Please do not laugh, but I am a Motorcaravanner.
Over the last 6 years since I have been using my Ford Transit based motorcaravan (Motorhome) I have heard many anacdotal stories regarding the attitude of the Fiat-Peugeot group towards owners who have had the misfortune to make (or try to make) a claim under guarantee, or just after the expiry of the guarantee.
The concensus of these stories is that the Fiat-Peugeot group is far less sympathetic to claims than is Ford.
Do BackRoomers have any personal experiences to either confirm or refute these stories?
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Fiat and Pug have nothing to do with each other. You're probably thinking of Peugeot-Citroen.
Fiat dealers do have a bit of a dodgy reputation; Pug tend to be mediocre in most regards and this is one of them.
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Peugeot & Citroen are in the same group of companies PSA, Fita isnt anything to do with PSA as a company.
But PSA has got together with Fiat in the past to develop vans / mpv & also motorhomes, 3 different badges & 2 different companies but basically the same vehicle at the end of the day.
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Peugeot & Citroen are in the same group of companies PSA, Fiat isnt anything to do with PSA as a company.
But PSA has got together with Fiat in the past to develop vans / mpv & also motorhomes, 3 different badges & 2 different companies but basically the same vehicle at the end of the day.
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Fiat built the Ducato van and also the Talbot Express and C15 for PSA - the Boxer was another Fiat built vehicle along with its Ulysses and Pug 806.
There was also the Fiat Iveco tie-up with Ford, but I'm not sure if this is still in existence; Seddon Atkinson was also in the Iveco lineup.
The Boxer was a particularly good van during its time in the early to mid-1990s.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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PS
ironically UK buyers never really took to the Ducato van, still believing in the long gone Fiat rust myth, yet bought the Talbot Express and C15 in substantial numbers.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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The two motorhomes I have owned have both been based on Fiats though by the time I could afford them the warrenties had long expired, so cannot comment from personal experience. My gripe is the lack of parts support for vans over 10 years, no commercial vans will last this long but a motorhome is only just middleaged.
You may have heard of the fifth gear problems where Fiat have not been particularly sympathetic; they contend that motorhomers overload their vehicles and change into 5th too soon. White van man doesn't do this and moreover will cover the average motorhome's total mileage in six months, so any claims will be under warranty.
With the launch of the latest X250 Fiat have developed a camper version of the chassis and have set up a dedicated dealer network for motorhomes, hopefully this heralds a change in their attitude
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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The stories going round in Motorhome circles about the Fiat-Peugeot vans (called Ducato) are:
1) 5th gear failure due to a lack of lubrication (5th gear is an add-on outside the main gearbox and is lubricated by splash, not immersion).
2) Water cascading onto the 2nd battery (used for the habitation part of the conversion) when the bonnet is opened.
3) Wind noise around the cab doors at speed.
No vehicle is perfect and I am not expecting Fiat-Peugeot to be markedly better than Ford (or any other make), but what does seem to be common is that the manufacturer is very, very dismissive of any claim, either in or out of guarantee.
What I am asking is have any BackRoomers personal experience to back up these claims i.e. in their experience are Ford etc more (or less) sympathetic than the Fiat-Peugeot group?
I personaly have little direct experience of Fiat-Peugeot, but am considering a change from a Ford based Motorhome to a Fiat-Peugeot based model and would value any input which could help me make up my mind.
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I personaly have little direct experience of Fiat-Peugeot, but am considering a change from a Ford based Motorhome to a Fiat-Peugeot based model and would value any input which could help me make up my mind.
And there's me wanting to change to a Transit, perhaps we should just swop!!!!
Fiat are struggling financially, maybe this affects their attitude to warranty claims, however Ford seem to be following suit, as per the TDCi threads. Fiat's dedicated camper dealer network has to be good news though.
You may get a better response on www.motorhomefacts.com as there are lots of folks on there who buy new motorhomes and so have to mix it with dealers, though it would appear that most of the problems are with the habitation side rather than the base vehicle. The choice of supplying dealer is therefore more important than the choice of base vehicle.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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