1999 Fiat Seicento Citymatic from UK and Ireland - Comments

Have a T reg Citymatic that has problems. When cold I can't get any forward gears and reverse grinds badly.

Once I can engage 2nd gear I can use this to pull away, but 1st gear not available for about 10-15 miles. Reverse will engage then, but still clunky.

ACS light has come on twice when driving, but without any problems.

After reading all comments I think it would be better to get car converted to manual rather than replacing actuator.

Can someone please provide details or how much this is likely to cost and can it be done easily, ie not by fiat? Anyone had luck getting fiat to pay out for this on a car that was either bought secondhand privately or one or this age. Should point out car has only done 12K.

Thanks.

Please email me: overlandrover@hotmail.com.

Hi there, I am still so annoyed that Fiat are still allowing people to drive the Citymatic with the actuator. It's a deadly way of driving because it just locks all the time.

After nearly crashing I got Fiat to convert mine a year ago, after much hassle it took 8 weeks! You can do it too, don't pay for the conversion yourself let Fiat do it, as they are fully aware of the problems (even tho they deny them) The funny thing is that they have done a recall on some of the Citymatics as soon as they were produced! What does that tell you? Anyone seeking any advice then please email me on adamoakes@btopenworld.com or contact Jill (who has posted on here) We will give you some advice on the matter. Do not drive it with the actuator in, its not safe. Do not get it replaced either, as it just a part of the car that will fail every year and is terrible in frosty mornings.

Be free of those terrible beeps!

Hi I would like to say I used vince cambridge from bristol,

he changed the car back to a manuel. the full cost was only £450.please contact him on 01179324129.

The car now drives great and we are not waiting for it to break down all the time.

I'd like to add my name to the list of "affected". In my case the electronic clutch has been changed one time. Now I'm still waiting for the 2th (just stopped for good). It is really bad. Near one month trying to get a solution, but Fiat does not want to hear. Here in Portugal they charge about 1300€ for the repair (part + labour).

There is a BIG problem and we all know it.

If anyone wants to take legal action, feel free to contact me and I'll sent you all the documentation to support it. My contact mail tomatte.mail@clix.pt

Hi

I have also had a used 7,000 miles W reg Citymatic go wrong. Fiat wanted to charge me £1000 to fix this. I also got it converted for around £450. It has run like a dream for the past year. If anyone has this problem in the Northamptonshire area, I'll give you the mechanics number.

mmcnaught@hotmail.co.uk

Here we go again,

I bought my wife this T reg Citymatic and in the last two years I have had the actuator fail 2 times!!! Lucky for me am an aircraft engineer and have a good back ground of electronics. After the 2nd actuator, I opened up the control box on the actuator and changed some components that were burnt out. I got the spec of them and replaced them with higher spec ones at the cost of 17.00. My wife has now done over 9000 miles since and touch wood it is still running.

However, Fiat should take full responsibility for this very poor design. I have contacted Fiat with my problem and all they seem interested in is selling you a new actuator. If you want my help then please email me at rogerATaviation.fsnet.co.uk

Hello Citymatic owners.

We have seen many more comments added to this forum since we posted our message in the middle of May, and are surprised that there are still people out there that have had to pay for their conversion.

Depending on the age of the car, Fiat should convert your car for free.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of people like Jill and Adam, we managed to persuade Fiat to convert our Seicento under warranty, and we have had virtually trouble free driving ever since.

We have added a page to our website to recount our experiences, and include a copy of THAT LETTER we wrote to Fiat, convincing them to convert our car to a manual.

Our experience was relatively short and hassle free. It should be the same for everyone.

Please feel free to have a look at:

http://www.overlandrover.com/citymatic

and read our tale.

Thanks again to Jill for her advice and encouragement, and good luck to all of you.

Chris & Helen Miller.

Hi, have same problem as everyone else. only had the car for three months and now cannot get it into gear when engine is on.someone will soon have a serious accident with this car. I would rather scrap it than pay to have it repaired as I don't think the citymatic should be on the road. fiat have been aware of this problem from day one and it will take someone to die before they do something about it.

Pete.

Hi, I own a fiat seicento citymatic, it has become unoperable due to its common gear box failure, which I have only become aware of. It also nearly caused a head on collision at a roundabout near my home address, when the ACS light suddenly came on, on entering the roundabout. If I had not thought quickly me, my partner and two passengers would have surely been hospitalised by the oncoming vehicle (this is not the first incident).

My car is a T reg (99 plate) it has done only19800 miles. I was wondering if this would be a problem on making a claim or action of some kind against fiat. I have other documentation and some mechanical data provided by an expert, but I'm unsure how to go about the problem.

Any advise or who to contact would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Jon Bramwell.

Another troubled citymatic owner.

This is stupid now fiat still seem to think that no recall is needed on this car.

It can lead to a dangerous situation it gets stuck in gear when moving its sure to cause someone serious injury even death soon.

I own a 99T reg model covered 26000 miles, it has had 4 gearbox faults and replaced actuator 7000 miles ago and guess what it as gone again.

After a stern letter to fiat UK they have said its not a design fault and that it is out of manufactures warranty so I have now followed advice off here and will see how things progress.

I have read all the advice and sent emails to various people many thanks, any other owners please add comments or any help you can provide email me d15rty@yahoo.co.uk.

This has gone on long enough.

Fiat are aware of the fault I spoke with a mechanic (when being repaired) and customer care rep (when I filed my claim) both acknowledging the fault and admitting fiats failure. They are repairing my car as we speak.

