That's the 170bhp model though! What was it in particular that you wanted?
General Prospective new owner.. few questions!
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General Prospective new owner.. few questions!
That's the 170bhp model though! What was it in particular that you wanted?
Just not sure i'll find a low miler twin air or 1.4 in my price range to be honest...
Yeah it's probably going to be quite tough to find a test drive for all three. But you never know!
Not sure exactly what the geography is like around your way, but with any luck you will be able to able to test drive the cars on an area with some hills at least.
I agree with other posters on here that the 1.2 does lack pulling power when you need it at times, but from my personal experience I genuinely believe that it is more than enough for most scenarios.
An example down in Devon is the notorious Haldon Hill. I have learnt to drop down to fourth a good few hundred yards before the hill whilst maintaining 70(ish!) so that you can get up the hill without losing momentum. OK, the engine is screaming a bit, but it does the job for those few minutes.
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My experience in a 500 is that it's weight sensitive.
With a kerb weight of 930kg in the 1.4 of 100bhp (870g in the 1.2 69bhp)
Power to weight ratio to the ton in the
1.4 -> 108:1
1.2 -> 80:1
this drops off alarmly when you add 3 people 75kgs x 3 = 225kgs. So with these 'rough' calculations this results in the following...
1.4 -> 86:1
1.2 -> 63:1
I haven't taken into account the torque that you can get from a MJ for 'pulling' power or the bags that you might be carrying in the boot.
It really depends what you want from the car.
Economy or Performance?
The 1.2 is most popular by far and very economical.
The 1.4 is less economical but i find the extra power makes it more fun, and more relaxed on motorways.
The 1.3 would be best if you spend most your driving time on motorways.
Most people seem to choose the 1.2 due to, initial cost, running costs, insurance.
For me the insurance was £30 more and i wasn't bothered about a few hundred pounds extra a year in petrol as i was spending £12,500 on the car, so its only a small percentage.
Economy or Performance?
The 1.2 is most popular by far and very economical.
The 1.4 is less economical but i find the extra power makes it more fun, and more relaxed on motorways.
The 1.3 would be best if you spend most your driving time on motorways.
Most people seem to choose the 1.2 due to, initial cost, running costs, insurance.
For me the insurance was £30 more and i wasn't bothered about a few hundred pounds extra a year in petrol as i was spending £12,500 on the car, so its only a small percentage.
I've been in touch with my local Fiat dealership and they've been very friendly so far. Keen to offer me some test drives on some used cars (of which they have a good range) this weekend so going to pop in and see what they have.
I am a little apprehensive now about the 1.2 however I need to remind myself that:
* The majority of my driving is work / shopping / friends all of which is local! Don't need performance for 4-5 mile drives on roads where the limit doesn't exceed 60MPH!
* For longer drives if needed, I'll still have my Corrado!
* Cheap tax, cheap fuel.... cheap tax, cheap fuel
It should be fine!
I am a little apprehensive now about the 1.2 however I need to remind myself that:
* The majority of my driving is work / shopping / friends all of which is local! Don't need performance for 4-5 mile drives on roads where the limit doesn't exceed 60MPH!
* For longer drives if needed, I'll still have my Corrado!
* Cheap tax, cheap fuel.... cheap tax, cheap fuel
It should be fine!
If most of your driving will be urban then you'll be fine with a 1.2!
Yeah I think you will be absolutely fine with a 1.2, I really do. I can promise you that there is nothing to worry about with it. Sure, we'd all like a bit of extra grunt with it at times, but you can definitely compensate any lack of power to a certain extent with good gear changes and anticipating the road ahead. Around town it will be a breeze to drive and very nippy too
loveshandbags post comparing the two cars is perfectly valid though; it is indeed true that the 1.2 suffers when it has a load up, and so I have no doubt the 1.4 would indeed be a pleasant surprise in terms of performance.
However from what you have said about your needs, motives for buying etc, I can't really see any point in buying a different engine - not unless you really hate the 1.2 anyway.
loveshandbags post comparing the two cars is perfectly valid though; it is indeed true that the 1.2 suffers when it has a load up, and so I have no doubt the 1.4 would indeed be a pleasant surprise in terms of performance.
However from what you have said about your needs, motives for buying etc, I can't really see any point in buying a different engine - not unless you really hate the 1.2 anyway.
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I've been in touch with my local Fiat dealership and they've been very friendly so far. Keen to offer me some test drives on some used cars (of which they have a good range) this weekend so going to pop in and see what they have.
