Talk to me about the Fiat 500 for the girl.

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

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Edit: note, this has been bumped up from the depths.

Her '96 Scenic is starting to fail and it's time to sling it on the junk pile. It's done us well, light on petrol, quite quick for what it is, reliable, cost us next to nothing on maintenance, 35K miles out of the old brakes etc etc. However, I think she wants something a little less utility, secretly, because she doesn't want another mpv.

Basically there are a couple of cars she likes but they'll have to be ruled out. She likes the series 1 MX5 but personally I think it'll be too raw and basic for her. It's also an old car now, there are a lot of tatty ones out there, and finding a good enough example is going to be too much for us (me). Second up is the Focus. It'll be a normal Focus, nothing special, so I think it's going to bore her because it's like the Renault. Option 3 which she really likes is the Nissan Figaro and there are lots of good examples out there and they hold their value well. The only thing at the back of my mind is it's a 20 year old car and I'm worried it's not going to have the 100% reliability record she wants.

So we had a look at second-hand Fiat 500s. Or rather, what I thought were second-hand. Seems you can get a new 2008/2009 1.4 for £9-10K. I take it they have built way too many of these and they're sitting in dealers all over the place then? I thought they were a lot more expensive than that.

Has anyone driven one or does anyone on here own one, before I start getting tied up with test drives? What am I looking for? I'm sort of worried that it's going to be a bit sluggish with a 1.4. The 2.0 in the Renault is a real workhorse and I'm thinking the 500 probably weighs about the same and it going to have a lot less power.
 
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The Figaro is just a Micra in drag. Nothing wrong with them. Parts are expensive and have to come from Japan if you go by the Nissan parts database, but if you order up the equivalent part from a Micra they become dirt cheap. There's a company in Bristol that bring them over from Japan and put them through a full restoration process if you really want the reliability.

Likewise the 500 is just a Panda in drag.
 
My girlfriend bought one last year.

Three specs, Pop, Lounge and Sport.

Wouldnt bother with Pop or Sport and would just get the Lounge straight off.

Lounge gains the glass roof, alloys, chrome exhaust finisher, leather wheel, bluetooth hands free etc etc and its not that much more, base spec Pops look pretty basic and poor (all the BSM cars now!).

Looking at 865kg kerb weight for a 1.2 8v and 69bhp, 12.5 to 60.

930kg for a 1.4 16v 100bhp (same as the panda 100hp) 10.2 to 60.

I didnt drive the diesel, its 980kg and 75bhp, 12.1 to 60, but I would be wanting to drive one to see how bad a small engined diesel is as well as how much effect on the handling that extra 115kg over the front wheels has. As its quite a small town style car I dont think you would see the MPG benefit from the diesel as its not going to get warm in stop start traffic. Plus you fill up at the wrong pump! ;)

We both drove the 1.2 and the 1.4 back to back as well as on their own from different dealers, the 1.2 feels like it has more guts low down and revs quite well, but its about as fast as you would expect a 1.2 to be, not massively.

The 1.4 didnt feel much quicker, gains a 6 speed gearbox and you had to work it more to get it to go I felt. You also gain vented discs up front and solid discs on the rear and ESP, the 1.2 has solid discs up front and drums on the back with no ESP (optional at £306 now I believe). Turning circle is larger on the 1.4, from memory its about 1.5m more than the 1.2.

Headroom is good, im 6 foot 3 and fit in no problems at all, dont even have the drivers seat all the way back. Have had 4 people in it OK.

Boot is small, can put a weeks shopping for two in perhaps but its not very deep. Rear seats fold down etc no problems.

Rear visibility isnt great, as is the trend with all new cars it slopes a little and the rear window is tiny and the pillars are massive. Wing mirrors are quite large though which helps.

The sticker quality seemed quite poor and would lift after not very long, especially if you pressure washed the car so I wouldnt bother with the optional stickers.

Fiat seem to really have ramped the prices up on them my girlfriend ended up going for a 1.2 Lounge with ESP, Parking sensors, chrome mirrors, side rub strips, mudflaps, mats (freebee from the dealer) it came out about £10,700 which she then got £2000 off for the scrappage scheme. The same car now costs £1000 more list price. At the time she bought nobody (on the fiat forum) seemed to be able to get any kind of discount out of the dealers and free mats was the best people had managed.

I think from 59 plate onwards the shock setup was replaced with the KA shocks to improve the ride/handling. I believe HIDs were also introduced but this may have been an option, all new cars are also stop start now I believe. Would have to verify this but fairly certain thats correct.



