1998 Fiat Seicento Sporting from UK and Ireland - Comments

Where do I begin?

The tires wear down way too fast because they are like polo mints.

Head gasket blew at 30000 miles.

Radiator rusted to a pile of iron filings.

The engine overheated and the warning light didn't come on until my engine bay was an exploding sauna.

The headlight power connector caught fire when it melted and shorted out. Unfortunately, it did not spread to the rest of the car.

The paint sprayer painting my car was having an off day. My example actually has drips at the wheel arch. Unforgivable.

I would like to begin on the bad points of this car to begin with.

It is made out of chocolate. The pathetic engine will explode and boil over for the slightest reason, due to the engine management system which runs the car a a high operating temperature, the radiator will turn orange and fall to pieces and the tyres will wear out after a puny 15-20k miles. Then you will find them impossible to find at a reasonable price. Only Pirelli and Good Year make the 165/55R13 tyres needed for the car, and they are £80 each. Then your exhaust will fall off, that will cost you the same as a Lear Jet to the carribbean, because it is one long pipe.

But I agree it looks quite stylish if you like antiquated mechanics.

Having owned a Cinquecento Sporting in the past (and thus sharing many of the Seicento's underpinnings), I feel I must discuss some points in your review. If I may quote, please:

"Only Pirelli and Good Year make the 165/55R13 tyres needed for the car, and they are £80 each" - I think you need to shop around some more. I can assure you that tyres are *NOT* as expensive as you say, and that more choice is available. I only ever fitted the original equipment 165/55 Pirelli P700-Zs to my car, and these were about £40. Have a look at www.mytyres.co.uk for more choice and reasonable prices.

Regarding tyre wear... 15-20K miles is good for these cars! Hard driven examples (cue guilty twitch!) can eat a set of fronts in 10k or less.

"Then your exhaust will fall off, that will cost you the same as a Lear Jet to the Caribbean, because it is one long pipe." - I've experienced this as well and must argue again here... The exhaust is NOT one long pipe. You CAN get just the rear box, as well as the centre section. The local tyre place quoted about £160 for a standard system from the cat backwards (both bits). Not too expensive, I think you'll agree?

"The pathetic engine will explode and boil over for the slightest reason, due to the engine management system which runs the car at a high operating temperature" - And what do you base this statement on? 80-90 degrees is the norm, like MOST cars. A well maintained cooling system can cope quite well, although I must admit that they don't tolerate neglect in this area (cue flashback of when the head gasket went!).

"...the radiator will turn orange and fall to pieces..." - Can't argue too much here. The location of the radiator is more the cause than any inherent bad design. Sitting in the offside front corner makes it VERY vulnerable to stones and other debris. Wire mesh helps, but you must not restrict airflow too much!

"Head gasket blew at 30000 miles" - Yep! They do this too, though good maintenance of the cooling system helps a lot.

Please, don't take my comments the wrong way. I'm hoping my experience will be of benefit to you and other Cinq/Sei drivers. I'd advocate joining ClubCento and registering with the fiat owner's forum. I reckon you'll grow to like your Naughty little misfit once you know how to make it behave!

Kieran.

I have a 1999 seicento sporting. i found avon tyres for this dimension, cooling system is good, no electrical problems occured, with a program that lifts up the low rpm s k&n filter and abarth exhaust you can make the car more nervous. bad thing is that the original speakers are cheap. here in greece you can see seicentos modified up to 150hp!

I found tyres at the first tyre dealer I checked out for about £35.

The only weak spot I know about the 'cento is the handbrake cable which fails regularly.

But I am very happy with my Seicento Suite, Its got the 1108 engine and very nippy, decent handling and the finish for a small Fiat is nice. Unfortunately there are such things as "Friday" built cars which can be rush jobs, but warranties should cover that. I am the third owner of mine and it has been regularly serviced. The radiator was replaced under warranty as it had been holed by a stone, and the rear wash wipe motor had been replaced. But it still was within Fiats EIGHT year anti corrosion warranty.

Yes 8 years. that's a long time for any car.

I own a 1999 seicento s 899cc which I bought new and at nearly 7 and a half years old has covered 29,700 miles. I can honestly say it is the most reliable and economic car I have ever owned. i have only replaced the battery, after 5 years, the back part of the exhaust after 6 years and costing only £78.00, and I have just bought two goodyear tyres for the front at £61.00 (mailorder price, fitting £18.00 at a citroen dealer) which will be replaced at the front at 30,000 miles.

This seems to me like pretty cheap motoring!!

I think like any car, if it well maintained i. e serviced when due, and not driven to hard (engines this size are not meant to be) then you will reap the rewards.

However, yes I agree that unfortunately there is always the odd one that may just be a problem car.

But I look forward too many more years with my reliable seicento!

I own a 1998 cinquecento sport and I love it tho they do have there little problems I do agree the handbrakes are rubbish and the tyres don't last long, but it's a fun car to drive and you learn to love it. my problems so far have been the tensioner braking on the timing belt, the clutch cable snapping (common problem), thermostat failing, head gasket, exhaust falling off, suspension seized and finally (i think) the rear brakes seized these are all the problems I've had and the majority have been cheap to fix, but yet amazingly I still luv the cinky!

This news is very worrying to me, as I am about to buy an 02 reg Abarth Seicento Sporting, as a cheap, but nippy car to get me to uni.

I know about unreliable cars, as I currently own a Clio, and I hope very much that my driving style, which I admit can be boy-racerish, will not ruin what looks to me like a really neat car.

I was however recommended this car by a friend who has owned TWO, and these have not had any mechanical problems whatsoever.

P.S if anyone would know: could you by any chance fit a sub/amplifier system in the boot??

Thanks.

Tyres are not expensive.

If you live here in britain... a tyre named "sonar" can be purchased for £40.

Much cheaper than Pirelli or Goodyear.

Bought a 2001 sporting last week and I was horrified to find it losing water and misfiring within days. Took the plugs out and sure enough No.4 was sporting a brown tinge, indicative of water in the cylinder. I have not replaced the head gasket yet, I have just re-tightened the head bolts and it seems to have worked so far. The bolts were not tight enough in my view at only 30Nm so my advice is to everyone is to tighten them, ideally as a precaution before the gasket blows.

Go to each bolt in turn-

Losen the bolt by eighth of a turn

Re-torque to 55Nm

I know this process is not specified in any technical manual but it was mandatory on the aluminum engines of the 60s so I see no reason for these engines not to need the same treatment. I fact I suspect it is the cause of gasket failure but in this age you could not tell your Fiat owner after suffering the cost of his repair that he has to return after 500 miles to pay even more money just to have the bolts tightened again!

An answer to a question asked before, yes you can fit a sub/amp into the boot. I have the 1999 Seicento Sporting Abarth and have 2 12" 1200W subs in the back of mine :)