I am a little apprehensive now about the 1.2 however I need to remind myself that:
* The majority of my driving is work / shopping / friends all of which is local! Don't need performance for 4-5 mile drives on roads where the limit doesn't exceed 60MPH!
* For longer drives if needed, I'll still have my Corrado!
* Cheap tax, cheap fuel.... cheap tax, cheap fuel
It should be fine!
On the benefits of getting a 1.2 Pop over say a 1.2 Lounge one poster on here said that it got a good 5mpg better tooling around his locality on a courtesy car whilst his car was in for a service - don't know how true this is.
Re the Corrado the days of having a V6 that does 18-30mpg are really over. I had a straight six in a 323i supposedly one of the most economical 6s made but it would give 22-35 and would touch 40 if you drove in eco mode but the road tax was a killer (nearly €1000 pa) not to mention maintenance costs.
The problem with 2 cars is insurance. You do not get your NCB on the 2nd policy - you have to built it up. Really the only way of keeping a 2nd car is to have one of the other cars in family member's name - this works if they have a company car and have a policy that's not in their own name. It all gets a little dodgy with who's the main driver, etc - so lesson is to get rid of the 2nd car if its for long trips. One car should ideally fit all needs.
Without going into insurance for the V6 you have to have insurance on the vehicle (owner's insurance) and the driver has to have insurance. So if someone borrows the V6 they as the driver have to have their own insurance to drive it and you as the owner have to have insurance on the car. If the police stop the driver and they are not the owner they will look for both. If anything is not in order (in Ireland - don't know the UK) you are looking at a ban for 12 months.
On costs for the year work out your mileage and based on a typical mpg you can work out the extra cost of bigger engine over a small.
From what you have said in your posts I would agree with Supe Uwe that the 1.2 should do the job.
I don't really like the idea but I was thinking about having 3 cars, one for myself, one for my wife and a cheap run about for us both to drive as well as our au pair. She would only drive it to collect my daughter from school when my wife and myself are at work.
One thought I had was a multicar insurance policy - see http://tinyurl.com/3e9rokk (google cache as the original site appears down). Anyone had experience of multicar insurance?
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A thought. If you were having your child picked would it not be better to have an up-to-date car with plenty of airbags, crumple zones, etc than a car that would be 'down in the years'. I often question the logic of a parent going to work in a XC90 and the au pair using a 90's Astra for the school run. But I can identify with your dilemma.
Thanks for that. I don't think I would go with a 90s Astra for the school run. I was thinking about something like a later Nissan Almera that has a 4* NCAP rating, is meant to be a reliable run about and isn't much money nowadays either.
This discussion makes me think of some of the cars that I was driven around in as a kid. We had a 1970s Mini. That's a car which I wouldn't want my daughter driven around in. Seeing one on the road today they look so small. Back in the 70s they looked just fine, well at least until you had an accident...
This discussion makes me think of some of the cars that I was driven around in as a kid. We had a 1970s Mini. That's a car which I wouldn't want my daughter driven around in. Seeing one on the road today they look so small. Back in the 70s they looked just fine, well at least until you had an accident...
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Realise we're going slightly off-topic here but it's not easy to get a runabout that has at least a 4 star child rating. The 500 only has a 3 star child rating but for adults it's 5. Common sense has to come into the equation given the urban speeds.
http://www.euroncap.com/tests/nissan_almera_2001/86.aspx
http://www.euroncap.com/supermini.aspx
Pleased to say the Corrado isn't going anywhere. I'll stick it on a classic policy (the kind where you don't earn, nor can you use No Claims Bonus) and put it on limited mileage - approx 2000 a year. I was insuring another Corrado this way previously and it was only a few hundred quid a year.
I've got a lock-up garage which only costs me a pittance and it's locked / gated so absolutely zero chance of the car being taken from there.
Besides, I'm the editor for the Corrado Club of UK club magazine - can't very well not own one of the cars now, can I?
I've got a lock-up garage which only costs me a pittance and it's locked / gated so absolutely zero chance of the car being taken from there.
Besides, I'm the editor for the Corrado Club of UK club magazine - can't very well not own one of the cars now, can I?
Right!
Popped over to Research Garage in Nuneaton this morning to test drive a 500 and talk numbers, etc.
I found a Fiat 500 1.2 Sport in white, with brown leather interior and a few options but nothing to write home about. Done 25k'ish and is up for £8000.
It was a great experience all round to be honest. The salesman was a really nice guy and nothing was too much trouble, and got sent off out for a test drive by myself for 30 minutes or so and absolutely no pressure at all.