Now that FIAT have increased the prices your getting into Ford Fiesta range, at the time the Fiesta was quite a lot dearer, I prefered it but would have had to get quite a highly specced one to make it worth it, and then your knocking on 15k which is a stupid amount of money to spend!
 
Driven an Abarth Ess and it was great fun, think we will be having one for the Mrs in March...honestly, it's for her.
 
Mum's 500 finally arrived on Saturday. It's only got 14miles on it now and I'm not on the 7-days free insurance so no real comments yet.

Jonny69 said:
So we had a look at second-hand Fiat 500s. Or rather, what I thought were second-hand. Seems you can get a new 2008/2009 1.4 for £9-10K. I take it they have built way too many of these and they're sitting in dealers all over the place then? I thought they were a lot more expensive than that.
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Wrong. There's a fair wait for them (and loads are having their orders delayed) but I'd imagine most buyers, like my Mum, are scrappaging and want the exact paint/interior/options.

Berger said:
I think from 59 plate onwards the shock setup was replaced with the KA shocks to improve the ride/handling. I believe HIDs were also introduced but this may have been an option, all new cars are also stop start now I believe. Would have to verify this but fairly certain thats correct.
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Yep, it's the rear suspension setup IIRC. HIDS are now a £500 option. I don't think they all have start 'n' stop as I haven't noticed a button in Mums or seen it start/stop, but that might be that it's a setting/battery level dependant?

Berger said:
We both drove the 1.2 and the 1.4 back to back as well as on their own from different dealers, the 1.2 feels like it has more guts low down and revs quite well, but its about as fast as you would expect a 1.2 to be, not massively.

The 1.4 didn’t feel much quicker, gains a 6 speed gearbox and you had to work it more to get it to go I felt. You also gain vented discs up front and solid discs on the rear and ESP, the 1.2 has solid discs up front and drums on the back with no ESP (optional at £306 now I believe). Turning circle is larger on the 1.4, from memory its about 1.5m more than the 1.2.
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I found that, two up, the 1.2 didn't want to get up hills at all without constant gear changing. 1.4 was much better.
Yep, the turning circle is larger but I didn't notice it in normal driving on the test-drives.


Mum went for the 1.4 16v Sport, with paint, chrome pack, split rear seats, rear headrests and parking sensors (I'm sure there was something else but I forget). Dealer gave free mats, and enough petrol to reach the petrol station :(.
I was quite impressed that despite me being all "Meh it's a Fiat" it's got Bluetooth. :)
 
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I drove both the 1.2 and 1.3 diesel when they first came out. Didn't really get on with the diesel, and the economy benefits didn't seem to really pay off against the 1.2, not unless your GF will be going a lot of miles.
The good news is that it's as cool to look at on the inside as the outside. The upmarket versions reminded me of a Mini (unsurprising as it was designed by the same person), but somehow didn't seem in keeping with the car. I actually preferred the more basic version.
The bad news is that unlike the Mini (which is brill to drive), the 500 drives just like any other generic econobox, i.e. uninspiring. Don't get me wrong, it's not that it's bad to drive, just that it's boring.

In short, if your GF wants something that's a doddle to drive and is very cool, the 500 is a great car. If you want more, go find a Mini.
 
Are the new Fiat 500's as light as <900kg??! Thats unbelievable.

To put that into perspective, its lighter than a 1980's Pug 205 or a new Elise, but has all the added gubbins of crumple zones, side impact bars, airbags etc.

How?
 
mk1_salami said:
Are the new Fiat 500's as light as <900kg??! Thats unbelievable.

To put that into perspective, its lighter than a 1980's Pug 205 or a new Elise, but has all the added gubbins of crumple zones, side impact bars, airbags etc.

How?
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Nah, they weigh much less than that. Once you make the engine, gearbox and suspension out of aluminium instead of iron you have a bit of breathing space to bulk all the other stuff up.

I have to say I'm as surprised as you that it weighs in at just 950kg. I was expecting something like 1200kg.
 
I thought that my GF was going to fall head over heels with the 500. She loved them when they first came out but last summer we had a sit in one at a car show and it all changed. She said it felt too small, boot was too small (she wasn't expecting a tardis but even so she was unimpressed), bearing in mind she was coming from a '97 Polo. We then went and sat in a Grande Punto and we were both impressed.

It was quite bland in comparison I guess but the quality felt better to us. Size wise was good too.

