Fiat 500 Twin Air
Discussion
Close mate of mine test drove one.
Turned up at the dealership and the steering wheel wasn't on straight....
Had it for 24 hours and struggled to get anywhere near the mpg suggested...
..and lastly less imprtnalty for him (or his girlfriend actually) it was too small....not practical enough.
He did say it was pretty good fun to zip about in though.... (but he also did try hard to max the mpg.
Oh and he said the stop start tech was rubbish.
Turned up at the dealership and the steering wheel wasn't on straight....
Had it for 24 hours and struggled to get anywhere near the mpg suggested...
..and lastly less imprtnalty for him (or his girlfriend actually) it was too small....not practical enough.
He did say it was pretty good fun to zip about in though.... (but he also did try hard to max the mpg.
Oh and he said the stop start tech was rubbish.
Great little cars. The engine is spot on, not particularly smooth but better than you'd imagine a 2-pot to be. Its also torquey for such a small unit (the turbo helps here of course) and revs very nicely. Its exactly the sort of engine you'd expect to be in a small Italian car, and suits the 500's personality to perfection. That said, economy seems to be an issue. Early 50s is what you should expect, which sounds perfectly acceptable for a small petrol engine, but not against official figures that suggest you'll be knocking on the door of 70mpg. There's no doubt its a better engine from virtually all aspects than the 1.2, but is it really worth all the extra outlay? Not so sure...
ETA - Agoogy, surely your friend could determine that the car was too small without using it for 24 hours first? If he needed something practical, why did he look at a tiny little 3-door supermini? Oh, and the start-stop technology was rubbish? Can you ask him what was rubbish about it?
ETA - Agoogy, surely your friend could determine that the car was too small without using it for 24 hours first? If he needed something practical, why did he look at a tiny little 3-door supermini? Oh, and the start-stop technology was rubbish? Can you ask him what was rubbish about it?
Edited by robsco on Wednesday 20th July 19:33
robsco said:
ETA - Agoogy, surely your friend could determine that the car was too small without using it for 24 hours first? If he needed something practical, why did he look at a tiny little 3-door supermini? Oh, and the start-stop technology was rubbish? Can you ask him what was rubbish about it?
Only he knows why they considerd such a small car only to complain that it's too small....but yeah he must've known.Start-stop tech simply wouldn't work for him, he queried it at the dealership and they couldn't get it going either....so either neither of them knew how to work it or the demonstrator was a duff example...which along with the steering wheel thing smacks of laziness... and didn't...wouldn't help 'sell' the car...
The start-stop technology system won't, and isn't designed to work every time the car comes to a stop. The onboard computers go through rigorous checks including battery charge, engine temperature etc to determine whether the car is 100 percent happy that it can restart itself. Even daft things like having the fans on full blast or having the windscreen wipers going will prevent the car from stop-starting. Either that or it was turned off using the button on the dash!
Next generation 500 is still some time away, the car hasn't even had it's mid life facelift as yet. A better place to aske about the 500 is over on fiatforum.com. There are quite a few people who have got the twinair and whilst talk about the fuel consumption not being great, there are quite a few people who are getting some very good figures.
I have sold them, done test drives and promoted them at shows...
The miles per gallon gets better, also when people thrash them everywhere (the engine and nature of the car cause this, it's fun) they all then complain about mpg.
Fitted four adults in a 'Lounge' i was in the back, 6' would not want to go on a world tour but adequate.
Stop start and blue and me worked just fine, stop start did not like heavy braking...
Great little car..
The miles per gallon gets better, also when people thrash them everywhere (the engine and nature of the car cause this, it's fun) they all then complain about mpg.
Fitted four adults in a 'Lounge' i was in the back, 6' would not want to go on a world tour but adequate.
Stop start and blue and me worked just fine, stop start did not like heavy braking...
Great little car..
Where i worked (no longer there) we sold most on lease deals, Fiat paying a large chunk of the deposit and we did basic 'pop' spec from £129 deposit and £129 per month, the better spec and increase in mileage allowance costs more, also you could have to wait for up to 12 weeks if you spec an unusual combination.....
I've owned one for 2 months or so and my thoughts are:
Fuel economy is only in the mid 40's not the high 60's and I've been trying to drive it sedately!!!!
I specced mine up a bit (auto gearbox, metallic paint and climate control) and the price came in at close to 14K which is expensive for the size of the car. No discounts were forthcoming from my Local dealer which is understandable for a car with an 8-10 week waiting list.
The auto gearbox is not the smoothest, the stop start works well though.
