ICE Vehicles: General topics

My step mother had a 2013 Fiat 500 automatic brand new and it developed a gearbox issue at 4.5k miles. Fiat decided at first to do absolutely nothing about it and suggested she pay £3k to have it fixed even though it was barely a year old. My dad threatened legal action and Fiat eventually offered to pay £1k towards the bill. She got it repaired and got rid of it. Sad as it was her dream car at the time but ended up being a complete nightmare.

Everybody I know who has had a 500 has had significant issues with them unfortunately :(
 
The-Real-Deal82 said:
My step mother had a 2013 Fiat 500 automatic brand new and it developed a gearbox issue at 4.5k miles. Fiat decided at first to do absolutely nothing about it and suggested she pay £3k to have it fixed even though it was barely a year old. My dad threatened legal action and Fiat eventually offered to pay £1k towards the bill. She got it repaired and got rid of it. Sad as it was her dream car at the time but ended up being a complete nightmare.

Everybody I know who has had a 500 has had significant issues with them unfortunately :(
Click to expand...
Wasn’t it still under warranty?

I’ve owned a bunch of vehicles and this is the first one that developed these kind of oil leaks at 50k miles. I wonder if this is a harbinger of the furture? 👀 I’ll report back on what the bill would have been without a warranty.
 
Huntn said:
Wasn’t it still under warranty?

I’ve owned a bunch of vehicles and this is the first one that developed these kind of oil leaks at 50k miles. I wonder if this is a harbinger of the furture? [emoji102] I’ll report back on what the bill would have been without a warranty.
Click to expand...

Sadly not. The gearbox was exempt and Fiat were appalling when dealing with it.

Be interested to see the bill for yours.
 
600 miles, still have 1/2 a tank of gas ... :D

Since we bought the DD/RT outright at the end of the lease to sell, but haven't gotten the title yet, we used it on our trip to Orlando last week, figured, it's ours, insured, tagged, why not put those miles on the extra-extra car?

In fact, the DMV has been super slow with issuing titles, and we've got another Orlando trip planned in June, might just take it again :) I mean, we absolutely will if we don't get the title a week or so before the trip.
 
Huntn said:
This car waited for 3 weeks to get parts. Now the interesting part, although warranty company approved the repair, in the process of disassembling the engine, they came across a bolt that has seized (I think it is in the vicinity of the camshaft) and they were worried that they would break a sprocket (?) and when they asked MOPAR, MOPAR would not cover this because “the bolt as is was not broken”. What the hell?
Click to expand...

I've never heard of a warrantied repair having cost to the owner due to something breaking during the repair process. It shouldn't even come up in the end customer discussion, at __worst__ case you should get a call, "Hi, Mr. Huntn, during the repair we broke a crank bolt, so we'll need to keep in another day, we're next day shipping the replacement part".

Period.
 
DT said:
I've never heard of a warrantied repair having cost to the owner due to something breaking during the repair process. It shouldn't even come up in the end customer discussion, at __worst__ case you should get a call, "Hi, Mr. Huntn, during the repair we broke a crank bolt, so we'll need to keep in another day, we're next day shipping the replacement part".

Period.
Click to expand...
@The-Real-Deal82 The 2012 Fiat 500 Saga continues.
The Good News: The dealer pushed the warranty company who agreed to pay the $50 for the broken bolt.

The Bad News: After putting the car engine back together they discovered that although the seals no longer leak, when it gets up to operating temperature the oil pressure drops to <4psi. Note before I took it to them, I was not getting a low oil pressure light. Then they took off the oil filter and discovered metal shavings. I spoke with the Service department manager who said things like they think the crankshaft is wandering, hence the metal savings. The described verdict: Catastrophic Failure, his words, they don’t do engine rebuilds, just engine replacements, about another 2 weeks in the shop. Waiting to see if MOPAR has a problem with this as it is their lifetime warranty. According to the manager this repair would run $7-8k.

The Good News Part 2: The warranty covers this kind of failure. My out of pocket cost should be the deductible $100.

I told the Fiat Dealer Service manager that I was close to 70 years old, had owned many cars, and have never had a car engine self destruct at 50k miles. This business with a seized bolt leads me to speculate that this engine was not assembled properly at the factory, but fortunately, MOPAR, not me will end up eating it.
 
Last edited:
Wow! That's awesome!

Without an extended warranty, that would've probably meant just scrapping/selling for parts (I can't imagine sinking $8K into it).
 
I think I'm going to return our 32a charger, love it, great price, has a slick display - but, we could use another 4' of cable when we back into the garage, and I think since I'm getting a 50a outlet anyway, I'll step up to a 40a charger. The 4xe can only use 30a, but it would build in a little "future-proofing" for another EV.
 
DT said:
Wow! That's awesome!

Without an extended warranty, that would've probably meant just scrapping/selling for parts (I can't imagine sinking $8K into it).
Click to expand...
Yep, it would have been sold for whatever scrap gets, while if there had been no warranty, I’m wondering how inclined I‘d have been to pay for the work already done? 👀

This is a real eye opener as I am getting extended warranty mailers for both my 2013 Toyota and 2016 Miata. :unsure:
 
Returned, well virtually processed an Amazon return for the current charger, upgraded to a killer product from Canada, it's a Grizzl-E, incredible charger but super no frills, so ordered direct and got their new "smart" product which is a WiFi / OCPP, and upgrades the output to 40a (from 32a) and the cable to an ultra HD 24' cable (from the existing 20'), and less than $50 more than the current charger, pretty stoked.

The 4xe can't use more than 30a, but this gives us some growth room (and 20' was just a touch short if we backed in ...)

BTW, 4xe is like 4x4, i.e., "4 by E" *snicker*
 
I would like a ride please. Can any of you help me out?

patrickdempsey_1557623514_1.jpg
 

Similar threads

DT
Electric Vehicles: General topics
61 62 63
Replies
1K
Views
35K
Cmaier
Cmaier
Back
Top