www.fiat.co.uk/500ByDiesel/About.aspx
This new "diesel" car has a 1.4L. petrol engine!
Confusing or what?
Confirms my opinion that the motor and fashion industries just don't make good stablemates.
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Can you imagine calling the AA or similar in the event of a misfuel?
"hello, is that the AA? I've just put diesel in my Fiat500 diesel, and I'm worried it will break down"
"No sir, that should be perfectly fine, thats the correct fuel for the car"
"But its a petrol engine!"
"What kind of car was it again sir?"
"A Fiat 500 diesel"
"Yes, thats the correct fuel for the car.."
Endless hours of fun ensue as this iterates.
tt
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It's the 500byDiesel, not the 500buyDiesel.
I've never been excited by a brand that's named after a smelly, greasy fuel that rots shoes and leaves clothes stinking despite several hot washes.
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"smelly, greasy fuel that rots shoes and leaves clothes stinking despite several hot washes."
Some of us take care when filling up.
In 15 years of diesel cars, touch wood, none on clothes ( I fill up tomorrow so watch out!)
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"Some of us take care when filling up."
So do I, but when I had to drain a dead lorry of its fuel before scrapping I did get pretty smelly, despite gloves and overalls. But with 70l in the tank I was not going to give it away....
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"Its an urban survival vehicle that bristles with attitude"
Is that a bit of metal trim that appears stuck to the plastic back bumper?
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bristles with attitude" Is that a bit of metal trim that appears stuck to the plastic back bumper?
Heh heh oilrag... it's pretty in its 'designaaaah' way though, like the latest thing in trainers.
For urban survival you need PROPER BUMPERS, yes I was shouting, and a matt military finish that won't scuff easily and still looks perfectly all right when it does. A few other things too but let's not go into them now.
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It's the 500byDiesel not the 500buyDiesel.
No, it's the 500byDIESEL.
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Endless hours of fun ensue as this iterates.
Fiat seem to have a habit of causing confusion like this.
When I was a student in the early 90s I had a Fiat Regata, an absolutely awful car that was rusting to pieces, but it was very cheap.
Anyway, its trim level was known as "85 C", (85 for 85bhp and C for Comfort!), which used to cause all sorts of confusion when buying parts;
"What version is it?"
"85 C"
"What year?"
" '84 B"
"But you just said it was an '85 C ?!"
"No its a 1984 B reg, the model is 85 C"
"How can it be both an 84 B and an 85 C?................."
I sold the thing after 6 months.
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I had one of those too as a student. Mine was a 70C with an 84 B plate. You had the powerful one, you show-off!
Really liked mine, drove it to Gibraltar and back a few times - no rust, very cheap to run and reliable too. Only thing it lacked was a 5th gear. I think the 70ES (Economy Special?) had 5 gears, did your 85C have a 5th? Would have thought so.
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Was it Fiat who almost marketed a car in the UK as the "Rustica" a few years ago?
Re the Fiat 500byDiesel, I feel that these cynical attempts to increase car sales by tying the vehicle in with a fashionable brand actually subtract from the car brand. They certainly alienate buyers like myself for whom fashion is a no-go area. I like the new 500 but feel it is being too heavily marketed as a fashion accessory rather than the fine small car that it is.
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Confirms the meaning of Fiat
FIAT = Fix It Again Tomorrow
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I had one of those too as a student. Mine was a 70C with an 84 B plate. You had the powerful one you show-off! Really liked mine drove it to Gibraltar and back a few times - no rust very cheap to run and reliable too. Only thing it lacked was a 5th gear. I think the 70ES (Economy Special?) had 5 gears did your 85C have a 5th? Would have thought so.
Yes mine was the 5 speed with a 1.6 engine.
I think part of its problem was the "3 previous careful lady owners"! - it had spent most of its life trundling round in low gears on short journeys and was pretty knackered with just under 70k on the clock.
In 6 months it had a new battery, brake discs & pads on the front, drums shoes and a brake cylinder on the back, 2 tyres, handbrake cables, thermostat (it wouldn't warm up properly, and thermostats on those weren't cheap as you had to buy the whole housing from Fiat), plus 3 tins of body filler to fill in the holes.
Worn dampers give it very scary handling although I didn't replace them and just drove accordingly. The syncromesh on the box was badly worn so it crunched into most gears. I think the carb float was sticking as it stank of petrol when the engine was first turned off, and would get 15 mpg around town. It would also cut out for no apparent reason in hot weather, or cold weather, but at least in moderate weather it was fine ;-)
There was also a build/design fault which seemed to affect most Regatas to some extent. In rain the interior used to fill with water, I spent ages trying to find the source and eventually traced it a small rust hole just above the nsr lamp cluster. Water would run over the lip of the boot lid, drip through the tiny hole, then slowly fill the boot and spare wheel well up, then under the back seat and begin to fill the footwells. From there it would then rust through the floor. When searching for parts I remember looking at 5 scrapped A/B reg Regatas in a breakers yard. They all had this same tiny rust hole in exactly the same place and had all suffered the same fate, almost as if Fiat had designed them to self destruct! I bunged up the hole in mine with some bathroom sealant and the interior stayed dry after that.
After 6 months I'd had enough, and part exed it for a Citroen BX petrol with 110k on clock, and built like a Lexus in comparison! I kept the BX for 3 years and was still driving it a year into my first job.
Edited by nick74 on 05/12/2008 at 11:43
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My Regata (1.3) had come from an elderly gentleman with only about 20k on the clock, and was in perfect order. Never had a moment's bother (apart from a snapped cambelt, which was repaired easily), certainly never any water in the cabin. Was sorry to sell it when I moved abroad, later on when returning home I got an A-reg Citroen GSA with about 60k on it and had the opposite experiences to you. This car (which I did love to drive, I must say) was an utter shed of the sort your Regata turned out to be, e.g. the fuel tank leaked like a sieve if you filled it beyond half way. Ended up scrapping it after 6 months. Wished I had kept my Regata in storage somewhere. :-(
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Yes the GSA was an interesting car, but never very well built, and very rust prone.
We had 2 GSs and 2 GSAs in the family over the years. The GSAs didn't give any particular trouble, although they were each only kept until 2 years old, but one of the GS's had I think 6 replacement alternators in 5 years!
Incidently, didn't the "ES" version of the Regata you mentioned have a feature where the engine would switch off to save fuel when idling in traffic, then restart automatically when the clutch was released? Probably years ahead of its time in that respect?
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Yes, you are correct about the Regata ES. Fiat often don't get credit for the good things they've done.
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I had a Miriafiori 1.4 prior to buying a demonstration 1.6 Regata S (very pleased with the former).
The Regata proved trouble-free and reliable over the four or five years I owned it, but suffered from a common fault in the range in that the brakes were either on or off with no progressive feel.
It was a bit like driving one of the early VW Polos without a servo braking system - you always had to pray you stopped in time on certain occasions.
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It was a bit like driving one of the early VW Polos without a servo braking system - you always had to pray you stopped in time on certain occasions.
I don't recall the brakes on the Regata actually being as bad as all that, but non-servo VW Polos had some of the scariest brakes I've ever encountered!
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>>I don't recall the brakes on the Regata actually being as bad as all that>>
I drove a number of Regatas over the years and all had the same "dead" feel to the brakes.
The same applies to the non-servo brakes Polo models - I think that "a wing and a prayer" is the most appropriate description.
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Does this new Fiat have denim seat covers like the old Beetle 'Jeans'?
www.beetlelink.co.uk/images/sales/jeans_beetle1.jpg
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