General I'm back

[alexGS]

A while ago in 2012 (March-December), I owned a 2010 500 Sport 1.4 Dualogic in New Orleans Blue (Blu Magnetico). I bought it from a dealership with just 5000km on the clock. The dealership was in Christchurch, which meant a long drive home (two days), and almost immediately I was disappointed with the car's limitations for touring, mainly in the ride comfort and range-to-empty departments. I tried to improve the sound deadening and the stereo system, but it was money down the drain with little improvement.

At the end of the year, I sold the car in excellent condition and got back 91% of the purchase price, so the whole experiment wasn't too costly Since the Chrysler takeover by FIAT (and change of NZ importer), most of the new 500s have been Pop models with 1.2 engine, with a dramatic reduction in new-car price. Happily, I sold my previous 500 just a few weeks before the 26% price cut, which certainly affected the price of used 500s.

----

Two years later (ish), this weekend, I have bought this 2009 Lounge. Again it's a 1.4 Dualogic (the 1.4 was the only engine available in the 'first wave' of 500s brought into NZ; even the Pop came with a 1.4, except for a literal handful of 1.2 Pops). This 500 has covered 75400km and apart from flaky/scuffed wheels, a dent in the front left guard, and disgustingly stained seats - it's in good condition!

I'm delighted with my purchase, mainly because I talked $2000 off the price, so it ended up costing less than half what I sold my last 500 for. Being a Lounge model, it has a few refinements - in particular, doesn't have all the Sport's grey vinyl inside, and has the nice chrome bits on the outside.

The only disappointment: unfortunately, someone ticked the options box for the opening electric roof - why?! - it would have come with a nice full-width fixed-glass panel that wouldn't have restricted the headroom. As it is, the passenger's seat (without height adjust) has to be raked back some way to prevent scrubbing one's hair against that sunroof frame. Hopefully, I can find a way to lower the seat or even fit a driver's seat on the passenger side.

As a second car for running around town and non-business trips up to an hour or so, I reckon this six-year-old 500 makes a lot of sense. Being a Dualogic, it is easy to drive (the Dualogic works perfectly, very smooth) and the raspy little engine offers good performance. It doesn't seem to have quite the same 'burble' sound as my previous 500, I hope this aspect can be improved - I will study the parts list to see if any changes were made around 2009.

My other car is a manual, which my partner can't drive, and my car's insurance is not valid for a driver on a restricted license due to the value of the car. In the 500, we can share the driving.

The colour of this 500 is Nero Provocole (Crossover black) which has a slight metallic effect. I ordered some paint today for touching in a few small chips and possibly repairing the front-left wing where it meets the bumper (a very small panel, so even repainting a whole replacement panel is a possibility). I managed to wet sand/polish out most of the scuff on the bumper, so only the wing needs repair. Pictures to follow at some stage

The wheels seem to have a strange yellowey colour inside the spokes and a machined finish (few flakes and gouges) on the outside face. I'm thinking of painting them black (or dark grey) and getting the outside face re-machined. Or I could paint them all over in sparkly silver - cheaper and easier - not sure which to do.

One thing that won't be done this time is a stereo upgrade - the standard stereo sounds plenty good enough when out on the road, I think there might be a tad less noise in the Lounge model than in the Sport, even though this Lounge is on 16" wheels. Blue&Me seems to work well enough for playing music off a USB key and making phone calls.

Unlike the Sport, there aren't the paddles on the steering wheel; something I would like to add.

I was considering a vinyl wrap to change the colour of the whole car, but since the paint is in generally good condition, I've decided not to. I might get rid of the strange offset stripe, though, and replace it with the chequered-flag-at-rear side stripes. Or I might not, if the offset stripe is universally popular.

The front number plate is missing. Plates in NZ can't be remade with the original registration, so it's either a new registration (as for a new car) or a personalised plate. I have the personalised plate 'ALEXGS' which I could put on, but as I will be sharing the car with my better half, I have rashly decided to shell out $1000 and have ordered new plates '0UR500'. Obviously, 'OUR500' and 'OUR5OO' were already taken!

The plates, Europlate size to fill that space in the front bumper, will include a FIAT logo on the right end, too. Licensed licence plates

I will update periodically with what I do and find on my new toy

Cheers
-Alex

 

[alexGS]

Here's my cleaning of the seats - the driver's seat is nearly done in this picture - previously it looked like the passenger's seat.

