Fiat cars are they really that bad?

Crann na Beatha

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Sponge Bob

Yep!

yes

johnos1984

Rubbish.

They are a fine car, its careless owners and unskilled mechanics who don't know what they are at are the problem

colm_mcm

which is why they put a gearbox in mine at 6 months old......

johnos1984

colm_mcm wrote: »

which is why they put a gearbox in mine at 6 months old......

The auld man had a new engine put in a carina at 8k miles. Does that make them rubbish?

faw1tytowers

I bought a brand new punto in 2000 had it five years never a problem with it. Only went cos I crashed it Loved it and quite nice to drive too for a 1.2 very nippy.

Two of my friends also bought a 2000 punto same time as myself, one of them still has it and same as myself no issues. The other couple however had alot of problems from day 1 :S but I think there is always going to be a bad batch wether it be toyota, honda or Fiat...

pajero12

johnos1984 wrote: »

The auld man had a new engine put in a carina at 8k miles. Does that make them rubbish?

For what reason did it need a new engine?

eilo1

Iv a 2000 seicento. Iv had it 6 months it cost 600 euro and have no problems, Iv already got my money back as far as im concerned.
Plus it drives very nicely with power assisted steering, very nippy because it weights nothing! Leci windows, sun roof and I can park it anywhere! :pac::pac:

johnos1984

pajero12 wrote: »

For what reason did it need a new engine?

Bought new in 1995, engine just burned oil from new, no reason was ever found.

It gave many many problems while we had it so much so that engineers came from the factory to inspect the car. Toyota extended the warranty for 5 years and gave him 2 free services at the main dealer.

Other issues were HGF on replacement engine, gearbox, steering rack, wiring loomx2, rear shocks, heater matrix and a number of other issues I can't remember.

EDIT: I forgot it has 3 clutches as well. The father had been driving for over 40 years at the time for work and had never had a clutch fail before, or since up to his death

Very happy with the service though and as we lived next door to the garage it wasn't a hassle when it had to go back each time and never cost us a penny due to the extended warranty. It was gotten rid of once the warranty expired

TBH knowing Toyota customer service and how good it can be I'd never be worried buying one even if it was a lemon

colm_mcm

The syncros went in mine, same thing happened in the brava that I traded (foolishly) up to.

as well as going through a 2 head gaskets, having problems with the rear suspension creaking, headlights fogging up, central locking only working soimetimes, and a litany of other inconveniences.

johnos1984

OP: Are you talking about new or old FIAT's?

The older stuff could be and was a bit ropey but to be fair the newer cars are far better built and packaged.

Old 8v Puntos could blow the Head gasket if not maintained and checked religiously but many other cars with a great reputation also suffer from similar problems but people seldom admit it

coylemj

I bought a 1.4L 12v Bravo new in 96, had it for five years and never had a single problem, fantastic fun car to drive. Once a year service cost about 120 punts. Would have held on to it as a town runabout but don't have parking for two cars so reluctantly had to sell it in 2001 when upgrading to a bigger motor. Factory radio was Grundig so seriously good quality audio and it supported RDS EON (Enhanced Other Networks) so if you were listening to 2FM music it would automatically switch to RTE Radio1 for traffic bulletins and then back to 2FM when the traffic report was finished.

For what it's worth, my 70 year old mother said there was more space in the back of my Bravo than in my brother's Audi A3, he wasn't pleased!

Biggest problem with Fiats is perception which is reflected in bad residual value, not helped by the moaners who are well represented above but who probably never owned a Fiat.

Max Power1

The older generation (eg 8v punto for example) were crocks of $hit

Some of the older generation (Bravo etc) were quality. Indeed fiats 1.9 JTD engine is a peach and is used by other manufacturers.

Newer fiats dont seem to have the issues that older ones have (yet)

(This coming from someone who has had 2 puntos, 1 8V 1 16V, and one stilo, in the family - the 8v had HGF)

samsemtex

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Yep!

bluewolf wrote: »

yes

Are either of you basing this on actual experience?

