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Technical 500 Twin Air Real life mpg?

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Technical 500 Twin Air Real life mpg?

Just a final question. Im reading that the third year warranty is not actuaslly a Fiat warranty but a dealer warranty? Would you get this buying nearly new from motorpoint? 2 year warrantly seems very small compared to the common enough 5 and 7 year warranties out there.
 
After the two year manufacturer's warranty expires you are left with a warranty that covers some things but not others. The others tend to be trim items. Any extra cover given by the seller will be something like this, basically they examine the claim and may or may not pay up.

Fiats are now as expensive or more so than the opposition, and I believe the new cars now have three year manufacturer warranties, but that may have been changed again or just be a rumour. They have had as much as five year warranties on some models in the past for promotional purposes, but I think the later years were not fully comprehensive.

You need the Renault four year deal, or the Koreans, if this concerns you.
 
Personally I wouldn't be too bothered about the warranty. 1.2's are reliable, it's almost unheard of to hear of something going wrong with a gearbox or an engine.

You may however possibly have one or more of the following go wrong.

Bushes on rear dampers
Wiring on rear hatch
Drivers side door handle hinge fail
Front drop links
Front strut top mounts
Front suspension arms

The above are the common issues that I can think of which could happen to any 500, none of them are especially difficult or expensive to sort, so the lack of a million year warranty isn't really a big risk with a 500. I've been out of warranty for exactly a year today, but we've not had to replace anything out of warranty just yet. I should add that none of these issues happen to all 500's.

Our car has had the rear dampers and front strut top mounts replaced. As a guide you'd probably be looking £100-120 for parts and maybe 80-100 for labour. It's nothing scary tbh.
 
306maxi said:
Personally I wouldn't be too bothered about the warranty. 1.2's are reliable, it's almost unheard of to hear of something going wrong with a gearbox or an engine.

You may however possibly have one or more of the following go wrong.

Bushes on rear dampers
Wiring on rear hatch
Drivers side door handle hinge fail
Front drop links
Front strut top mounts
Front suspension arms

The above are the common issues that I can think of which could happen to any 500, none of them are especially difficult or expensive to sort, so the lack of a million year warranty isn't really a big risk with a 500. I've been out of warranty for exactly a year today, but we've not had to replace anything out of warranty just yet. I should add that none of these issues happen to all 500's.

Our car has had the rear dampers and front strut top mounts replaced. As a guide you'd probably be looking £100-120 for parts and maybe 80-100 for labour. It's nothing scary tbh.
Click to expand...

This is really a very good point very well made. Maxi, award yourself a gold star and two house points.
 
306maxi said:
Personally I wouldn't be too bothered about the warranty. 1.2's are reliable, it's almost unheard of to hear of something going wrong with a gearbox or an engine.

You may however possibly have one or more of the following go wrong.

Bushes on rear dampers
Wiring on rear hatch
Drivers side door handle hinge fail
Front drop links
Front strut top mounts
Front suspension arms

The above are the common issues that I can think of which could happen to any 500, none of them are especially difficult or expensive to sort, so the lack of a million year warranty isn't really a big risk with a 500. I've been out of warranty for exactly a year today, but we've not had to replace anything out of warranty just yet. I should add that none of these issues happen to all 500's.

Our car has had the rear dampers and front strut top mounts replaced. As a guide you'd probably be looking £100-120 for parts and maybe 80-100 for labour. It's nothing scary tbh.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that really is fantastic advice there. Worth a lot of long searching for me. Sounds good too. Cant wait to get a 500! :)
 
All true, and many of these failures can happen on other Fiat models too. Front suspension top mounts go on Qubos and new Doblos, and other models have particular foibles.

However, Fiats tend to be reliable where it matters, in the oily bits department.

Just remember to drive the car hard (once warm) and check the levels and tyre pressures, as you would on any car of course.
 
