General after-sale install of options

[Hoggleboggle]

Is it me or are Fiat (and most other car manufacturers for that matter) missing out on a good stream of income by not designing the various options available at purchase for post sale upgrades as well. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to have fog lights, Xenon lights etc installed after purchase if Fiat had designed them so in the first place. I wanted fog lights for example, but at the time there were no twinairs in stock with them so I had to go without (I needed the car ASAP due to accident). It should be dead easy, when designing the car, to allow for future upgrades of the majority of purchase options as an additional revenue stream. Using a simple plug&play principle for these would allow for easier & cheaper repairs as well I would have thought.
What do you all think?

 

[306maxi]

Is it me or are Fiat (and most other car manufacturers for that matter) missing out on a good stream of income by not designing the various options available at purchase for post sale upgrades as well. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to have fog lights, Xenon lights etc installed after purchase if Fiat had designed them so in the first place. I wanted fog lights for example, but at the time there were no twinairs in stock with them so I had to go without (I needed the car ASAP due to accident). It should be dead easy, when designing the car, to allow for future upgrades of the majority of purchase options as an additional revenue stream. Using a simple plug&play principle for these would allow for easier & cheaper repairs as well I would have thought.
What do you all think?

Due to CANBUS it's not so simple. It really is as simple as that.

The vast majority of people will never want to upgrade their car from the way it came (in terms of things like foglights, HID's and so on) and therefore for Fiat to include the wiring for these things to be added is an additional cost which they would have to pass onto the consumer. One example is that the models with HID's have a different front wishbone which I'm sure is more expensive.

Whilst I understand the logic you've applied to the situation, it's simply not how manufacturers operate. The difference between being profitable and being a Saab may just be those few pounds you shave off the price of the car by removing unneeded bits of wiring loom and so on.

Add to the above the complexity of reprogamming the body ECU and it's not so simple. Tbh I'd rather not have some monkey splicing bits into my wiring loom and forking about with the body ECU if I'm honest.

 

[SiliconS]

Hoggleboggle, can I ask: Why are you keen to retro-fit fog lights to your 500? Do you find that they serve a useful purpose or do you feel as though the car looks low-spec without them?

 

[306maxi]

Hoggleboggle, can I ask: Why are you keen to retro-fit fog lights to your 500? Do you find that they serve a useful purpose or do you feel as though the car looks low-spec without them?

It should be pointed out that you can retrofit foglights, but they just won't work with the switch on the dash, ie you'd need to put other wiring in and put in another switch somewhere in the car.

 

[RobinPJ]

Hoggleboggle, can I ask: Why are you keen to retro-fit fog lights to your 500? Do you find that they serve a useful purpose or do you feel as though the car looks low-spec without them?

Good question. Looking at these two cars, the blue one doesn't have as many lights as the red one, but I don't think most people would mind...

 

[Fariniac]

Good question. Looking at these two cars, the blue one doesn't have as many lights as the red one, but I don't think most people would mind...

True, but that's a Stratos (unless I'm much mistaken, which I may be) in which case it won't still be running by the time it gets to the end of the road, so the amount of lights won't matter...hehe

 

[306maxi]

Just remember that the blue one is a Stradale (As in road version) and the Marlboro liveried one is of course a Group 4 rally version with spotlights and driving lights on the front. They're also Carello lights which are absolutely essential on an Italian rally car. Cibie Oscar's will do on most other stuff

The Group 4 version also has the coffin spokes which are fantastic wheels

 

[Andy Monty]

you can get the lamps for about £80 all in then just need wiring in by a auto electrician to a separate switch


online-auto-components sell them on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-500-...CarParts_SM&hash=item35b3f0e43d#ht_1411wt_989


not sure if they are original but they look like it

(quick phone call to them should verify)

 

[306maxi]

For that price I doubt they're real. But does it really matter?

 

[306maxi]

True, but that's a Stratos (unless I'm much mistaken, which I may be) in which case it won't still be running by the time it gets to the end of the road, so the amount of lights won't matter...hehe

Not really The Stratos was a fantastic car and quite reliable.

http://www.rallybase.nl/index.php?type=result&rallyid=360

2nd and 3rd behind a Peugeot 504 Saloon is a pretty good result for a car with a V6 Ferrari engine back in the days when the preparation for the Safari involved putting some bars onthe front and back and a spare on the roof.