If you are talking about a newer FIAT then they are fine. They are nothing to worry about. I would take one over a VW anyday yet if you asked on here most likely a load of people would say they are a great car. VW are an appallingly bad car these days but get away with it somehow. That said a lot of people seem to be realising that now.

What year FIAT are you interested in?

-Corkie-

samsemtex wrote: »

Are either of you basing this on actual experience?

I would say not. Most people just think Fiats are still like the old Ritmos etc.

As you said VW are equally as bad I know a guy that got a new Passat a few weeks ago and the gearbox is gone allready. New Fiats are as good as most other manufacturers imo.

samsemtex

samsemtex wrote: »

Are either of you basing this on actual experience?

If you are talking about a newer FIAT then they are fine. They are nothing to worry about. I would take one over a VW anyday yet if you asked on here most likely a load of people would say they are a great car. VW are an appallingly bad car these days but get away with it somehow. That said a lot of people seem to be realising that now.

What year FIAT are you interested in?

Yes, best friend has had a world of trouble

johnos1984

-Corkie- wrote: »

I would say not. Most people just think Fiats are still like the old Ritmos etc.

The most reliable car my neighbour reckons he ever had was a Regatta

Crann na Beatha

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kmb

Now lets see,i have had 7 fiats so far:

Fiat 850
128
Uno fire
punto elx 07
brava 01
stilo 03
Currently driving bravo Tjet 150

Only problem i had was the gearbox in the brava and that was due to teaching sister how to drive.

I could easily buy some boring square box like the focus,golf,passat but rather have something different.Or the other square box with the big boot,god how ugly are they!!

I would always recommend Fiat but would also say do your homework first like you would any car.

johnos1984

kmb wrote: »

Currently driving bravo Tjet 150
.

What that like? I see it as a proper cut price Alfa and have it on my bargain list for next time (and the diesel model too)

kmb

Hi johnos1984,

My car has the sport suspension,17" two tone alloys,bluetooth and sms reader,2 zone air conditioning setup.the list goes on.
Lets put it this way,they are problem free,have the sport button for when you feel like a heavy foot and do according to the trip computer 33mpg.
I think 0-60 is 8.2 seconds and they can be easily modded with the TMC kit to bring them over 185bhp(Mine is standard 150bhp which is plenty fast enough for me)
I would really recommend a test drive as it will change a lot of the negativity which Fiat gets.

shamwari

I bought a 2000 Punto 1.2 8V three years ago as a cheap run around which I planned to sell on. I still have it three years later and love the thing to bits! There are and have been other Punto's in the family and these too have been very reliable. Then again, yours truly minds them with plenty of TLC

When the time comes to bid farewell to mine, I'll be getting another Fiat, either a Grande Punto or a new Bravo. No question in my mind: they are a great car and very good value for money.

dr.fuzzenstein

Just steer clear of Renaults.

shamwari

Obaraten wrote: »

I was asking for peoples expierences/opinions:)
how would a 05 or 06 punto rate in comparison with similar cars of other makes?

That's a difficult one because most of those cars which the Punto is marketed against (Yaris, Polo, Clio etc) were all brand new models around that time, whereas the Punto II was on sale for over 5 years. Having said that, they do go well and give a good account of themselves, and cost a good deal less to buy too.

I think Fiat shot themselves a little in the foot with the Grande though. It's a fine car which is reliable, economical and nice to drive. But the 1.2 8v engine is a let down (only 66bhp or so) and is pulling a lot more metal around in the new body than the old one. Fiat should have used their 1.2 16V motor instead which is far pokier.

InquiringMind

Own a 00 punto, will never, ever, ever buy another fiat

Guy:Incognito

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Just steer clear of Renaults.

It didnt take long. All we need now are Nazi's and FF to get a mention and we have the trifecta.