The list of potential failures above are unlikely to occur within a 3-year warranty anyway. I bought my TA Lounge new in March 2011 and so far it has done just over 20,000 miles with no failures at all. Incidentally, I endorse most of the above regarding economy -the 1.2 is a cheaper proposition overall.
I suppose in Fiat's defence, I don't think their adverts ever over promoted the economy of the TA, just the emissions. I know that one is directly related to the other, but at least the official emissions figures mean free road tax and (for now) congestion charge.
I also suspect that all of these new-generation small petrol turbos will fall far short of the official mpg figures. Diesels seem more capable of getting close, in my experience.
 
TrevC said:
The list of potential failures above are unlikely to occur within a 3-year warranty anyway.
Click to expand...

I disagree, mine had the strut tops and rear dampers done within the 3 year warranty, others have had the drop links go (admittedly that was more of an early 500 thing) and a few have had the door handles go in warranty too.
 
TrevC said:
The list of potential failures above are unlikely to occur within a 3-year warranty anyway. I bought my TA Lounge new in March 2011 and so far it has done just over 20,000 miles with no failures at all. Incidentally, I endorse most of the above regarding economy -the 1.2 is a cheaper proposition overall.
I suppose in Fiat's defence, I don't think their adverts ever over promoted the economy of the TA, just the emissions. I know that one is directly related to the other, but at least the official emissions figures mean free road tax and (for now) congestion charge.
I also suspect that all of these new-generation small petrol turbos will fall far short of the official mpg figures. Diesels seem more capable of getting close, in my experience.
Click to expand...

The only time economy figures will match 'real life' is when the test is done 'in real life' type conditions - not a laboratory. As the EU tests are so artificial, the results follow suit.
 
As a heavy user of the Fiat 500 it has done me good service so far in 45,000 miles of driving in less than 3 years. My only worry for it lasting 10 years without catastrophic failures is their lovely Dualogic Automatic gearbox that seems quite complicated and if it breaks, likely to cost a lot of cashish!
 
beany_bot said:
As for the "new vs old" thing. I think we have decided on a "used" 13 plate, with maybe a couple thousand miles. 1.2 Lounges coming in 9 grand for these. That's surely the most sensible option? seeing as how you save a couple grand from split new and the car is as good as new.
Click to expand...

Last time I looked, fiat supasaver were selling new prereg 1.2 lounges for £8995. You can also negotiate at least £1000 off list on a 1.2 factory order now.
 
Last edited:
beany_bot said:
Thats not a bad deal, motorpoint are seeling 13 regs with 1000miles for 9k though. Would probably plump for the 13 reg with the few miles.
Click to expand...
Either way, play them off against each other, personally I'm not bothered about the plate, I'd prefer a new car.
 
Bgunn
Re the official fuel consumption issue, I agree the lab test can't fully replicate the real world. My point is that the modern breed of small turbo petrol engines are designed to favour the official test and the "real world" figures are a lot different. On my mixed-road 40 minute journey to work, I get 50mpg from our 500TA, driving it reasonably gently but keeping up a good pace. This is 74% of the official combined figure. Using our Megane 1.6 (normally aspirated) on the same journey, driven in the same manner, it's easy to get 41mpg, which is the official combined figure. Stop-start is another fiddle with little impact in the real world.
 
It just a bit mental to think that maybe "most" people with a TA are getting, say mid to high 40's in mpg on average. Is that fair to say? Now that a teeny tiny engine in a teeny tiny car. Whereas my neighbours dad has a huge 3.0lt diesel Mercedes S Class (must be the best part of 2.5 tons) and regularly gets 50+ mpg. :p
 
Hi
I've had my Twinair from new for just over a year with 25000 miles now on the clock, I do a mix of Rural and Carriageway driving and I am getting a return of 63MPG.
I don't accelerate hard or brake hard and tend to sit at around 60-65mph.
How does this compare with other Twinair owners??
 
Bluefiat500 said:
Hi
I've had my Twinair from new for just over a year with 25000 miles now on the clock, I do a mix of Rural and Carriageway driving and I am getting a return of 63MPG.
I don't accelerate hard or brake hard and tend to sit at around 60-65mph.
How does this compare with other Twinair owners??
Click to expand...
If you're going off the trip computer then sadly you aren't getting 63mpg :)
 
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