Fiat 500

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us AAirways

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us AAirways
Howdy folks...

Any one on here have a current model Fiat 500?

Cute little bugger, just wondering about any comments good or bad?


Happy New Year!!
 
A "Fix It Again, Tony"? I've had a few calls for the transmission, so something is going on with that. Not enough data to determine any trends.
 
us AAirways said:
Howdy folks...

Any one on here have a current model Fiat 500?

Cute little bugger, just wondering about any comments good or bad?
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Had one as a rental car. Other than some unusual implementations of stuff like door-locking and transmission control, it was all right.

Ron Wanttaja
 
I had one for the entire time I was at Oshkosh this year. Not my idea of a highway car. It would be perfectly fine, probably even ideal if you lived in a big city and ALL of your driving did not involve getting on an interstate.
 
I think that car was designed for European medieval towns because the streets there are very narrow. It's probably a good car for what it was designed to be but I'm not sure why they started to sell it in US.
 
Fun little beast. Small for my tastes, appears well built, but I have ody memories of my mom's 124 Spyder. Fast, fun and utterly unreliable. That *was* 1972.
 
Don't know. My dad bought a 124 Spider in 1975. He drove it every day for years and I inherited it around 1980 for a while and then it went to my sister. Found it to be a real trooper. The only problem my sister had was that in rural Maine, she never found anybody who had any experience working on them FEYE - ATTS.

I remember learning to drive standard transmission on that car. I hadn't been allowed near it until my dad needed to go out of town and it was due for it's annual service. I got to learn by doing by driving him from Bowie around to IAD and solo'd it on the way back.
 
flyingron said:
Don't know. My dad bought a 124 Spider in 1975. He drove it every day for years and I inherited it around 1980 for a while and then it went to my sister. Found it to be a real trooper. The only problem my sister had was that in rural Maine, she never found anybody who had any experience working on them FEYE - ATTS.

I remember learning to drive standard transmission on that car. I hadn't been allowed near it until my dad needed to go out of town and it was due for it's annual service. I got to learn by doing by driving him from Bowie around to IAD and solo'd it on the way back.
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I love the Spiders. I have a 1981 I just bought in July and a 1979 I had for several years in my 20's. I always regretted selling the '79. They are great cars and require very little outside of normal maintenance. My old mechanic, who worked on them exclusively, said they regularly go 200k without opening the case.
 
I had an X1/9 back in the 70s. I know that was lifetimes ago in car years, but that one was so ****-poor I won't look at the 500 for my daughter. I'll spring for a Mini instead.
 
The Spyder was reliable, except electrically (connectors and fuse holders made of electrolytically-incompatible metals!), and when it swallowed a valve and lunched a piston. The electrical part never rendered it undrivable, but you'd go over a bump and one headlight would go out, or the wipers would stall, that kind of stuff.

It was tight and a lot of fun, simple and I'd love to have one again (as an extra car). The convertible top mechanism has to be considered the very best and simplest design ever; want the top up? Reach right arm back, grab the top bow, one swift flip and it's up, two snap latches, it's locked. Putting it down, same deal in reverse. Literally three seconds.
 
My brother owned both a 128 (an ingenious little car, and FUN) and an X19. Neither ran very well, I don't think the X19 ran at all. Rather soured me on the breed.
 
denverpilot said:
Roller skate. Does it come with a key?
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An absolutely huge one. That's one thing I remember about the rental, the ignition key (with built in remote) was titanic in size. And the rental company thought I needed to carry two of them....

Ron Wanttaja
 
If you want a small coupe, you can't go wrong with the BMW 1-series. If you can handle the ugly dash, Mini is ok.
 
SCCutler said:
The Spyder was reliable, except electrically (connectors and fuse holders made of electrolytically-incompatible metals!), and when it swallowed a valve and lunched a piston. The electrical part never rendered it undrivable, but you'd go over a bump and one headlight would go out, or the wipers would stall, that kind of stuff.

It was tight and a lot of fun, simple and I'd love to have one again (as an extra car). The convertible top mechanism has to be considered the very best and simplest design ever; want the top up? Reach right arm back, grab the top bow, one swift flip and it's up, two snap latches, it's locked. Putting it down, same deal in reverse. Literally three seconds.
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The Pre 2 liter model ('78 and older) didn't have the valve clearance, so when you lost a timing belt it was bad news. They fixed that on the later models. In the three years I had my '79, the only things it needed was a water pump, a muffler welded and regular oil changes. I didn't hesitate to buy another one.
 
