Fiat 500 1.3 m/Jet Diesel & 1.4 16v petrol sport

john_grant358 · 27-01-2008, 09:09

Never written a review before so here it goes! (excuse my dislexic spelling!)

After the previous thread on the fiat 500 i decided to test drive one, attracted by the very cheap running costs of the diesel.
Id done a good amount of research on the cars and was adoment that if it drove well, id be buying one on the day!

First of all i had a good look round a 'pop' version, which had the 5 spoke 16'' alloys on it, The 16's were really really nice, and looked the dogs goolies on that little car!
The interior on the pop was a lttle dissapointing i have to say, and the dash didnt look as good as on the website. The cockpit dial was abit boring to be honest.
The ouside looked so smart tho, i was very impressed!

The 'pop' 1.3 m/jet diesel engine test drive
First impression was the good solid door, which i was looking out for after the last review on here. It opened and closed firmly and strong which was a good start!
I then sat down and couldnt help but notice two things,

1. You really are sat up very high, i lowered the seat and made the adjustment to make it feel as sporty as possible but it just wasnt happening! Im only 5 9'' so im a pretty average size.

2. The lack of room. As i said before im not very tall but a was struggling for leg, but mostly left knee room, the centre console is very high and doesnt leave alot of room for the driver. The thought of long journeys in this car was not a good prospect.

The drive
Now i no its not fair to compare the speed to the my remapped fabia vrs and i knew it was going to be alot slower, but it was really really slow! I thought the fact it only weighs 980KG would make up for the lack of BHP, but sadley it didnt. They claim 78.5MPG but never in a million yeras would you get this out of the engine as you had to rag the b*llocks off of it to make it go anywhere!
All i could think about was, you would 100% HAVE to get it remapped! I spoke to fiat about this and they said that if it was remapped by somebody they reccomended it wouldnt affect the warrenty

And if you had it remapped by joe bloggs down the pub, everything that wasnt directly affected by the remap would still be covered

The seats in the pop were pretty bad, going around a roundabout, i slid off my seat which took my by suprise!

The common rail engine wasnt as fun as the PD, the power was constant and i really missed that kick in the back you get from the PD.

Driving back i got rinsed by the oldest crappest looking polo on the road! At this point i was thinking, get me in the 100bhp petrol!

The final straw was smaking my elbow on the door parking the bl**dy thing!

1.4 16v petrol sport test drive
First impressions. Worlds better than the 'pop'!
Sat down in the standard half leather sports seats and felt alot more positive, still high up, but lowered the seat, moved the seat back and lowered the stearing wheel and then was ok.
Started up the engine, which had a good note to the little 1.4.

The dash and cockpit was loads smarted than the 'pop', Main dial looked alot sportier which was good! And the sport button was a nice touch!

Drove the car with the sport button on and the traction controll off and it was quite fun, reved like mad! wasnt massivley responsive, but once you got the revs up it was a good laugh! Seats still didnt hold you as well as the fabia VRS.

On the way back i thought id turn the sport option off and the traction controll on, with in 3mins i put them back! Its a nice option, but abit of a waste of time IMHO as you would have them on 24/7 anyway so why not just make the car do it as standard, plus its an extra thing to go wrong.

The city button that lightens up the power stearing really was good, so easy to park, even tho i kept hitting my elbows!

Once parked up, the salesman showed me all the little extras you get with the sport.
Storage under the passenger seat was good, but all the other storage was on display, and if your like me, you like your car to look tidy inside, not clutered.
The automatic bluetooth was amazing! It recognises your phone straight away, and you can look throught your phone book and even read txt messages off your phone through the cockpit dial, i thought this was so good!
It also had voice commands. You shout HELP HELP and this women says back to you ' who would you like to call' (or something like that) You say 'phone mum' and away it goes! You never have to touch your mobile once in the car, very safe

The other thing you can do is plug your ipod/mp3 player in and all the options you get on the ipod come up on your cockpit screen! SOOOOOOOO GOOD! very impressed with that feature as well!

More points
For this car to save me money i couldnt have the 1.4 petrol, so it would have to be the Very slow 1.3 derv. I would like to drive the 1.3 derv sport and see what that was like, but i still dont think i could live with the speed of the thing.