David09

InquiringMind wrote: »

Own a 00 punto, will never, ever, ever buy another fiat

Why not? Any more info??

veetwin

johnos1984 wrote: »

The most reliable car my neighbour reckons he ever had was a Regatta

My father put up 120k miles in a used 1987 Regatta and reckoned it was the most reliable car he had. My sister and I both learned to drive in it and it hardly ever missed a beat. He has since bought about 10 more Fiats and all bar one has been reliable. He had one new Tipo that was a lemon and Fiat replaced it for a nominal sum after a year.

Modern ones look the business (puntos and bravas anyway) and are great value. The diesel engine is a gem (one of the best in the business). They do however like to be serviced properly and regularly and they do lose a packet if you buy new.

hellyeah

my brother had 2 puntos. a 98 and a 00. they were both very reliable imo.
the 98 was the s spec so not much to go wrong. great car untill he parked it into the back of a micra at 40mph.:rolleyes:
the 00 elx blew the head gaskit but that was it. both cars were very nippy
and very easy to service and maintain for the diy mechanic imo.
he changed up to a mondeo and had problems from day one with coil packs/ central locking issues / rear brakes calipers seizing etc.
engine management lights etc.
the main problem i can see is that people buy a 2nd hand punto which has been poorly maintained and then they end up with expensive repair bills.
like any car you have to spend money to maintain.
i know people who would not touch a ford. in my family we have a 99 escort which i bought new and it has not missed a beat from day one.
it has been passed around many members of the family and passed every nct. still going strong. serviced regularly with quality oil etc.
100k on the clock and mechanic recently said he reckons it will do the same again.

alias no.9

Fiat always made good engines, apart from head gasket failure on 8v FIRE lumps, it's hard to pick common faults. Even at that, an 8v FIRE head gasket is one of the simplest to fix, as head gaskets go.
Rust was a problem, but not on anything for the last 20 years.
Electrics were a reputed problem, but people can rarely state what electrics, so take that with a pinch of salt.
Within my immediate family, there's been an original panda , a mk1 Uno, a mk2 Uno, a mk1 Punto, a mk2 Punto, an original Bravo, a Brava, a Stilo and an Alfa 156. Between them, they've covered well more than 1 million miles during our ownership, in fact the pair of Uno's covered 1/2 million miles between them, and both found subsequent owners. Most were bought new and serviced properly, maybe that's why none of them could be considered unreliable.

shamwari

LIGHTNING wrote: »

The grande punto had a choice of 1.4 8v (76hp) 1.4 16v (94) as well as the 1.2 8v. Thats more than enough for a car of its size.

People want small engines for to keep their insurance and road tax costs down. They will avoid a 1.4 for that reason. Incidentally, the older 1.2 16V had more power than the 1.4 8v, and this reinforces my view that Fiat made a mistake in not making that engine available in the newer car.

alias no.9

shamwari wrote: »

People want small engines for to keep their insurance and road tax costs down. They will avoid a 1.4 for that reason. Incidentally, the older 1.2 16V had more power than the 1.4 8v, and this reinforces my view that Fiat made a mistake in not making that engine available in the newer car.

People want the cheapest new car they can get. The 1.2 16v sold next to never in comparrison with the 8v in the Punto when it was available, the 1.2 8v was there to make the car available at a price. Most owners will never notice the difference since they will never go above 3000rpm unless they're unintentionally in the wrong gear.

Crann na Beatha

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cena

Head gasket only with once in mine and the was over hundred thousand miles on the car than. Only rea problem i'v had with the car. Mother and father had it before me. She crashed it once. Tough little car. It's a 02

ottostreet

I loved my Puntos. Great car, only problem was one of my 8v ones kept eating its head gasket. But my other 8v did 35k miles with only one service, constantly being rallied around, and survived two crashes, before i wrote it off into a ditch eventually. and it still drove out of the ditch!

colm_mcm

alias no.9 wrote: »

People want the cheapest new car they can get. The 1.2 16v sold next to never in comparrison with the 8v in the Punto when it was available, the 1.2 8v was there to make the car available at a price. Most owners will never notice the difference since they will never go above 3000rpm unless they're unintentionally in the wrong gear.