To make a successful claim against them for repairs and or conversion, do the following:

- Phone customer services file a claim (see if the rep knows anything about the citymatic fault).

- Compile all the evidence you have in a nice letter to them use overlandrover's example (www.overlandrover.com/citymatic) as a rough idea. Outline that you are not happy and that other Citymatic owners have had the cars repaired regardless of warranty or age.

- Make copies of all service history and MOT documents including any work done.

- print out all correspondence from all members on the site you have contacted and don't forget to list the web research you did.

- Get written advice from a mechanic, preferably an established company and the head of that department (looks good).

- Contact your local trading standards office both by phone and mail all correspondance and copies to them, also explain you aren't the only sufferer. web pages etc...

- Lastly pass all information onto your solicitor if they are still being uncooperative.

(IMPORTANT: ONLY SEND COPIES NOT ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS) not to sound patronising, but even the fiat rep said things go 'missing in the post', how convenient...lol.

As my car is still getting repaired I will leave my name off for now... Don't want an accident, when I get the car back.. But keep pushing them for action. A solicitor group I contacted are quite keen for more information, wonder why? lol All those expensive yet useless repairs and problems they have caused.. possibly to sue fiat?? don't know...

Just had the car converted thanks to the help of the people on here. CHEERS ALL. It was quite quick really only took a week of paper work and phone calls and it was in and done at FIAT AUTO UK's expense inside 2 days. They didn't do an amazing job at first though had to come back for the odometer, the gear change issues and a few other bits and bobs. They still forgot to put the odd thing right when tidying up so to speak, but I couldn't be bothered to go back as the car runs excellent feels like its brand new. Was gonna sell it for a loss as a citymatic now its an SX the value has nearly doubled... But I may just keep it now its so damn good lol

Anyone need any help I'll gladly do the same as the others have done for me.

Cheers Jon.

Email: journeys_end50@hotmail.com.

I join the legions of concerned Citymatic owners with the notorious clutch/gearbox problem. Although I agree with everyone that Fiat should take responsibly for what is a poor and dangerous design, I do not have the time to persuade them to do a conversion to manual. I understand that this conversion consists of:

1: Replacing the pedal box with the three pedal version and fitting a clutch cable.

2: Disabling electronics that make the clutch function so car can be started.

Has anyone done this conversion themselves, and if so can they let me know how this can be achieved.

John.

Email: superschnell@hotmail.com.

It only took me less than 2 days to do all the paper work and other bits and pieces. Seriously would you rather spend £500 repairing it yourself (And that's local garage prices) or would you rather fiat repair your car for free. Hey I got a free valet and wash as well. Mind they weren't very good in the repair, had to visit again for niggly problems. But now its like a new car. Jon Bramwell.

Journeys_end50@hotmail.com.

I have the great misfortune of owning one of these cars. I bought it for my wife at auction, several months ago. It is a T reg, with just 12000 miles. The gears were just a night mare, but with years of professional driving experience, I managed to get it going, in a fashion? On the way home from the auction, the brakes failed TOTALLY, with the pedal going straight to the floor, in evening traffic, in a busy town. It was just a real & pure miracle that prevented any disasters, trust me. After paying for the car to be put on a low loader, taken to my local garage in Paisley, the mechanic (Fiat trained) tells me that this was one of several faults with the car, since it was introduced? Oh, I also paid almost £400 to get the gears working again (would not engage) I just wish I never got involved in the first place.

Then, I pay to get the flexible pipes replaced at the front, cause, AGAIN, he tells me this is a known fault with the car. Car now running, supposedly safe, taxed & ready to be handed to my wife, as a wee present, to cheer her up (she lost her dad) Sadly, when I put it into another garage to put a full years MOT on it, they hit me with a bill for another £400, as ALL the brake pipes were next to rotting. In between all of this, I lost the one & only (blue) key for the car. No need to tell you the expense/time/hassle/frustration/desperation that this caused. I am on medication for angina, have severe high blood pressure (with medication) as I had an M. I (heart attack) in 2003. Several mortgage type payments later, I finally give the car to my wife. We genuinely thought that the problems were behind us, and having the car rebuilt at the credit cards expense, decided to keep it. Very sadly, never mind worryingly, my wife calls me from her mobile, just last week, stuck on the M8 (BUSIEST MOTORWAY IN EUROPE) with our 3 year old in the back of this monstrosity, called a motor vehicle. In the middle lane of 4 very fast lanes, on top of a flyover, in the bussiest time of t-time travelers, pouring of rain, the wife crying her eyes out, tells me the car has "JUST CUT OUT." Obviously the imagery is star-tingly scary, and I tell her to just keep trying to start the car, and I will be with her in 15 minutes. I am now speeding along the same motorway, sometime touching an illegal 100mph, just to try & get to the wife & wean, before somebody slams into them? Fortunately, we had another miracle. The car started fairly quickly, and Elaine & the wean got off the motorway, almost home, before it cut out AGAIN. This time it was easily put to the side of this country road. I ARRIVED 10 minutes LATER. My wife was in a terrible state, to say the least. I have towed the car (couldn't find its own tow ring) to be sat out side my wife's house, with its throat cut. I am off work just now, for the first time in 25 years, with stress related illnesses. I can do no more with this car (we are broke) My wife & I have, sadly, separated, just in the last week. This c.. p with this car, did not help the situation. Can anybody help me please.

Gordon Wilson. 07881 985 789.

TEL: 07881 985 789.

Gordon Wilson.