Handling in the sport was good, although i cant comment to much as i didnt take it down contry roads, but roundabouts were fun, the thing that let it down was the seat fitting, didnt hug you enough and so i wouldnt feel confident really chucking the thing around.

The dealers were very good, seem to no what thet're on about alot more than skoda!

This car would be ok for the mrs nipping around town, but as a main car? IMHO, not even a consideration

I was so ready to love this car, i really wanted to buy one! Unfortunatley for me, the drive and the build quality really let it down. Which was gutting! To even consider buying one you would have to spend alot on option extras and have the sport model. Only problem is, once you have added all these to the price your not going to get any change out of £13k, which to me seemed like to much money for the car, that, quite frankly, wasnt everything fiat are claiming it to be.

One of the comments i read was the most expensive 500 was still cheaper than the cheapest BMW mini, If you ask me, there really is a reason for this and you no where the extra money has gone!

The looks of the fiat 500 are great ouside, and the inside is also spot on as long as you dont look to hard. The inside door handles felt wobbly.

The build quality was miles away from that of the skoda and to be honest i couldnt wait to get back in mine!

The one thing iv taken out of this whole experience is the Fabia VRS really is second to none for its price bracket and its really made me aprishiate (cant spell) my fabia.
I went home and spent hours cleaning and detailing it, i now have the same feeling for my car as when i first bought it!

This review is only how I personally felt about the fiat 500, iv tried to be as fair and open minded as possible.

Im sure other people will have different experiences and opinions, which i welcome and and happy to discuss. Id quite like to no what other peoples experiences are of them are

Hope people like the review.

p.s the Fiat dealer Rang skoda to see how much they would take my car from them as part ex..........£7000! Privatley i wouldnt take less than £8600 but skoda said the price of the skoda fabia VRS is dropping £200 a month! Can this be true?

MisterGT · 27-01-2008, 10:18

Am I one of the few who simply doesn't get the idea behind the Fiat 500? Why pay 11-12K for a 'retro' look vehicle when you can get the equivelent Panda ( and bear in mind the 500 is based on the Panda) for half the price?. Also comparing the 500 against the Fabia/Mini is a little unfair as it is a 'city car' as opposed to a 'supermini' and so should really be compared against the Swift/Arosa/Colt/Micra, Then you begin to realise just how expensive the 500 is for what you get.

I appreciate however that buying cars is never a logical process and no doubt Fiat will sell bucketloads of them (as BMW have with the Mini).

I would agree about the MPG though, as SWMBO's Panda is the 1.3 Multijet ,and although it has loosened up a little (and certainly sounds like it performs better than the one you tried) we cant get it above 62mpg average (Fiat quotes 66) but thats good enough for us

sharkrider · 27-01-2008, 13:46

nice review John, but to be honest, you're never going to get close to a replacement for a fabia vRS with a 500, I know you probably didn't intend to, but you'd have been compairing it to your vRS all the time

..... you'd maybe have been better looking at a grande punto 1.9 JTD sporting, they can be had, with all the kit for a (discounted) £11k...... but it will STILL feel slower than your vRS, mine remapped is only equivelent to a remapped vRS, still no faster.

If you do want to make a 'yearly' saving, then you'd probably have to accept a small cheaper (less powerful) car.... unfortunatley the 500 will never compete with a vRS, but then neither would the new vRS on price, if a standard fabia 2 1.9 diesel can be had for £12k!

reading your reviews, I think you made the right decision to cherish you current car

note: I havent driven it yet, hope to have the 1.4 sport for this wednesday morning if i can blag it for half a day

john_grant358 · 27-01-2008, 13:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by sharkrider

nice review John, but to be honest, you're never going to get close to a replacement for a fabia vRS with a 500, I know you probably didn't intend to, but you'd have been compairing it to your vRS all the time

..... you'd maybe have been better looking at a grande punto 1.9 JTD sporting, they can be had, with all the kit for a (discounted) £11k...... but it will STILL feel slower than your vRS, mine remapped is only equivelent to a remapped vRS, still no faster.