But fiat never offered us the 1.2 16v in comparable spec to the 8v. They got the elx 16v in the uk but we only got the pricier hlx and sporting with the 16v

Puntos used to be fun youthful cars, now they're mostly lardy enterprise rental fodder :-(

mle1324

There have being 5 fiats in my family over the past 17 years starting with a 94 1.1 (I think) Punto. Would of being still youngish when he had it back then but from the stories I hear it was one of his favorite cars. Saw it a few years later in Blanchardstown :cool:.

After that he got himself a 97 Brava SX 1.4 12v. Was a fine car but as soon as the 1.2 16v HSX came out he (and his da) got one straight away. The second Brava was far superior to the first one he had, more poke in it and better equipped.This one could easily go over the 100mph mark. Kept that for five years then got a Megane which he very much regrets now.

The other two fiats were my mothers, one a 98 Selecta SX and a 01 ELX Speedgear, both autos and Puntos. The 01 was a great car and nippy. Sadly its sitting in some scrap yard after being wrote off:mad:.

Out of the five only the two auto's ever gave trouble, head gasket on the 98 and an electrical fault on the 01 (dash board dials would go from time to time).

Like a lot of people say it's hit and miss with them, some good some bad....like anything really.

Would I buy one ? Yes but only after I've done my homework on one.

Ardennes1944

miss my 8v mk2 alot still have my dozens of pics of it:D havent bonded with this astra at all really. just biding my time before i see a nice grande sporting

mle1324

colm_mcm wrote: »

But fiat never offered us the 1.2 16v in comparable spec to the 8v. They got the elx 16v in the uk but we only got the pricier hlx and sporting with the 16v

Puntos used to be fun youthful cars, now they're mostly lardy enterprise rental fodder :-(

There was the elx automatic 16v too, not too sure though if they were imported from the UK by Irish dealers

galwaytt

colm_mcm wrote: »

which is why they put a gearbox in mine at 6 months old......

...so what does my boss' 09 A6 need a new 'box then, with 44k kms on it ? Is it because it's a paragon of engineering excellence ?

johnos1984 wrote: »

The auld man had a new engine put in a carina at 8k miles. Does that make them rubbish?

Exactly

colm_mcm

galwaytt wrote: »

...so what does my boss' 09 A6 need a new 'box then, with 44k kms on it ? Is it because it's a paragon of engineering excellence ?


Exactly

My original post was in reply to someone who suggested that bad maintenance was usually to blame for mechanical maladies.
My punto was off the road for a month as the parts couldn't be got, and the brava took 6 weeks. When the brava was out of warranty, the exact same fault occurred. Took ages to get a second hand box as the fault was so widespread.

I gave Italian cars a shot, bought nothing but fiat and alfa for 6 years, in retrospect all were junk that depreciated vertically, I didn't care at the time asit was boom time and cars were mostly within warranty.

I went Italian because at the time, a new punto sporting or brava hsx was 12 grand, where a 1.4 golf was £20k, they were stylish, well equipped and cheap.

Nowadays you don't have to go Italian for all this. I'm sure things have improved quality wise, but as long as they depreciate heavily, aren't that cheap new, and are quite dull, what's the point?

L1011

Family has 3 Panda's and a Grande Punto in at the moment. Two of the Panda's and the GP are high enough mileage for Ireland - 80,000 miles, 95,000km on the Pandas and 130,000km on the Grande

All have had niggles but nothing more. The 80,000 mile Panda had to get a control stalk replaced after my mother managed to whack it off. The 95kkm one had a crack in a manifold that took a second dealer to discover - we stopped using the first one for servicing then - done under warranty.

