Vacumatic
Testy
In 2006 I was looking for a second car, there were young drivers in the family and we had a very old Golf that was running very well, just a bit old at 16 years, so I bought a new Fiat Grand Punto, it was sold a year later with less than 6000 miles and a loss of more than 50% on list price. We bought another Golf, that was fault free, and then we bought another Golf and that has been fault free.
Whilst we had the Fiat it had:
Two new steering racks, they rattled badly over bumps, the service desk said 'yes that was a known fault', I thought pity the salesman didn't tell me that when I bought the car.
Loose plastic exterior trim.
Zero power under 2000 revs, not too bad in the lower gears but if your were in 4th doing 45, change in to 5th, revs would drop to 1800 and the engine would just die, the car just slowed down and the engine would not pick up at all. Yes sir we have a fix for that, we can sell you a new chip for £350.
Failed ABS, warning light used to come on, brake pedal went dead, five minutes later it was ok, repeat after 10 minutes.
Failed power steering, typically it would fail on a run and you wouldn't notice until you came to a halt or a roundabout which turned into a squareabout.
On one journey, every warning light came on at once and over the next hour they went off one by one. The engine was fine and had plenty of oil. I took it to Mangoletsi, a Fiat main dealer, the car was two months old. They asked for £75 to plug a computer in to tell me what was wrong, when I said just tell me what is wrong and don't use the computer, just like they used to do. they didnt understand that idea.
Every time the car was washed the electrics would fail, by which I mean everything electrical would stop working.
Other problems were with the dealers. On one of the steering rack changes I noticed when collecting the car that the wheels were badly marked, as if they had been removed and allowed to fall face down on to the concrete. I went into the reception to complain. The workshop manager was called, he shrugged his shoulders and said 'it's a Fiat, what's the problem, probably would have happened anyway at some point,' he walked off. Service manager said 'sorry, but that's what we are up against. They still didnt fix the damage.
I would not buy an Italian car again. I had heard the joke that FIAT stood for Fix It Again Tony, it is absolutely true.
Whilst we had the Fiat it had:
Two new steering racks, they rattled badly over bumps, the service desk said 'yes that was a known fault', I thought pity the salesman didn't tell me that when I bought the car.
Loose plastic exterior trim.
Zero power under 2000 revs, not too bad in the lower gears but if your were in 4th doing 45, change in to 5th, revs would drop to 1800 and the engine would just die, the car just slowed down and the engine would not pick up at all. Yes sir we have a fix for that, we can sell you a new chip for £350.
Failed ABS, warning light used to come on, brake pedal went dead, five minutes later it was ok, repeat after 10 minutes.
Failed power steering, typically it would fail on a run and you wouldn't notice until you came to a halt or a roundabout which turned into a squareabout.
On one journey, every warning light came on at once and over the next hour they went off one by one. The engine was fine and had plenty of oil. I took it to Mangoletsi, a Fiat main dealer, the car was two months old. They asked for £75 to plug a computer in to tell me what was wrong, when I said just tell me what is wrong and don't use the computer, just like they used to do. they didnt understand that idea.
Every time the car was washed the electrics would fail, by which I mean everything electrical would stop working.
Other problems were with the dealers. On one of the steering rack changes I noticed when collecting the car that the wheels were badly marked, as if they had been removed and allowed to fall face down on to the concrete. I went into the reception to complain. The workshop manager was called, he shrugged his shoulders and said 'it's a Fiat, what's the problem, probably would have happened anyway at some point,' he walked off. Service manager said 'sorry, but that's what we are up against. They still didnt fix the damage.
I would not buy an Italian car again. I had heard the joke that FIAT stood for Fix It Again Tony, it is absolutely true.
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