If you do want to make a 'yearly' saving, then you'd probably have to accept a small cheaper (less powerful) car.... unfortunatley the 500 will never compete with a vRS, but then neither would the new vRS on price, if a standard fabia 2 1.9 diesel can be had for £12k!

reading your reviews, I think you made the right decision to cherish you current car

I new the speed would never be any thing near the VRS, but it was the build of the thing that didnt impress me much, I guess its hard to beat the germans tho!

The 1.3derv i think was dangerous with its pulling out speed, i was waitin for ages at a roundabout trying to get out!

Id love to drive your car, which is obviously a closer rival to the VRS

sharkrider · 27-01-2008, 14:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_grant358

I new the speed would never be any thing near the VRS, but it was the build of the thing that didnt impress me much, I guess its hard to beat the germans tho!

The 1.3derv i think was dangerous with its pulling out speed, i was waitin for ages at a roundabout trying to get out!

Id love to drive your car, which is obviously a closer rival to the VRS

well I dunno where you're based , but if you bob along to one of the meets I'm attending you're welcome (had a couple of test flyers at the cat'n'fiddle yesterday! lol..) next meet I'm at will be the weston meet in march (south west section) a few of us northerns are being daft, and stopping down there for the weekend

lfc958 · 27-01-2008, 17:46

Agree with sharkrider, there is no way you can drive another diesel no matter what it is and compare it to a re mapped Furby.
I had a 1.9 (105) fabia sport TDI on loan and compared to my remapped furby its rubbish.
Each car has to be taken in its own context.
Taking into account the engine will loosen up , just like my furby did, the 1.3 will improve.

Each to his own

sharkrider · 27-01-2008, 23:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by lfc958

Agree with sharkrider, there is no way you can drive another diesel no matter what it is and compare it to a re mapped Furby.
I had a 1.9 (105) fabia sport TDI on loan and compared to my remapped furby its rubbish.
Each car has to be taken in its own context.
Taking into account the engine will loosen up , just like my furby did, the 1.3 will improve.

Each to his own

agreed, there isn't really any £12k deisel hatch you can buy that will feel as fast as a remapped fabia vRS.....

john_grant358 · 28-01-2008, 10:06

I honestly wasnt comparing the speed to my car, even standard the vrs has 22BHP more per tonne than the 1.3 500.
The 1.4 petrol however has 10BHP more per tonne than a standard furby, but still felt slow, granted the torque figures would be loads less but still.

There was alot i loved about the 500, but sadley it didnt live up to my expectations. Maybe i was expecting to much.