I use a Bissell HealthyHome Pro wet-vacuum with heater, so it sprays hot water and has very good suction. The water that came out of the seats was coffee-coloured. The seat material itself is highly durable - no visible wear at all, unusual for a six-year-old FIAT if we're honest I like the retro-look of the tweedy colour and the corresponding fabric on the door trim breaks up the expanse of grey plastic. The shiny black dash panel is cool, too. The reflection makes the passenger look fat!

The pink microfibre cloth was nothing to do with cleaning the seats; it was involved in an attempt to de-grease the steering wheel - efforts are continuing. Someone has used some horrible shiny gunk and leather cleaner isn't quite cutting it, so the next move is to use a toothbrush and laundry liquid diluted in warm water.

That afternoon, we took the 500 to the beach - a nice 45 minute drive with winding roads over hills - so we sat on towels and left it parked in the sun. Seats were dry after an hour. They look much brighter and the smell is much better when getting into the 500 now. Previously had the odour of a sweaty gym... People wash their clothes every day or two, but how rarely do car seats get washed?!

-Alex

 

[typecastboy]

I have filthy seats in both of mine, the first one especially. I was going to spend £40 quid each car to have it internally valeted, but I do have a wet and dry machine with upholstery attachments so I might give it a go myself after seeing how yours have come up.

 

[Mick F]

The only disappointment: unfortunately, someone ticked the options box for the opening electric roof - why?! - it would have come with a nice full-width fixed-glass panel that wouldn't have restricted the headroom. As it is, the passenger's seat (without height adjust) has to be raked back some way to prevent scrubbing one's hair against that sunroof frame.

I'm not short by any means. 5ft 10" tall - 177cm.

I have about 6" clearance above my head to the electric sunroof glass, and although the roof lining is low near the door, there's no way on earth that it would interrupt clearance for me getting in and out. Neither of the seats aren't in the least bit raked back.

Dunno how tall you are, but our electric sunroof is fine for us.

Greetings from Cornwall,
Mick.

 

[Sweetsixteen]

Two day drive? Are you a Northlander then?
Or was it the car?

 

[alexGS]

I have filthy seats in both of mine, the first one especially. I was going to spend £40 quid each car to have it internally valeted, but I do have a wet and dry machine with upholstery attachments so I might give it a go myself after seeing how yours have come up.

Cheers - yes - I suggest not overdoing the detergent and leaving the seat to semi-dry before another pass with plain water only - rinsing the detergent out of the fabric helps to avoid the seats looking dirty again in a short time.

I'm not short by any means. 5ft 10" tall - 177cm.

I have about 6" clearance above my head to the electric sunroof glass, and although the roof lining is low near the door, there's no way on earth that it would interrupt clearance for me getting in and out. Neither of the seats aren't in the least bit raked back.

Dunno how tall you are, but our electric sunroof is fine for us.

Greetings from Cornwall,
Mick.

Hello Mick - I've been to Newquay - amazing little stone-building village by the water, great history. Maybe Newquay is what everyone associates with Cornwall; I'm sure there must be rolling farmland and picturesque landscapes as well.

We are both 183cm so only a few cm taller but it's probably the short leg/long back anatomy that makes the difference (the seat is not all the way back on the runners, otherwise the pedals are out of reach). It's not the distance to the glass that's the problem; it's the frame around the sides (trimmed in headlining material, with a furry edging strip) which ends up above one's head when seated normally. I wouldn't want to go over any sharp bumps with my head touching the edge of the frame. Getting in and out isn't a problem. Maybe the seats in this 500 are thicker or set higher.

Even the height adjustment on the driver's seat doesn't seem to help much, as it seems to tilt the back of the seat base only (I guess that should help). We probably haven't spent long enough trying the adjustments yet At least when it's set right, it won't have to be moved again. I imagine there are some owners who get it just right, only for their other half to alter all three adjustments and the mirrors too...

Two day drive? Are you a Northlander then?
Or was it the car?

I live in Hamilton so yes, North Island, over 1000km from Christchurch and a three-hour ferry ride in the middle

This time, I bought the car privately from somewhere north of Auckland, under two hours from here (150km).

-Alex

 

[Mick F]

Hello Mick - I've been to Newquay - amazing little stone-building village by the water, great history. Maybe Newquay is what everyone associates with Cornwall; I'm sure there must be rolling farmland and picturesque landscapes as well.