The current MINI has ungainly proportions with that high belt line. I like the Fiat 500 more. I haven't driven one, but I have sat in one. The 500 Abarth stickers in at $24,800. I don't think it's worth taking a bath on depreciation to buy one at that price.
 
Seems like a nice little car.........if you're a girl.





:D
 
My wife is from Spain and her family had one of the originals. She looks at them kind of like we look at the original Beetle.

We are thinking about buying one for her to drive back and forth to work.

Flav
 
wanttaja said:
An absolutely huge one. That's one thing I remember about the rental, the ignition key (with built in remote) was titanic in size. And the rental company thought I needed to carry two of them....

Ron Wanttaja
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I have never understood why the rental company gives me two identical sets of keys permanently bonded together. Well I think I know why, but it's silly.
 
Something tells me that spambot "US AAirways" isn't going to be checking back on....
 
Ken Ibold said:
I had an X1/9 back in the 70s. I know that was lifetimes ago in car years, but that one was so ****-poor I won't look at the 500 for my daughter. I'll spring for a Mini instead.
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YIKES...DON'T GET A MINI!!!! I am getting rid of my Countryman. Total pos. New clutch at 9000 miles, wouldn't start twice, dead battery another time. Year old, bought new, $34000, :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:


I'll never spend that amount of money on a car again. BMW/Mini can stick their overpriced pos up their %$#.
 
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us AAirways said:
YIKES...DON'T GET A MINI!!!! I am getting rid of my Countryman. Total pos. New clutch at 9000 miles, wouldn't start twice, dead battery another time. Year old, bought new, $34000, :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:


I'll never spend that amount of money on a car again. BMW/Mini can stick their overpriced pos up their %$#.
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So... your Mini was unreliable, and now you're looking at a Fiat with unproven US support???

Here -- USNews says skip the Fiat and buy a Mini. :D

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/FIAT_500/2012/
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
So... your Mini was unreliable, and now you're looking at a Fiat with unproven US support???

Here -- USNews says skip the Fiat and buy a Mini. :D

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/FIAT_500/2012/
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To be fair, Fiat stands to be around in the U.S. for at least the next several years since the company's platforms will eventually form the basis for most of Chrysler's car lineup. The new (and rather unpopular so far) Dodge Dart is the first example of this.

Reliability is another issue entirely; neither the 500 nor the Mini inspires much confidence in my mind.
 
I had a rental 500 for a week or so earlier this month. I'll look at buying a used one in about a year, probably be able to pick them up for 7-8 grand by then, is my guess. Take the rear seat out and put the delete kit in, and you've got a reasonable amount of cargo room too.

I drove it on the highway for a 100 mile trip, each way, and was fine with it.
 
us AAirways said:
YIKES...DON'T GET A MINI!!!! I am getting rid of my Countryman. Total pos. New clutch at 9000 miles, wouldn't start twice, dead battery another time. Year old, bought new, $34000, :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:


I'll never spend that amount of money on a car again. BMW/Mini can stick their overpriced pos up their %$#.
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This is what I have read about the car as well. It has a devout following that loves them to death, but reliability and affordability are crap. Even thought the US Fiat is a bit of an unknown quantity with regards to reliability, I would consider the two cars at least equal in this area.

I test drove a Mini when it first came out and was disappointed. I have experience with the original Mini and that car is a kick to drive because it's like cheating and driving a go kart on the roads. The new Mini drives just like a Civic. It just costs more and has a bizarre, ugly dash.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
I had a rental 500 for a week or so earlier this month. I'll look at buying a used one in about a year, probably be able to pick them up for 7-8 grand by then, is my guess. Take the rear seat out and put the delete kit in, and you've got a reasonable amount of cargo room too.

I drove it on the highway for a 100 mile trip, each way, and was fine with it.
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whassa "delete kit"?
 
AggieMike88 said:
A "Fix It Again, Tony"? I've had a few calls for the transmission, so something is going on with that. Not enough data to determine any trends.
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They just started selling them last year - and they are all still under warranty - why would anyone be looking for a transmission for one?

I owned the Toaster - a Fiat 128 - look at it in plan view - it looks like a toaster with a piece of break sticking out of it.

The car taught me to be a mechanic.

It also taught me that all the parts are not strictly necessary for full operation. E.G. - I rebuilt the carb. I took it apart and had a series of polaroids as I did it. When I put it all back together there was this aluminum dowel about 1.5" long and about 3/8th diameter that was left. I did not go back anywhere - and did not come out of the rebuild kit. I looked at the photos - and looked at the exploded diagramme - and nothing.

So I was left with a part that I took out but did not put back in - and the car ran better than it did before . . . ah, those crazy Italians . .
 
There are always parts left over, I don't know why.
 
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