 

[Andy Monty]

For that price I doubt they're real. But does it really matter?

nah they are £35 each for the lamp units on shop4parts


as long as they fit correctly unlike those aftermarket ones for the GP

 

[306maxi]

Doesn't include the cover and it says "OE quality" Like I said though, does it matter that they're not genuine? With Fiat is that exactly a bad thing?

 

[Andy Monty]

I agree lol fiat + electric.....

 

[306maxi]

I agree lol fiat + electric.....

I've got the Punto Evo for at least another day. They couldn't replicate the fault that I reported which was that it loses power, regains power, loses power and then regains it all within a very short distance from cold, but the tech said it did feel like it had a bit of a flatspot so they're going to have a look at it. What's the bet that it's something electrical

I have to say that other than in terms of looks and IMHO the ergonomics of the cabin, the Punto Evo is a far far far superior car to the 500.

 

[Andy Monty]

throttle body or peddle pentometer? Or MAP sensor?



Much prefer the interior of the evo to the 500 had a prod and poke at my sisters lots of little bits make it feel much poorer quality that fuse box cover in the passenger side cubby hole is a joke

that and the airbag ecu is uncovered in the passenger footwell and the lack of a boot light even though the wiring is there.....

then again at least it comes with a pram wheel and jack..... and it has a bit of soundproofing on the bonnet

 

[RUI]

Maxi I bet your car has faulty coil pack or leads.

 

[306maxi]

throttle body or peddle pentometer? Or MAP sensor?



Much prefer the interior of the evo to the 500 had a prod and poke at my sisters lots of little bits make it feel much poorer quality that fuse box cover in the passenger side cubby hole is a joke

that and the airbag ecu is uncovered in the passenger footwell and the lack of a boot light even though the wiring is there.....

then again at least it comes with a pram wheel and jack..... and it has a bit of soundproofing on the bonnet

Yeah, the 500's interior is cheap when you get past the painted dash panel and the instruments. Punto is so much quieter inside which is nice.

No idea what's wrong, the guy on reception was rubbish and didn't really give much information, the other two guys who are usually there are much better. As I'm more than happy to have the Punto Evo I just left it there for another day. If all goes well he'll have found a problem today and ordered parts, but who knows. I'm not too fussed as long as they find the fault. I've got a nice enough courtesy car so I'm not in a hurry to get the 500 back unless they've replaced some bits.

Problem only happens from cold on a cold day. Let it idle for 20 seconds on startup and it doesn't do it. I didn't book it in for the week before last purely because it was warm then, but it's freaking warm now too.

I wouldn't imagine it'd be the throttle potentiometer as it only happens from cold and idling for 20 seconds shouldn't affect the throttle potentiometer?

 

[306maxi]

Maxi I bet your car has faulty coil pack or leads.

I may well try a set of leads purely because they're cheap and if they don't solve the problem it's not a big deal.

To me it feels like for some reason the throttle is being told to close and then when it's close it then gets told to open again, all without any change in input from the accelerator. It can do this about half a dozen times up the road and then it's absolutely fine.

I think it's also a little reason why I get so much wheelspin. Lets say I want 30% throttle to pull away, I pull off and steadily increase the throttle input to 30% but the car doesn't respond so you put your foot down a little more and then all of a sudden you get 50% throttle and the inside front is spinning up. I'm presuming that this is the flatspot the technician was talking about

 

[Hoggleboggle]

Hoggleboggle, can I ask: Why are you keen to retro-fit fog lights to your 500? Do you find that they serve a useful purpose or do you feel as though the car looks low-spec without them?

More for practical purposes. I had fog lights on my previous car and I found them very useful both for driving on unlit country lanes as they illuminate the edges better and for their obvious use in providing better illumination in foggy conditions, which living on the coast is quite common.

 

[bgunn]

Factory fit HID/Xenon lights are far better at lighting up the road than any fog lights which are too low to do anything but light up the kerbside immediately in front of you, which isn't much use.