Newquay is where everyone who comes to Cornwall gravitates to and there's much of Cornwall that the tourists don't really see.
Hills of course, and moorland and disused mining buildings. There's little industry here now, but the remains of the long dead mines are seemingly everywhere.

We live on the steep Cornish side of the Tamar Valley where fruit-growing and flower growing became the main industry after the mining finished. Even that stopped in the early 1960s and all the fields have grown over to be replaced with thick woodland. It's a peaceful and friendly place and we're well away from the rat-race of the rest of England.

We are both 183cm so only a few cm taller but it's probably the short leg/long back anatomy that makes the difference Maybe the seats in this 500 are thicker or set higher.

Having been back out to the car to see what you're saying, I can appreciate your point of view.

It's absolutely no problem to us, but if we were strapping six footers we'd have problems!

As for the electric sunroof, if we'd bought our TA Lounge brand new, we wouldn't have specified an electric sunroof. I don't think there's any point in having one - not considering the headroom - as with ACC you can cool down without having to open the roof. Ours was three years old when we bought her.

We have a Clio with an electric sunroof. We've had it from brand new and she's 14years old. About three years ago, we had a damp problem inside and it took me ages to work out where the damp was coming from. It turned out to be the seal around the sunroof where the frame meets the steel of the roof - not the seal round the glass. I had to lift the whole thing off and replace the sealant. Since then, all is well.

I expect that in the far future, this problem will come to all electrical sunroofs on all cars - Fiat 500's included.

Sunroofs are a problem for headroom and eventually for water ingress .......... and are pointless to have if you have air conditioning.

Best wishes,
Mick

 

[RussH]

Jeez that's one grubby car!

You have quite an Italian collection going on there. I swapped a Giullitta for the 500S, a great car which tbh I do miss a little even though I do really like the Fiat.

 

[Lil Fairiit]

Hey fellow Kiwi! Wow that passenger seat is absolutely disgusting. It amazes me how some people treat the most or second most valuable thing they own. The upside is that it helps a buyer bargain the price down when a car presents as pretty grubby and well used, as long as it's mostly cosmetic and a bit of TLC brings it all back up again. Hope to see more pics of your car transformation.

 

[alexGS]

Jeez that's one grubby car!

You have quite an Italian collection going on there. I swapped a Giullitta for the 500S, a great car which tbh I do miss a little even though I do really like the Fiat.

I traded my 147GTA for a Giulietta, which might have been a mistake, trading an unusual car against a pretty typical car. It seemed like selling the GTA privately was going to be a problem, and the condition of the car was tidy but not as original as I thought when I bought it. Obviously the Giulietta owes me quite a lot of money. But it is a QV model, so has good performance, space inside, reasonable comfort, etc. Good all rounder. Like the Stilo, which has proved to be a fantastic car to own for the past four years. It works well and the Giulietta only manages slight improvements over the Stilo's functionality.

Hey fellow Kiwi! Wow that passenger seat is absolutely disgusting. It amazes me how some people treat the most or second most valuable thing they own. The upside is that it helps a buyer bargain the price down when a car presents as pretty grubby and well used, as long as it's mostly cosmetic and a bit of TLC brings it all back up again. Hope to see more pics of your car transformation.

Thanks!
I'm going overseas for a while (work trip) so there won't be much progress for a while, but when I return there will be improvements to the wheels, replacement cambelt for the engine, possibly airbox/induction mods, paddles for the steering wheel, maybe cruise control...

-Alex

 

[alexGS]

Couldn't resist showing off the new number plates which arrived the other day with their frames - I wasn't at home (I'm in Sydney), so I oversaw the fitting via Facebook messages

The frames are actually Europlate holders and they had mounting holes in the right places to suit the tailgate. Once the holder is screwed on, the plate is slotted in, and the trim clips on the bottom.

The front bumper already had two rough holes drilled to suit the NZ plate, which had fallen off. There were four little dints which lined up with the Europlate holder, so they were carefully drilled out and used to secure the holder.

It was worth paying extra for the Europlate holders (supplied by the number plate manufacturer, Licensys) as it saves having to drill the plates themselves - and, I paid even more for chrome ones - I'm very happy with the continuity it has given to the front bumper

Speaking of continuity - this is my first-ever post written on a Mac, never had one before. I have bought a Macbook Pro (with Retina display) today, to complement my iPhone and iPad, relegating my PC laptop for work duties only. My current PC (Windows 7, i5 Samsung series-9 ultrabook) never did a good job of getting my photos off my iPhone (i.e. Photo Stream never worked reliably) and was always running out of space, very slow to start, had a miserable display resolution, didn't scroll properly, etc. etc.