The Grande had a boost sensor needing replacement just out of warranty on mileage terms, Fiat covered it anyway.

I wouldn't consider any of these particularly unusual. The 80,000 mile Panda hasn't had a dealer service since 2006, I doubt its had much done to it at all - my fairly technically useless brother has it - and its still running fine.

alias no.9

colm_mcm wrote: »

But fiat never offered us the 1.2 16v in comparable spec to the 8v. They got the elx 16v in the uk but we only got the pricier hlx and sporting with the 16v

Puntos used to be fun youthful cars, now they're mostly lardy enterprise rental fodder :-(

16v elx was available here on facelifted mk1, badged 85elx iirc, but didn't sell very well.

arybvtcw0eolkf

I've had three fiats over the years - Uno, Punto and a Brava none cost a whole great deal of money in running costs and weren't overly un-reliable.

I've a Skoda Octavia 1.9 tdi.

Its a 2006 Auto model with the DSG gear box.

Its cost me a damned fortune in repairs in its first three years, the most expensive of which was the infamous flywheel.

Of the top of my head in the first three years the car probably cost me upwards of €5k in repairs.

Fiat - I'd have no problem buying another one.

colm_mcm

alias no.9 wrote: »

16v elx was available here on facelifted mk1, badged 85elx iirc, but didn't sell very well.

Indeed, I was talking mk2 where elx was second lowest spec. The 16v engine is always on high spec models. Elx on a mk1 is a big deal

Tea 1000

01 Bravo in the family that has been excellent, nothing significant went wrong with it at all. The 1.2 16v engine really is excellent, still sounds very smooth, unlike a similar vintage Mk 4 Golf, 1.4, which sounds very rough now. Both similarly well maintained and both similar mileage.
Golf has had money spent on some engine problems.
Also, considering the Bravo came out in 1995, it still looks a fairly fresh design, which can't be said about the Mk 3 Golf that was out at that stage.
Also, the Fiat, like a lot of Fiats, is nice to drive, it has some real character.
People will always bash them, but those folk will praise cars like the Kia Rio... sure it's reliable, but so is a can of beans.

greenermetals

From the end of life vehicle perspective, weve had a n awful lot of '00 puntos in this past year, (most of our cars are 4-5 years older) and they all look far worse and in far worse a condition than any other marques.

I dont know if the volume of '00 puntos is indicative of the fact that there were a lot of them sold that year, or whether the condition of them is because of the type of driver they might have attracted, but the fact is they are coming here in large numbers and in poor condition.

Dont know about the more recent ones though

alias no.9

greenermetals wrote: »

From the end of life vehicle perspective, weve had a n awful lot of '00 puntos in this past year, (most of our cars are 4-5 years older) and they all look far worse and in far worse a condition than any other marques.

I dont know if the volume of '00 puntos is indicative of the fact that there were a lot of them sold that year, or whether the condition of them is because of the type of driver they might have attracted, but the fact is they are coming here in large numbers and in poor condition.

Dont know about the more recent ones though

Poor all round condition as may be indicative of neglect, abuse or poor maintenance, or poor condition as in structural rust etc...

Back in the day, they were one of the top selling cars, think they topped the charts in Ireland in the late '90's. Today their residual values would leave them an economic write off for the want of tyres and brakes at the same time.

greenermetals

alias no.9 wrote: »

Poor all round condition as may be indicative of neglect, abuse or poor maintenance, or poor condition as in structural rust etc...

Back in the day, they were one of the top selling cars, think they topped the charts in Ireland in the late '90's. Today their residual values would leave them an economic write off for the want of tyres and brakes at the same time.

Rust and bad engines, but they seem to suffer a lot of abuse

alias no.9

greenermetals wrote: »

Rust and bad engines, but they seem to suffer a lot of abuse

Out of curiosity, was there specific locations that they rust badly and how would it compare to your typical Fiesta of that era?