In support of the new Fiat Panda, my daughter's 1.1 Active has clocked up 25,000 miles in 2 years and, despite my obsessional attention to detail, we have found absolutely no faults and have had to make no warranty claims.
Who else has a car under warranty who has had no reason for a warranty claim?
Edited by Pugugly on 04/04/2008 at 20:36
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Me with a Fiat Punto Multijet van. Now at two and a half years.
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2004 Subaru Forester - no warranty claims, replaced one remote battery, and I now notice that the rear wiper blade needs changing. Tut, tut...
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Last three cars have been Mondeo diesel estates. Cumulative mileage 350k.
No warranty claims, in fact no faults at all, on any of them. Never even needed an exhaust. Current one now at 145k. Still feels nice and tight. Still gets 45/47mpg. No intention of changing it until it's properly run in.
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1982 Alfasud had no claims or faults until its 2year life ended in a hedge. 1994 Golf TD had no warranty claims but did need a new exhaust after 7 years, my daughter still has it. 2001 Alfa 147 had no warranty claims but after 4 years the electrics became rather wayward, present 2005 Golf 1.9TDI and 2006 Forester have had no warranty claims either. Previous 2002 Forester did however spend over 2 weeks of its first year off the road with warranty repairs so they aren't infallible.
alfalfa
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Same ( from memory) with the last three BMWs - The E46 330 had some ABS work I think done as part of a recall.
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last panda on a 55 plate, eleganza, 16000 miles in 2 years. nothing broke, fell off. started first time, including left out for 5 days in - 4 in shropshire winter 05.
replaced a number plate bulb and passenger wiper blade. thats it.
now running a panda 100 hp since last august, 2 dimples on rear passenger door, broken trim on the inside of drivers door, fixed promptly under warranty...
fiat have improved 100 % in terms of build and reliability.
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2002 Civic, no warranty claims, no faults to date. Ditto 2005 CRV diesel and 2005 Panda Dynamic.
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Mrs B's Panda Multijet - has been back to the dealer once in 18 months, for its first service. Can't ask for much better than that. Will be interesting to see if my 100HP is as good.
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Interesting replies. I really meant to include all makes of car but felt I had to put in a specific make. However, a similar post on the fiat forum has produced no replies so either they are ignoring me or are very picky about their cars and make warranty claims for absolute trivia.
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I´ve never had a car new enough to warrant a warranty, so have never claimed... Does that count? :-)
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Yes, of course, especially if it's a Fiat. Lets all fight to knock the myth of Fiat unreliability on the head!
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Lotus Elise. Bought new 1997 on an R plate. Used as regular daily driver (I also had a 1997 VW Transporter ...just in case)nothing broke in my 3 years of ownership, never missed a beat, which is more than I can say for my heart on a couple of occasions.
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Not sure because I only caught the end of it, but I think I saw a tv advert for the Fiat Brava that said 5 years full warranty. I quite like the styling of the newer Fiats so they may well be worth looking at in a couple of years - hopefully very cheap but with warranty left.
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Yeah, saw that myself. No details as to whether the extended warranty is from Fiat or the dealer but makes the car a good secondhand purchase.
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I never made any warranty claims on my Ford Ka.
Of course, if they had a decent 5 year bodywork / rust warranty, it would have been a different story . . .
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Sorry to spoil the party but my sister has had three Fiat Punto's and they have ALL be VERY unreliable. The dealer service has been very poor. One had a new gearbox at 20k miles and the others all had significant faults (oil leaks, breakdowns etc.). The local dealer to her (in Leicester) unsurprisingly closed down. She's now ordered a Panda Multijet through Drivethedeal (very cheap!) and I gather a new dealer will be taking the Leicester franchise.
Personally one bad experience would put me off a brand for a good while - but not everyone thinks like that it seems.
Incidentally, IIRC the final year of the Fiat warranty is 'dealer backed' which means lots of things are excluded (including wiring faults I think! Can anyone confirm?).
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To contrast that, It seems Vauxhall is one years Manufacturers, two years dealers.
Yes, the 3rd year Fiat is dealers. But my Fiat Punto van has been so reliable I abandoned that and did my own service at 2 years.
I`m prepared to pay a price for that if necessary, but its worth it for the peace of mind that only my hands have been under the bonnet ;)
to give balance though.
I had a very problematic Doblo, sold in desperation as its warranty expired.
The Grande Punto is allegedly still coming off the line with multiple minor build issues.
The 500 is allegedly having head gaskets replaced, from new due to a faulty batch, some have seemingly (Fiat Forum) made it out to owners and have been recalled despite possible damage limitation of calling it a `bracket problem`.
Seemingly Techs on the Fiat forum confirm this and allegedly multijet engines with faulty head gaskets are in GM cars with that engine.
Outside that seemingly limited batch of affected engines, the 500 seems to be giving few issues and overall, with the test of time, the Panda seems very fault free.
The 1.3 Multijet is the real star and is now in Fiats, Vauxhalls, Suzuki and I believe Tata in India.
Regards
Edited by oilrag on 05/04/2008 at 18:40
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I've driven a Panda MJ and have to admit to being impressed with the engine and the car in general. Are these engines made in India or in Poland (or both)?
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Three-year warranties.
The third year is 'dealer backed' to defeat the new car supermarkets/importers who can only offer the standard two-year pan-European warranty.
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Depends on the model.........The Panda seems to be a good buy, but....I had a bit of a shock (well not really !!) when I looked at the auto express Driver Power 2007 survey results. The survey covers owners of 100 of the most 'common' cars in Britain and asks owners various questions, a bit like the JD power survey (I think). Out of 100 cars, mine (a mark 2 punto) was, ahhhh hermm, number 100 (ie the worst car in Britain !!) and I feel a right charlie for buying it.
There was a thread recently about not trusting journalists reviews (concerning a VW Sharan I think). The point about the Punto is that it had excellent journalists reviews when it came out. Even after the inherent problems came out, it continued to have journalists recommending it.
I'll be trusting owner surveys in future as these are the people who live with cars for years and really get to know them.
Anyway, well done for picking a Panda.
After my experience with a FIAT, both car and dealer, I couldn't face one again on principle, even if one comes in at 'number one' out of 100 in future.
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