Now, the Macbook will be the dumping ground for all photos and notes and therefore the first thing to turn to. After about five years, I get to use a keyboard again instead of a touchscreen (though, I'll probably still use the iPad some of the time; it just has that annoying limitation of only being able to upload one picture per message, slipping into 'mobile' view, and selecting/editing text being very clumsy).

Meanwhile at least the 500 won't be driving around without a front number plate!

-Alex

 

[snes]

Welcome back Alex!

I think I'm either having a senior moment, or I am not seeing something obvious, but couldn't make sense of the following -

and have ordered new plates '0UR500'. Obviously, 'OUR500' and 'OUR5OO' were already taken!

Surely they don't let you chop and change 0 and O on NZ plates do they? If so, how do the police etc trace you through a numberplate when they want to tell you what a great driver you are?

 

[jrkitching]

Surely they don't let you chop and change 0 and O on NZ plates do they? If so, how do the police etc trace you through a numberplate when they want to tell you what a great driver you are?

Looks like in NZ they use a slashed 0 to distinguish it from an O.

 

[alexGS]

Welcome back Alex!

I think I'm either having a senior moment, or I am not seeing something obvious, but couldn't make sense of the following -

and have ordered new plates '0UR500'. Obviously, 'OUR500' and 'OUR5OO' were already taken!

Surely they don't let you chop and change 0 and O on NZ plates do they? If so, how do the police etc trace you through a numberplate when they want to tell you what a great driver you are?

Cheers... No, you're right, you can't chop and change - they are different registrations. At plates.co.nz you can buy your own personalised number plate - IF it's available. Someone already has OUR500 and someone else has OUR5OO. Therefore, I was able to buy 0UR500, which is different to the other two.

The car's original registration was ERN907 but the front plate was missing. There is the risk that someone may use the missing plate on another vehicle, racking up parking tickets and speeding fines - hence the desire to replace it. Unlike in England, plates cannot be re-manufactured with the existing registration, unless they are personalised plates. Therefore the car would have had a new number plate (the letters are issued in sequence and are up to something like HNM###) which always looks a bit odd on a six-year-old car.

Also, only personalised plates are available in Euro size, which is wider and less tall than the regular NZ plate.

There is another style that is same width as standard, but even less tall than Europlates, with smaller letters/digits. These slimline plates are relatively new and I have one ready to go on my other car. It fits the small raised plinth in the front bumper of Alfas with the offset plate. I think for England this plinth is covered with a much larger Europlate plinth.

When selling a car, you usually take the personalised plates off, and new standard plates go on - because the original registration became void when the personalised plates went on. Standard registrations cannot be re-issued or transferred.

The typeface for number plates was changed in approx. 2006 to facilitate Automatic Number Plate Recognition and I think the slashed zeros came in then - before that, they were more oval than the O.

The most common use for ANPR is driving through the Northern Gateway toll road (north of Auckland) where a camera gantry recognises your car (there are no toll booths) and you have five days to pay online. The toll is $2.20 each way, but if you fail to pay within five days, this quickly blows out to $14.70 x2, as they post out one letter for each trip, and charge you $12.50 for each envelope sent...

There are also police cars driving around town automatically detecting cars with lapsed license/lapsed WOF/stolen/driver suspicious/etc.

I imagine that the older plates work with ANPR too, but maybe they are less reliable.

-Alex

 

[Mick F]

I was last in NZ in 1971 .................

Slightly off topic ..... well quite a bit off topic ..........

When the world had dial telephones, UK (and anywhere else I'd been) had the numbers clockwise 0, 9, 8, 7 etc with 1 being last. Dial 0 for the operator and 999 for emergency.

In NZ, they had a 0 in the same place, but the next number clockwise was 1, then 2, 3, 4 etc with the last number being 9.

This meant that the operator was called with dialling 0 as normal, but the emergency services were called with 111. It is 999 in UK but the dial positions and the electrical pulses produced from the 'phone were the same. The phones were identical, it was just that the numbers were written in different holes.

Interesting?
Hopefully to someone!

Mick.