Whilst I'm not saying to go for a Grande Punto, I would suggest just sticking your heads in a 500 at a dealer to see if that rules them out before going to far down the line.
 
Westyfield2 said:
I found that, two up, the 1.2 didn't want to get up hills at all without constant gear changing. 1.4 was much better.
Yep, the turning circle is larger but I didn't notice it in normal driving on the test-drives.

:)
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With 2 extra people in the car im not suprised. You just have to take it into account that you cant pootle about town in 4th gear unless you know you dont have to slow from 30 for a while. I just used 3rd as the gears are fairly short.

Oh and dont get White like everyone else seems to as its the only free colour!

I found it handled quite well, didnt roll that much and had plenty of grip, as well as a little bobble over bumps due to the wheel base but it didnt seem to unsettle it.

Id also stick to the 15" wheels rather than upgrading to 16" ones to keep the ride quality personally.

Since Sept we have achieved 42.5mpg average for all trips, most of which are fairly short around town, with a 10 mile each way commute, in stop start traffic and a 40mph or so section. This is with the AC on all the time etc, not quite as high as FIAT quote but its not bad.

As for a Grande Punto being good size wise, thats because its ruddy huge, its definatly GRANDE theres no doubt about that!

The engine choice does seem a little limited to me, theres nothing between the 1.4 and the Abarth, you used to have more variation in engine size I felt, a standard 500 with the Abarth engine would be good I think without all the extra Abarth tat stuck on it as it would have some useful poke without being too blaze.
 
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The interior for the Grand Punto Evo looks like it's had some serious upgrades, still not sold on the new bumpers yet though - and no New Orleans Blue either, though the new blue on offer looks good.

Wouldnt surprise me if the bumpers and lights were interchangable from the old to the new. They appear to have newtered the engine/body choice to 3 or 5 door, can't see any engine choices around anymore.
 
5abr3 said:
Wouldnt surprise me if the bumpers and lights were interchangable from the old to the new. They appear to have newtered the engine/body choice to 3 or 5 door, can't see any engine choices around anymore.
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I think the days of numerous engine choices are on the way out with manufacturers concentrating on squeezing 3 different power outputs out of a single lump.
 
Jonny69 said:
So we had a look at second-hand Fiat 500s. Or rather, what I thought were second-hand. Seems you can get a new 2008/2009 1.4 for £9-10K. I take it they have built way too many of these and they're sitting in dealers all over the place then? I thought they were a lot more expensive than that.
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My mates missus had exactly the same; A car which was a year old, wasn't registered but took a hit from the list price.

they seem a decent enough car, never going to set the world on fire, but they're cute, quirky and seem well screwed together. could do a lot worse!
 
lordrobs said:
I think the days of numerous engine choices are on the way out with manufacturers concentrating on squeezing 3 different power outputs out of a single lump.
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It's more to do with pushing the MultiAir engines in the GP Evo I would imagine, the other engines are still available in other cars such as the Panda.
 
Might sound silly. But have you considered the Swift and Mazda 2?

I test drove all the little hatch backs that mattered and did like the 500 but felt for myself it was too girly lol. I narrowed it down to the Mazda 2 and swift and went for the swift in the end.

Not the best build quality in the world lol. But you could get the 1.5 or even the sport for a decent price 2nd hand.

1.5 does 0-60 in around 10 seconds. The 1.3 aint much slower tbh. But you wont get alloys/fogs or air con.
 
Fiat Panda 100bhp?

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1383718.htm
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1353124.htm
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1199417.htm

Evo review :D

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarreviews/205659/fiat_panda_100hp.html

I lost count of the number of drivers who felt the cold slap of humiliation as the Panda’s bluff, blacked-out tail rebuffed their lazy, assumptive overtaking efforts, even on dual carriageways. Be in no doubt, with a determined driver behind the wheel this diminutive Italian hatchback is the annoying fly you’ll struggle to swat, no matter how fast you think your car is.
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& conclusion

In case you hadn’t noticed, we love the Panda 100HP. It’s the most accomplished and exciting small car we’ve driven in ages, encapsulating everything evo stands for in one extremely capable package. It is of course possible to buy a host of iconic used cars for £10K, as we’ll be discovering over the page, but none can boast group 5 insurance, three years’ warranty and minimal running costs, and I doubt many will be much more fun to drive. There’s no doubt in our minds, Fiat has a new hero on its hands.
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How long are they?

Theres a baby blue one at work, Im amazed how small they are really so they weight isnt so much of a suprise. Still nice to see sub ton cars.
 
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