go up hill is OK...until there is a queue of traffic in front of you, then it's rev up and slip the clutch. That will be good when you're in a long stop start queue where you move forward a car at a time.

I drive in hire cars when working or on holiday abroad and generally you get the feel for the 'characteristics' of the car within a few hours. but I don't recall driving a car where is method of car control was the norm, not even my old 850cc mini.

High revs and clutch slipping will mean poor mpg and a new clutch every 20k?

well, seems the ex Stig can't drive either and FIAT have relented. Anyone else still think it's driver error?

Comedy video! My diesel FIAT was as bad when the EGR was bust - it couldn't be trusted to pull out safely at a T-Junction!

Its not miserable, its a case of 'he should know better than i do'

Its not exactly a tough job. A bulb.

I agree with nice to be nice. But all hes done is wasted about 3 hours of your time?

Anyway. Aslong as you're happy thats all that matters. Just sayin, i would of payed a penny haha.

Im not tight. Im quite the opposite, when somebody does a good job.

 

Not the same guy, Parks wasted over 2 hours of my daughter's time and charged her 12 quid for putting in the wrong bulb, and wanted to charge £48 for a diagnostic in addition. The chap I took it too is a local mechanic who I know well, and who should have been used in the first place but Chloe being Chloe decided on spur of the moment to drop into dealer as it was on the road she was going. It probably took our usual guy less than 10 minutes to get the bulb out and replaced, and I didn't want him doing something for nothing due to good relationship with him.

"Parks" says it all.

Just like his cousin Clark.

A pond of sharks

It's probably got a dumbed down pedal output like a vag on eco

Steal a few co2s

What the former STIG thinks...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02bvl7q

 

Wonder how much damage the so called *former stig* done to that jag at 0.34 when he fluffs the curb kicking the back end out !

Not the same guy, Parks wasted over 2 hours of my daughter's time and charged her 12 quid for putting in the wrong bulb, and wanted to charge £48 for a diagnostic in addition. The chap I took it too is a local mechanic who I know well, and who should have been used in the first place but Chloe being Chloe decided on spur of the moment to drop into dealer as it was on the road she was going. It probably took our usual guy less than 10 minutes to get the bulb out and replaced, and I didn't want him doing something for nothing due to good relationship with him.

That's what I got from your original post; Parks fvcked up, and you tipped your local guy for fixing their SNAFU.

Have to say I have driven some pretty asthmatic cars in the past (the fiesta I learned in was a prime example - with 80k on the clock most of the horses had left the stable long before) but with the correct gear choice it was still very drivable. One thing it did instil in me was having to think about my driving and planning ahead which I still use today even though the yeti and citigo have plenty of beans.

So where's official confirmation that Fiat have admitted a problem. 

Googled all over the place but can't find. 

Is there official conformation,  did the BBC Watchdog programme 2 not just say they would be investigating it. ?

Is there official conformation, did the BBC Watchdog programme 2 not just say they would be investigating it. ?

Latest I've seen is that theyre investigating yesh.

Wont take long to investigate you wouldnt of thought. Just drive to a hill. (Note: 'to' and not 'up')