Having said all that, it's great fun to drive, easy to park & deceptively spacious (all my trips to the Garden Centre and DIY store have been handled adequately so far).
Fuel economy is only in the mid 40's not the high 60's and I've been trying to drive it sedately!!!!
I specced mine up a bit (auto gearbox, metallic paint and climate control) and the price came in at close to 14K which is expensive for the size of the car. No discounts were forthcoming from my Local dealer which is understandable for a car with an 8-10 week waiting list.
The auto gearbox is not the smoothest, the stop start works well though.
Having said all that, it's great fun to drive, easy to park & deceptively spacious (all my trips to the Garden Centre and DIY store have been handled adequately so far).
Economy is obtainable if you drive the car with an open mind, peak power is made at 1900 rpm so there is no point revving it more than that.
The fantastic thing about the twinair is it offers performance and economy, although not at the same time!
Being a fizzy little Italian turbocharged twin it loves to rev and will still give 40mpg driving it hard.
If you follow the shift indicators and are gentle on the controls and surf that wave of torque low down then the claimed figures are acheivable, the figures below were on a 30 minute urban commute, max speed 40 MPH, tiny bit of stop and start traffic, test car had only covered 93 miles!
The fantastic thing about the twinair is it offers performance and economy, although not at the same time!
Being a fizzy little Italian turbocharged twin it loves to rev and will still give 40mpg driving it hard.
If you follow the shift indicators and are gentle on the controls and surf that wave of torque low down then the claimed figures are acheivable, the figures below were on a 30 minute urban commute, max speed 40 MPH, tiny bit of stop and start traffic, test car had only covered 93 miles!
Collected my brand new Twin Air Plus today. Great little car, very zippy and fun to drive. Very chuckable. Did 70 miles today (total mileage on the clock now 78 miles), and average mpg has been 35.5 - HOWEVER before the mpg-Nazis get going, that was based on A- road rush hour traffic, followed by about 50-odd miles at around 80-90mph on the motorways. So 35.5, not bad from a brand new engine. I just bought it as a second little shopping / commuting car, my GT3 was a bit much as a daily driver. So anything that give me more than 25 mpg is good going in my book! The stop start thing is fine, I was told by the dealer that if the engine cuts out once as per your request, and then you drive off, you have to exceed 4 mph before the stop start will operate again, and then subject to the electrowotsits thinking that it has enough power to restart without issue.. The blue&me telephone thing is great too, works very well. Not connected the iPod yet though, will give that a try tomorrow. Finally, I love the sound... Really bizarre, but in a good way...
Geneve said:
Wayne/Catherine
Thanks.
What are the likely deals on a new Twin Air Plus to my spec?
Ans still interested in the 'rumour' of a 105bhp version for 2012 MY (ie soon).
There is nothing in a 500 for dealers, about £350 quid at best after PDI so discounts are not readily available, you might be able to haggle for a set of mats (which are expensive for the 500). If you are buying on finance there maybe deposit contributions from Fiat, generally the interest charges on PCP's are low (6-9% APR).Thanks.
What are the likely deals on a new Twin Air Plus to my spec?
Ans still interested in the 'rumour' of a 105bhp version for 2012 MY (ie soon).
Very pleased with the car I have on a lease, which is the new TwinAir spec in "Plus" edition(16" inch wheels, Blue&Me as well as leather sports steering wheel as far as I can remember). Really like the car, the color, engine and spec is great - MPG not so much. It was this or a BMW 116d, a complete no brainer for me.
Getting high 40's at the moment, not really trying. Done about 2000 miles now, seems to be improving rapidly as the engine gets run in. Not really that bothered. It offers very good performance for city driving and acceptable performance on the open road.
Getting high 40's at the moment, not really trying. Done about 2000 miles now, seems to be improving rapidly as the engine gets run in. Not really that bothered. It offers very good performance for city driving and acceptable performance on the open road.
Alfahorn said:
There is nothing in a 500 for dealers, about £350 quid at best after PDI so discounts are not readily available, you might be able to haggle for a set of mats (which are expensive for the 500). If you are buying on finance there maybe deposit contributions from Fiat, generally the interest charges on PCP's are low (6-9% APR).
Depending on what sort of driving you do, the 85HP might be the better choice for city/motorway driving as they will probably have to move the torqueband higher up the rev range, as well as narrow it slightly to gain another 20HP. Of course, it will put out more peak torque, but the 85HP really has great pull from 1500RPM, can't imagine the 105HP being quite as gutsy low down.I chose not to wait for the 105HP, rumors have it it's only a map anyway, Celtic tuning can take a 85HP to 100HP and 170NM already.
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