 

[jrkitching]

The most common use for ANPR is driving through the Northern Gateway toll road (north of Auckland) where a camera gantry recognises your car (there are no toll booths) and you have five days to pay online. The toll is $2.20 each way, but if you fail to pay within five days, this quickly blows out to $14.70 x2, as they post out one letter for each trip, and charge you $12.50 for each envelope sent...

The Dartford river crossing uses a similar system, but you have to pay by midnight on the day after crossing and the penalties are much greater if you don't. Cross both ways, forget to pay and ignore it for 29 days and you're looking at a £210 penalty.

 

[alexGS]

I was last in NZ in 1971 .................

Slightly off topic ..... well quite a bit off topic ..........

When the world had dial telephones, UK (and anywhere else I'd been) had the numbers clockwise 0, 9, 8, 7 etc with 1 being last. Dial 0 for the operator and 999 for emergency.

In NZ, they had a 0 in the same place, but the next number clockwise was 1, then 2, 3, 4 etc with the last number being 9.

This meant that the operator was called with dialling 0 as normal, but the emergency services were called with 111. It is 999 in UK but the dial positions and the electrical pulses produced from the 'phone were the same. The phones were identical, it was just that the numbers were written in different holes.

Interesting?
Hopefully to someone!

Mick.

Ha - yes! (slightly off-topic?! I think if we'd started talking about heavy metal contamination found in tuna caught in the China sea, that would have been more on-topic for the subject of unnecessarily-chromed number plate surrounds! Lol)

We should probably explain that dial telephones worked by pulsing the 'hook switch', so when you dialled 9, that would be one pulse as the dial returned to rest position, and when we dialled 1, that would also be one pulse (which makes some kind of sense). That's why it was faster to dial 111 here and 999 in England.

Emergency services are still 111 in NZ, rather than 0118 999 88919 9919 725 3 as I recall - "they're not the emergency services, they're YOUR emergency services..."

It may intrigue you to know that I've never used a dial telephone in my life - first time I used a telephone was when I was nine years old, it was a push-button telephone in 1989, thank you for making me feel young for once

-Alex

 

[alexGS]

I was last in NZ in 1971 .................

Might be worth another visit... the south island will be much the same, the north island will have changed beyond all recognition!

When I was a little boy, people would leave the keys in the Kingswood when they popped into the dairy for a glass bottle of milk. The smallest coin was 1 cent (it's 10c today) and a supermarket had one or two checkouts. The open-road speed limit was 80km/h. A television was generally rented, as it would have cost months of salary to buy. A shopping mall did not exist, and neither did a carpark building or a casino. Clothes and grocery items were all made in NZ - even cars were assembled here. Magazines were available from overseas at great expense after a delay of about three months. A ten-minute overseas phone call would cost as much as the weekly shop. Houses along a country road would share a single phone line. A popular TV programme featured dogs herding sheep. Our biggest export was frozen lamb to England (now it's probably Hobbit movies!)

Although our standard of living has slipped from 3rd in the world to 26th, it's interesting to note that NZ$1 bought about 28p then and buys about 51p today

-Alex

 

[Mick F]

Fantastic!

I was in the Royal Navy. I did 27 years from 1969 to 1996, and my first ship was HMS Achilles. We deployed to the Far East in March 1971 and went down the Atlantic ( Suez Canal was closed at the time) and round Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean.

En route to Singapore, we called in at Gibraltar, Ascension Island, St Helena, Simonstown SA, Majunga Madagascar, Mombassa Kenya, and Gan Maldives.

We spent a while in "Singers" then round to the south of Oz to Sydney, then across to NZ calling in at Aukland, Gisbourne and Nelson.

From there, we sailed north to Fiji and New Hebrides (now Vanutu), then Port Moresby Papua New Guinea, before going back to Singers.

The home leg was via Cochin India, Bahrein Persian Gulf, Mombassa, Simonstown, and Gibraltar. We were away 15months.

I visited most of those places again in 1988 and they'd all changed immensely, especially Singapore ......... and not for the better. Never made it back to NZ, but did Sydney again and that had changed immensely too, and that wasn't for the better either.

Achilles was a NZ destroyer during WW2, and the modern frigate Achilles was welcomed with open arms by the Achilles Society in NZ. We were hosted and partied endlessly Mind you, I was a young 18yo and all I wanted were girls and bars. At my great age nowadays, I regret my youth to some degree, and instead of seeing the great outdoors of NZ, all I saw were bars ............ and girls!

Regards to NZ,
Mick.