27-01-2008, 09:09	#1
john_grant358 Briskodian Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 1,273 Thanks: 39 Thanked 40 Times in 40 Posts	Fiat 500 1.3 m/Jet Diesel & 1.4 16v petrol sport Never written a review before so here it goes! (excuse my dislexic spelling!) After the previous thread on the fiat 500 i decided to test drive one, attracted by the very cheap running costs of the diesel. Id done a good amount of research on the cars and was adoment that if it drove well, id be buying one on the day! First of all i had a good look round a 'pop' version, which had the 5 spoke 16'' alloys on it, The 16's were really really nice, and looked the dogs goolies on that little car! The interior on the pop was a lttle dissapointing i have to say, and the dash didnt look as good as on the website. The cockpit dial was abit boring to be honest. The ouside looked so smart tho, i was very impressed! The 'pop' 1.3 m/jet diesel engine test drive First impression was the good solid door, which i was looking out for after the last review on here. It opened and closed firmly and strong which was a good start! I then sat down and couldnt help but notice two things, 1. You really are sat up very high, i lowered the seat and made the adjustment to make it feel as sporty as possible but it just wasnt happening! Im only 5 9'' so im a pretty average size. 2. The lack of room. As i said before im not very tall but a was struggling for leg, but mostly left knee room, the centre console is very high and doesnt leave alot of room for the driver. The thought of long journeys in this car was not a good prospect. The drive Now i no its not fair to compare the speed to the my remapped fabia vrs and i knew it was going to be alot slower, but it was really really slow! I thought the fact it only weighs 980KG would make up for the lack of BHP, but sadley it didnt. They claim 78.5MPG but never in a million yeras would you get this out of the engine as you had to rag the bllocks off of it to make it go anywhere! All i could think about was, you would 100% HAVE to get it remapped! I spoke to fiat about this and they said that if it was remapped by somebody they reccomended it wouldnt affect the warrenty And if you had it remapped by joe bloggs down the pub, everything that wasnt directly affected by the remap would still be covered The seats in the pop were pretty bad, going around a roundabout, i slid off my seat which took my by suprise! The common rail engine wasnt as fun as the PD, the power was constant and i really missed that kick in the back you get from the PD. Driving back i got rinsed by the oldest crappest looking polo on the road! At this point i was thinking, get me in the 100bhp petrol! The final straw was smaking my elbow on the door parking the bldy thing! 1.4 16v petrol sport test drive* First impressions. Worlds better than the 'pop'! Sat down in the standard half leather sports seats and felt alot more positive, still high up, but lowered the seat, moved the seat back and lowered the stearing wheel and then was ok. Started up the engine, which had a good note to the little 1.4. The dash and cockpit was loads smarted than the 'pop', Main dial looked alot sportier which was good! And the sport button was a nice touch! Drove the car with the sport button on and the traction controll off and it was quite fun, reved like mad! wasnt massivley responsive, but once you got the revs up it was a good laugh! Seats still didnt hold you as well as the fabia VRS. On the way back i thought id turn the sport option off and the traction controll on, with in 3mins i put them back! Its a nice option, but abit of a waste of time IMHO as you would have them on 24/7 anyway so why not just make the car do it as standard, plus its an extra thing to go wrong. The city button that lightens up the power stearing really was good, so easy to park, even tho i kept hitting my elbows! Once parked up, the salesman showed me all the little extras you get with the sport. Storage under the passenger seat was good, but all the other storage was on display, and if your like me, you like your car to look tidy inside, not clutered. The automatic bluetooth was amazing! It recognises your phone straight away, and you can look throught your phone book and even read txt messages off your phone through the cockpit dial, i thought this was so good! It also had voice commands. You shout HELP HELP and this women says back to you ' who would you like to call' (or something like that) You say 'phone mum' and away it goes! You never have to touch your mobile once in the car, very safe The other thing you can do is plug your ipod/mp3 player in and all the options you get on the ipod come up on your cockpit screen! SOOOOOOOO GOOD! very impressed with that feature as well! More points For this car to save me money i couldnt have the 1.4 petrol, so it would have to be the Very slow 1.3 derv. I would like to drive the 1.3 derv sport and see what that was like, but i still dont think i could live with the speed of the thing. Handling in the sport was good, although i cant comment to much as i didnt take it down contry roads, but roundabouts were fun, the thing that let it down was the seat fitting, didnt hug you enough and so i wouldnt feel confident really chucking the thing around. The dealers were very good, seem to no what thet're on about alot more than skoda! This car would be ok for the mrs nipping around town, but as a main car? IMHO, not even a consideration I was so ready to love this car, i really wanted to buy one! Unfortunatley for me, the drive and the build quality really let it down. Which was gutting! To even consider buying one you would have to spend alot on option extras and have the sport model. Only problem is, once you have added all these to the price your not going to get any change out of £13k, which to me seemed like to much money for the car, that, quite frankly, wasnt everything fiat are claiming it to be. One of the comments i read was the most expensive 500 was still cheaper than the cheapest BMW mini, If you ask me, there really is a reason for this and you no where the extra money has gone! The looks of the fiat 500 are great ouside, and the inside is also spot on as long as you dont look to hard. The inside door handles felt wobbly. The build quality was miles away from that of the skoda and to be honest i couldnt wait to get back in mine! The one thing iv taken out of this whole experience is the Fabia VRS really is second to none for its price bracket and its really made me aprishiate (cant spell) my fabia. I went home and spent hours cleaning and detailing it, i now have the same feeling for my car as when i first bought it! This review is only how I personally felt about the fiat 500, iv tried to be as fair and open minded as possible. Im sure other people will have different experiences and opinions, which i welcome and and happy to discuss. Id quite like to no what other peoples experiences are of them are Hope people like the review. p.s the Fiat dealer Rang skoda to see how much they would take my car from them as part ex..........£7000! Privatley i wouldnt take less than £8600 but skoda said the price of the skoda fabia VRS is dropping £200 a month! Can this be true? __________________ 05 silver furby vrs, Remap, PD160, silver dash kit, eibachs, Jabba ARB, sachs clutch and very unique colour alloys! Last edited by john_grant358; 27-01-2008 at 09:26.

