2016 595 Competizione - warranty woes
Discussion
We picked up a pre-reg'd Series 4 595 Competizione on Christmas Eve 2016 and had about 8 months of fun filled driving in it until it has started falling apart.
Has anybody else found these to be scarily unreliable so far? We sent it for its first service in October 2017 at about 7500 miles where the techs highlighted that the rear shockers both needed replaced and the water pump was leaking. Upon removal of the aux belt, they also found that it was tarnished and replaced it under warranty along with the other broken bits.
My girlfriend uses the car for her short work commute and came in last week complaining that the car didn't feel right, so I took it to the workshop the next morning and found quite a lot of play in the front NS wheel bearing - after an argument with Arnold Clark they agreed to take it back in and have it replaced under warranty, but upon further inspection they have also found the front shockers to be f
ked and apparently it needs ANOTHER belt!
So just over 10000 miles and 1 year into ownership and the novelty has sort of worn off the nice shiny car - is anybody else having issues or is this one a bit of a lemon??
Has anybody else found these to be scarily unreliable so far? We sent it for its first service in October 2017 at about 7500 miles where the techs highlighted that the rear shockers both needed replaced and the water pump was leaking. Upon removal of the aux belt, they also found that it was tarnished and replaced it under warranty along with the other broken bits.
My girlfriend uses the car for her short work commute and came in last week complaining that the car didn't feel right, so I took it to the workshop the next morning and found quite a lot of play in the front NS wheel bearing - after an argument with Arnold Clark they agreed to take it back in and have it replaced under warranty, but upon further inspection they have also found the front shockers to be f
ked and apparently it needs ANOTHER belt!So just over 10000 miles and 1 year into ownership and the novelty has sort of worn off the nice shiny car - is anybody else having issues or is this one a bit of a lemon??
We're thinking about a new or nearly new 595 Comp for the wife.
I asked a similar "reliability" question on another Abarth page and it seems for every good car there seems to be a bad one. We really want one as well but having read some of the stories (and not being that close to an Abarth dealership) do have some concerns..
I asked a similar "reliability" question on another Abarth page and it seems for every good car there seems to be a bad one. We really want one as well but having read some of the stories (and not being that close to an Abarth dealership) do have some concerns..
Daggerpie said:
We're thinking about a new or nearly new 595 Comp for the wife.
I asked a similar "reliability" question on another Abarth page and it seems for every good car there seems to be a bad one. We really want one as well but having read some of the stories (and not being that close to an Abarth dealership) do have some concerns..
Pop on a land rover page and then decide if a fiat has reliability issues I asked a similar "reliability" question on another Abarth page and it seems for every good car there seems to be a bad one. We really want one as well but having read some of the stories (and not being that close to an Abarth dealership) do have some concerns..
all mass produced items will have a weakness but it’s how they manage that. From what I’ve read as long as you avoid Arnold Clark you’ll be fine. Also Fiat are higher up the reliability chart according to JD Power than Audi and BMW.
Daggerpie said:
We're thinking about a new or nearly new 595 Comp for the wife.
I asked a similar "reliability" question on another Abarth page and it seems for every good car there seems to be a bad one. We really want one as well but having read some of the stories (and not being that close to an Abarth dealership) do have some concerns..
We never got it with an expectation of full reliability - it is after all just a dressed up fiat (regardless of what the owners clubs will say!) - but ours really doesn't get a hard life and we just sort of expected a bit more quality for the money. The shockers are uprated as part of the Competizione spec, and they feel really nice to be fair to it - but even still for all 4 to fail almost completely in a year is a bit excessive IMOI asked a similar "reliability" question on another Abarth page and it seems for every good car there seems to be a bad one. We really want one as well but having read some of the stories (and not being that close to an Abarth dealership) do have some concerns..
It is a nice car and it's great fun on the right road on the right day etc, but if it's going to be any sort of daily drive or if you're going to have it after the warranty runs out then I'd suggest something different.
The gearbox seems super soft as well, it's apparently common and not a problem if the occasionally pop out of reverse?? Oh and the back brakes have started binding on... and the front Brembo squeal is widely accepted as "just one of those things".
St. Anger said:
We never got it with an expectation of full reliability - it is after all just a dressed up fiat (regardless of what the owners clubs will say!) - but ours really doesn't get a hard life and we just sort of expected a bit more quality for the money. The shockers are uprated as part of the Competizione spec, and they feel really nice to be fair to it - but even still for all 4 to fail almost completely in a year is a bit excessive IMO
It is a nice car and it's great fun on the right road on the right day etc, but if it's going to be any sort of daily drive or if you're going to have it after the warranty runs out then I'd suggest something different.
The gearbox seems super soft as well, it's apparently common and not a problem if the occasionally pop out of reverse?? Oh and the back brakes have started binding on... and the front Brembo squeal is widely accepted as "just one of those things".
Again I’d suggest the opposite. I expect I have one of the highest mileage S4 Comps and have no issues, it is also my daily driver, my commuter and has taken part in autosolo a and track days It is a nice car and it's great fun on the right road on the right day etc, but if it's going to be any sort of daily drive or if you're going to have it after the warranty runs out then I'd suggest something different.
The gearbox seems super soft as well, it's apparently common and not a problem if the occasionally pop out of reverse?? Oh and the back brakes have started binding on... and the front Brembo squeal is widely accepted as "just one of those things".
The shocks are known about and are not manufactured by Fiat, as long as they are replaced under warranty it’s not an issue.
The gearbox doesn’t have a syncromesh but if you read the manual and follow what it says for engaging reverse then you shouldn’t have any issue. And yes Brembos are known to be noisy, however I’ve found its misuse of them that makes the noise, light breaking around town causes the noise (I guess it glazes the disk) form breaking gets rid of the noise. So I just brake a bit heavier and get no noise.
I know it must be really frustrating having a car with numerous issues but you shouldn’t let that influence others purchases.
In fairness, I bought my 2 year old Fiesta and had terrible issues with wheel wobble - traced to badly made discs and one of the rear brakes was obviously binding and I had to free it with WD40 and replace the pads.
Seems they all use cheap parts but, equally, we are talking about cars with far higher performance than days of yore.
Seems they all use cheap parts but, equally, we are talking about cars with far higher performance than days of yore.
Aaaaaand after 2.5 weeks in the dealership, I’ve received a call from Abarth customer services today to tell me they’ve discovered the alternator and tensioner also need replaced so it’ll be a minimum of another week before we’ve got the car back.
As Nikos has already said, it has its moments; it’s fun but now it’s definitely overshadowed by its shocking reliability and I regret getting it in the first place.
I bought this as a brand new car in addition to our 25 year old MX5 and 23 & 18 year old BMWs so we had a reliable daily... the reality is quite the opposite.
As Nikos has already said, it has its moments; it’s fun but now it’s definitely overshadowed by its shocking reliability and I regret getting it in the first place.
I bought this as a brand new car in addition to our 25 year old MX5 and 23 & 18 year old BMWs so we had a reliable daily... the reality is quite the opposite.
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