well i had 3 fiats, and my mum had one, my brother had 5 - and sad to say never again, the poor dealer support finished it for me personally.......my brother has now bought cars other than fiat and he wont be going back either !
the first fiat car i had was a brand new tipo, good for the first 3 years, i even bought it from our then 'local dealer' Burwoods in tatling end !!!!- it closed down, its now bulstrode garage car sales....after 3 yrs everything electrical started to fail, central locking would open all by itself in the middle of the night,the alarm would go off for no reason the headlights got so hot on a journey down from visiting family in the lake district ( 6 hours constant drive) that the plastic plugs on the rear of the lights melted causing electrical problems, leaving me stranded at night with no headlights -the rear wiper stopped working, the electric windows would often go down and not go back up.....
it was a great performer a 2 LTR HGT model good to drive and very nippy, but the build let it down, you never knew what would fall off next, and depreciation was horrific.......the only half decent trade in price i could get was against another fiat................
i then had 2 puntos, both were half decent but i learned my lesson and sold them when they turned 3 yrs old,i bought simpler models with less electrical bits to go wrong ! - still had daft little faults with them that required expensive parts and fixes, but the dealers were dreadful, and service not good......fiat got a letter or two from me regarding this too !- i also participated in the JD power surveys too telling them what i thought.....
i once waited 8 days for a wing mirror glass from hallewell in amersham having ordered it and paying up front - as i was told there were none in the country !
plus every dealer i used closed down, when i lived near bracknell i used marn in camberley- it closed down, then i used cleveland cars in ash near basingstoke, now closed down, then there was andrews fiat in windsor- now closed down, i then moved to bourne end and used thames fiat in high wycombe, they then closed it down and moved to slough !- when i first moved to CSP i used to send my fiat to hallewell for service in amersham..... and then i decided...NO MORE FIATS,
and i get a 33% discount on a new one - but i very much doubt i will ever use it !
even the alfas on our company pool car fleet dont seem to fair alot better......
in my personal opinion the build quality of later fords and renault beat the italian marques hands down, and this is now backed up with my brother and mother who now both own renaults !
my view is fiat are coming out with some nicely designed cars, with great engines but poor trim fit and finish let the package down along with dealers who are slow in getting bits with which to fix the cars !
Edited by big baggles