27-01-2008, 10:18	#2
MisterGT Briskodian Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Okehampton Posts: 751 Thanks: 8 Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts	Re: Fiat 500 1.3 m/Jet Diesel & 1.4 16v petrol sport Am I one of the few who simply doesn't get the idea behind the Fiat 500? Why pay 11-12K for a 'retro' look vehicle when you can get the equivelent Panda ( and bear in mind the 500 is based on the Panda) for half the price?. Also comparing the 500 against the Fabia/Mini is a little unfair as it is a 'city car' as opposed to a 'supermini' and so should really be compared against the Swift/Arosa/Colt/Micra, Then you begin to realise just how expensive the 500 is for what you get. I appreciate however that buying cars is never a logical process and no doubt Fiat will sell bucketloads of them (as BMW have with the Mini). I would agree about the MPG though, as SWMBO's Panda is the 1.3 Multijet ,and although it has loosened up a little (and certainly sounds like it performs better than the one you tried) we cant get it above 62mpg average (Fiat quotes 66) but thats good enough for us

27-01-2008, 13:46	#3
sharkrider rider of sharks Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cumbria Posts: 3,677 Thanks: 186 Thanked 89 Times in 77 Posts	Re: Fiat 500 1.3 m/Jet Diesel & 1.4 16v petrol sport nice review John, but to be honest, you're never going to get close to a replacement for a fabia vRS with a 500, I know you probably didn't intend to, but you'd have been compairing it to your vRS all the time ..... you'd maybe have been better looking at a grande punto 1.9 JTD sporting, they can be had, with all the kit for a (discounted) £11k...... but it will STILL feel slower than your vRS, mine remapped is only equivelent to a remapped vRS, still no faster. If you do want to make a 'yearly' saving, then you'd probably have to accept a small cheaper (less powerful) car.... unfortunatley the 500 will never compete with a vRS, but then neither would the new vRS on price, if a standard fabia 2 1.9 diesel can be had for £12k! reading your reviews, I think you made the right decision to cherish you current car note: I havent driven it yet, hope to have the 1.4 sport for this wednesday morning if i can blag it for half a day __________________ Fiat Grande Punto Sporting (158 bhp 314 lbs/ft) in Red.... Furby vRS , black magic,passenger airbag de-activation switch, (now gone, but not forgotten!)

27-01-2008, 17:46	#6
lfc958 Hello New Car Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Kent Posts: 4,000 Thanks: 0 Thanked 24 Times in 24 Posts	Re: Fiat 500 1.3 m/Jet Diesel & 1.4 16v petrol sport Agree with sharkrider, there is no way you can drive another diesel no matter what it is and compare it to a re mapped Furby. I had a 1.9 (105) fabia sport TDI on loan and compared to my remapped furby its rubbish. Each car has to be taken in its own context. Taking into account the engine will loosen up , just like my furby did, the 1.3 will improve. Each to his own __________________ Steve Bye Bye Fabia - Its Gone to a new home Hello 500 ( Sept 08 )

28-01-2008, 10:06	#8
john_grant358 Briskodian Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 1,273 Thanks: 39 Thanked 40 Times in 40 Posts	Re: Fiat 500 1.3 m/Jet Diesel & 1.4 16v petrol sport I honestly wasnt comparing the speed to my car, even standard the vrs has 22BHP more per tonne than the 1.3 500. The 1.4 petrol however has 10BHP more per tonne than a standard furby, but still felt slow, granted the torque figures would be loads less but still. There was alot i loved about the 500, but sadley it didnt live up to my expectations. Maybe i was expecting to much. __________________ 05 silver furby vrs, Remap, PD160, silver dash kit, eibachs, Jabba ARB, sachs clutch and very unique colour alloys!

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