2000 Fiat Seicento Sporting from UK and Ireland - Comments

Embarrassingly loud clonking noise from the engine on start-up from cold that diminishes as the engine warms up. Sounds like a wide tappet, piston-slap, little or big-end knock.

I loved the car until the engine problem started and then was staggered to be told by the main agent that "they all do this, it's an old-fashioned engine with narrow pistons and it has probably been assembled tight". I was told that nothing would be done until the car had clocked up 6,000 miles (in 6 months time!). Basically their attitude was, "Well what do you expect if you buy one of these?"

Hi, my wife runs a Seicento Sporting - it's her 4th successive Fiat with the "FIRE" engine. We have never had any noise from any of the cars engines like described.

The three previous cars have been run by her for four years and 60-70,000 kms without any trouble, the present is now 20 months and nearly 30,000 kms old and has never seen the inside of a repair shop - the 15k km service I did myself.

My wife has always found the small Fiats charming cars and all 5 in total have proved very reliable.

Regards,

Erik

Re: the noisy engine problem. It was only after much persistence on my part that a FIAT UK technician examined my car and confirmed that repairs were needed. It went back to the dealer in January 2001 for seven days while new pistons were fitted to the existing block. The noise is now even worse than before. The dealer has not acknowledged my letters. Three months after my original complaint to Fiat UK they replied that they had been advised by the dealer that I was now completely satisfied with the repairs. I am now resolved to taking legal action as both the dealer and Fiat UK give the impression that they simply couldn't care less.

My advice would be to look elsewhere. There are far better cars available at the price.

I just had my new Volvo V70 serviced for less than my wife's 12 month old Seicento cost at local Fiat dealer.

Not happy at all with Fiat service - and I appear to be not alone!!

Bill Ward

The cars are great, the dealers are expensive and the quality of service varies greatly between them, from the acceptable to the completely hopeless. As a member of Clubcento I hear a lot of stories of their incompetence. Some are scary, like a car coming out of a service with no oil in it...

My own car has now done 28K in a year and a half, and, apart from new valves at 15K, and a dodgy electical connector, the only gripe is the huge bill every 9000 miles.

Brian.

Further to the noisy engine saga:

Fiat have still not acknowledged that there is a fault, but after much pressure from me and the dealer they have agreed to construct a special deal to replace the car. Rather than have a Seicento Series III (with the new engine), I have opted to pay more for a Punto 16 valve. My fingers are now firmly crossed in hope that this one is not a dud.

Incidentally, all customer complaints to Fiat UK, Slough are dealt with by Turin. No wonder it takes so long to get a response to a complaint.

I had a Seicento SX as a courtesy car whilst my usual Golf received attention after falling victim to a hit and run in the pub car park!

I have to say that I was scared and delighted in equal measure by it.

The engine sounded like the tappets were about to come through the cam cover - which would appear to bear out the stories I have read on this page.

Surely people cannot test-drive these things. £6000 gets you a lot better (albeit second hand) metal for the money!

Incidentally, all customer complaints are dealt with by Arese, near Milan and not by Turin.

I have had nothing but trouble when dealing with Fiat re my Punto 2000 ELX from the day I bought it to date. They simply ignore you when you go to them with a fault and then you end up chasing them until you are near to a heart attack with stress. I am soon selling my Punto before I end up either in hospital or in prison for murdering someone at the dealership, which incidentally is Ancaster on Bromley Road in Catford.

Hi my sister has one of your problems the engine noise. With the fiat it sometimes needs pamering it's (ITALIAN).Come on Ferraris, lamboginis, alfa romaos and lancias. You are going to get problems. These type of cars are known to look good not to be reliable. Let me help you, get slightly thicker, high quality racing oil that heats up quickly. The car will love this and run it in and ever so often push the car. Keep it at high revs soon the noise should go. or just get a induction kit. but I don't think you want one of those.

I purchased a new pre-registered seicento s on the 30th August 2002,on the 31st with 9miles on the clock thick black smoke appeared, they said it had been filled up with to much oil, on the 23rd october, the steering stopped they said it spiked, on the 8th november the steering jammed again they said fault on the steering ecu it was replaced on the 24th november on a ramp in the multi storey car park the car boiled over AA attended car back to garage they said replace coolant fan motor, I am a disabled pensioner & was overcome by the salesforce and service managaress, I feel a loss of confidence what will happen next whom do I go to, Fair Trading is a start & as previous complainants have stated by the time it gets to Turin or Milan will I or the car still be around? by the way cash was paid for this car by a gift from a will which came along just in time, as it was the cheapest new car on the market I thought I would be safe?

My wife's Seicento citymatic (the one with the 5 speed clutchless gearbox) has only done 6000 miles and has needed work done on the gearbox twice. First time a bracket broke that was holing the clutch in place which meant the car would not change gear. Second time an "ACS" warning light came on which meant a fault with the electronic gearchange and the car wouldn't even let me start it up! After 2 weeks in the fiat garage they said it needed a clutch control unit AND an new ecu plus labour plus tax comes to about £1000. When I tried to sell it to the fiat dealer they only offered £1500!!! Shows how much they value their own cars!

My wife has a Sporting model which is going fine. We got it for £6000 pre-registered and have been very happy with it. Mind you, the clutch did go at only 9k miles!

It's still good value I think with CD, electric windows, alloys, central locking etc - plus you can park it anywhere. The local fiat dealer in Portsmouth have been very good. The other bonus with this car is that other owners wave at you as they pass.

I bought a brand new Seicento SX as my first car.

Within weeks I discovered a very strong smell of petrol if I filled the tank - and I mean a really strong smell, we were choking as we were driving along.

Within 6 months the sunroof started leaking, it got to the point that the car smelt musty and wouldn't dry out - I got fed up of driving courtesy cars and sitting on towels and plastic bags. After 12 months the stereo volume broke.

By now the front seats wouldn't clip into place without repeated slamming. Bits of plastic and springs had fallen out of the front doors and the boot.

It made horrible noises and slowed down when driven through puddles.

Most of this was during the 12 month warranty period; with the sunroof I took it in many times. The dealer didn't want to know about most of my problems; they treated me as if I was imagining half of it, and told me the sunroof seal just needed cleaning until I brought it in several times, still dripping.

They never fixed any of these problems, and in the end I couldn't cope with the car any more and sold it after 1 1/2 years at a huge financial loss. It's a shame because it was a gorgeous speedy, nippy car with fab handling and looks. But I'll never buy Fiat again!

I bought my Seicento Sporting second hand, 2 1/2 years ago when it was only a year old. I had upgraded (if you can call it that) from the Cinquecento which I had from brand new. I was very happy with the Seicento to begin with, what with booting it at traffic lights when boy racers are having a go. But in the last 8 months it has needed a clutch cable, an exhaust and is now in need of a radiator. Its only just done 30k miles, and is only 3 1/2 years old. Needless to say, I have decided to trade it in for a Renault Clio 1.4 dynamique. Fiat no longer do it for me.

This is a question for the writer with the brand new Seicento SX as my first car (23rd Jul 2003)

I've just purchased a second hand sporting and had the exact same problem... smell of petrol when I completed filled the petrol tank. Seems to be some leaking just in front of the rear left tire... what did you find out about it (a repair shop I called thinks the brake fluid could be leaking).