Faults:
The water pump let go and water poured everywhere, but I managed to find a local specialist Fiat garage who put in a new one for a reasonable price.
The speed sensor in the gearbox went faulty causing the digital speedo to act erratically giving false speeds. This fault was obvious however because it was jumping all over the place. I believe this can be a common fault, but a dealer fixed it for a reasonable price.
The digital dash looks very nice, but the Italian aren't known for their electrics and I lost a couple of bulbs which was annoying. At the time, the dealer quoted £40 for taking the dash out to replace the bulbs.
The O-rings started to give up the ghost making the car smoke at only.
Faulty engine earth lead causing everything to die. It took a while to find the problem.
General Comments:
The car had a very nice interior and a good amount of space, although I found the driving position a little uncomfortable and the seat gave me lower back ache on longer journeys.
All my friends thought it was a 1.6 because the car was very 'nippy' but I think that was down to the short gearbox. It did 40mph top in second gear and didn't really like the motorways, the engine was noisy.
The steering is pretty heavy as mine didn't have power steering. I jumped from 13" steel wheels to 15" alloys and the car 'tram-lined' all over the place wanting to follow every dip and fault in the road surface which wasn't good.
Maybe it was due to my heavy right foot, but I found the petrol consumption bad for a 1.4 car, but I'm sure it would be OK for a more sedate driver for the town.
I don't think the 'O-rings' should have gone at only 90,000 miles, but maybe it had a hard life before I had it. It's still the car I've kept the longest and although I seem to have found a lot of bad faults with it, the car did serve me well without too much hassle and had a lot of equipment that other cars couldn't offer for the price. So if you're after a cheap runaround with plenty of space and some Italian character then give this car a try!