The car was great! I really liked it. The 1.2 engine didn't feel as gutless as I expected it to and it got up to 60/70MPH cruising speed with no problems. Cornered nicely and absorbed the bumps on the road very well. Interior felt well put together with no rattles or creaks really. Even the stereo sounded pretty good!
I think I'll sleep on it and canvass opinions of my family but I don't see what's not to like about it to be honest.
Popped over to Research Garage in Nuneaton this morning to test drive a 500 and talk numbers, etc.
I found a Fiat 500 1.2 Sport in white, with brown leather interior and a few options but nothing to write home about. Done 25k'ish and is up for £8000.
It was a great experience all round to be honest. The salesman was a really nice guy and nothing was too much trouble, and got sent off out for a test drive by myself for 30 minutes or so and absolutely no pressure at all.
The car was great! I really liked it. The 1.2 engine didn't feel as gutless as I expected it to and it got up to 60/70MPH cruising speed with no problems. Cornered nicely and absorbed the bumps on the road very well. Interior felt well put together with no rattles or creaks really. Even the stereo sounded pretty good!
I think I'll sleep on it and canvass opinions of my family but I don't see what's not to like about it to be honest.
The 1.2 is a great engine. I come from Australia where anything less than a 2 litre is considered small and anything less than a 1.6 is teensy weensy and the 1.2 is just fine.
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I'm not too sure if you're looking for an opinion from the FF but I would suggest an input from a female member of your family. IMHO this interior colour works on the discontinued Calypso Orange.
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Oh - I meant canvass opinions on the finance side of it, whether they think it's a good idea. I liked the colour combination and really don't give two hoots what other people think on that sort of thing to be honest!
It's your choice and it can all come down to price at the end of the day. But 2 friends of mine one who bought a 530D with a manual (wrong gearbox) and another with a 316 coupe (underpowered engine) couldn't sell their cars and ended up getting a very poor trade price for them. So if re-sale is not important for you that you know best.
Thanks for all the advice in this and other threads - by far the most intelligent and complete source of advice for anybody considering a Fiat!
I was mulling over the 500 TA Dualogic, but having read these threads I was worried about the MPG figures, and the "roll-back" on hills.
So I took one out for a 1 hour test drive today. Very enlightening indeed.
The car had done about 3,000 miles or so, and the MPG I managed was 65. That was mostly with the eco button on, mainly out of town driving. So I am confused as to why so many people report MPG's far lower than this. Perhaps I drive like a retired nun, but I'm not trying to go that slow on purpose!
As I'm coming from a full auto car, I decided I also needed the ESP bundle, as the hill-start feature is something I need, purely because that's the way I am used to driving.
I found the ride very good and the engine noise was delightful! A real thrum that is connected to the car and just seems to reflect it's driveability. The steering was very, very light, which is perfect - it's a car for my wife and she had arthritis, so the lighter the better. Tiny, tiny turning circle and easy to park.
Disadvantages? The back seats are really for children, but that's precisely who will be using them. A slight vibration in the cabin when accelerating hard. Finally, the price - by the time I'd added Dualogic, steering wheel paddles, ESP, rubbing strips & mirror casings, I was up to £14k, which is a fair chunk for a small car. But the finance deal on offer is excellent and residuals are sound, so I'm still pleased.
I was mulling over the 500 TA Dualogic, but having read these threads I was worried about the MPG figures, and the "roll-back" on hills.
So I took one out for a 1 hour test drive today. Very enlightening indeed.
The car had done about 3,000 miles or so, and the MPG I managed was 65. That was mostly with the eco button on, mainly out of town driving. So I am confused as to why so many people report MPG's far lower than this. Perhaps I drive like a retired nun, but I'm not trying to go that slow on purpose!
As I'm coming from a full auto car, I decided I also needed the ESP bundle, as the hill-start feature is something I need, purely because that's the way I am used to driving.
I found the ride very good and the engine noise was delightful! A real thrum that is connected to the car and just seems to reflect it's driveability. The steering was very, very light, which is perfect - it's a car for my wife and she had arthritis, so the lighter the better. Tiny, tiny turning circle and easy to park.
Disadvantages? The back seats are really for children, but that's precisely who will be using them. A slight vibration in the cabin when accelerating hard. Finally, the price - by the time I'd added Dualogic, steering wheel paddles, ESP, rubbing strips & mirror casings, I was up to £14k, which is a fair chunk for a small car. But the finance deal on offer is excellent and residuals are sound, so I'm still pleased.
Franda got a Dualogic TA last week - she might be able to comment on it's mpg
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