1997 Fiat Cinquecento S from UK and Ireland - Comments

Lost 5tg gear, just one week after buying the car, although it had only done 13,800 miles, covered by dealer warranty.

Lost 5th gear again at 20,000 miles covered by dealer warranty.

Stone chips appear very easily.

Speedometer needle judders until you get to approx 40mph.

Exhaust heat shield over the cat vibrates and makes a nasty noise, sounds very bad.

When you drive the car it sounds as though you have a boot full of small boxes bouncing about.

Standard stereo speakers sound like speakers from a set of ear phones.

I know the Cinquecento is no ferrari, but you don't expect all of these problems on a P-Reg car, no matter what it is.

The car does go well for a 900cc it can reach 80mph in good time, 85mph at a push, but that's to be expected.

It is very economical, however not as economical as I expected.

The paint-work is terrible, and I will never buy another Fiat.

If there is a fault that can be had on a cinq then mine has it, my car repeatedly jumps out of 5th gear be it on 40pmh roads or the motorway, which is bad on motorways for when you are overtaking, though I have had 95mph out of my cinquecento s 899cc on the M1 south of leicester, OK it was a slight downhill gradient, but with a car as low down as that it's like your flying.

Also the most common fault I read of is the handbrake, mine is night on useless, and for such a light car it's almost unbelievable, 3 garages, £85 an I still don't have a handbrake id feel happy about if I left it on a slope, and it also makes hill starts tricky.

My car regularly over heats and one time a few weeks back it over heated whilst waiting for the convoy van to change sides in some roadworks, was sat right on the red, this I have been told has wrecked my head gasket and will need it replacing very soon. The car coolant system generally like other systems on the car are inadequate for their job, it with new thermostat and fan still drives at 110'c which is hotter than it should, and the fact that my matrix is blocked doesn't aid in preventing it from overheating because even when my engine is at 130'c in traffic I still get cold air through on hot setting.

Now can someone tell me why everyone else with a cinquecento s claims not to have a temp gauge, but I have? if I didn't have a temp gauge I wouldn't drive it because you never know how hot it's getting an whats suddenly going to blow.

However these cars are not as prone to rust as other fiat's and even now my bodywork hasn't a spec on it, and some seat covers, new wheel trims to rid you of those ghastly fiat standard ones and a good thorough wash and t-cut and it still looks good.

Overall the car is fun to drive and quite nippy for 899cc, but it's a fiat FULL STOP.