Overview & Reviews

Fiat is one of the earliest and grandest names in automobiles, dating from the establishment of Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino ("FIAT") in 1899. During the early years, its racing cars were the envy of every nation. Later on, the Fiat Topolino ("Little Mouse") was as famous as the Volkswagen KDF (subsequently known as the "Beetle") in the 1930s and '40s. The 1950s saw Fiat put much of Italy on wheels with the hugely popular 500, sparking the "Italian Miracle," a renaissance of European consumer products.

Sadly, the company's fortunes in the United States were mixed. Here, the Fiat 1500 won over a fair share of enthusiasts in the mid-'60s, and the early-'70s saw the Fiat 850 (Spider and Coupe) become popular among college students. Yet the Pininfarina-designed Fiat 124 sports car did the most to keep the Fiat image alive in America, as cars like the front-wheel-drive 128 and midengine X1/9 ultimately failed. Even Lancia, Fiat's premium brand, withered quickly after an introduction in the mid-'70s. Ultimately, Fiat's poor reputation for quality and its inability to cope with ever more stringent emissions regulations led the Italian company to pull out of the U.S. market altogether in 1984.

In 2000, General Motors acquired a stake in Fiat as part of a joint venture to create a new generation of small, affordable cars for Europe. GM's financial troubles led to the unraveling of this agreement in 2005, but Fiat had invested the GM money wisely in new air emissions technology. When the bankruptcy of Chrysler took place in 2008, Fiat saw an opportunity to return to the U.S. In 2009, Fiat acquired a controlling interest in Chrysler.

The Fiat 500, debuting for 2012, was the first of Fiat's new generation of cars to come stateside. Staying true to its lineage, the new 500 is very small, nimble and stylish. In addition to the 500 coupe, there are also the 500 convertible and hot-rod 500 Abarth to further tempt those looking for a small car with plenty of personality. More recently, Fiat has expanded its lineup with the fully electric 500e and the family-friendly, four-door 500L.

User Reviews:

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  Fiat 500L automatic - 2014 Fiat 500L
  By jimofdenver500 - August 13 - 5:08 pm

  I really like my new 500L but it does not like me. After 6 days, 350ml, it broke down in stop and go traffic on I-25 outside Denver. The twin clutch automatic heated up, smoked and therefore the system shut down. Had roadside assistance tow it back to the Fiat dealer. After setting for three days the car started okay and was drivable. The dealer could not find any problems, the engineer in Italy could not find any problem with the readout data. Their comment was that with the stop and go traffic the 500L twin clutch automatic acted "normally". So what am I to do?? Not drive the car in USA stop and go traffic?! Fiat USA is still working with me so hopefully there will be a positive outcome.

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  ! un happy Camper - 2012 Fiat 500
  By lemonbuyer2 - August 3 - 11:57 am

  I bought this turbo sport 4 days ago and its been in the shop twice already for repair, brand new car with 100 miles already has problems. I wished I had never seen the thing . I dont reccomend this car to anyone, ever. I will probably end up using the lemon law on this one , what a shame.

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  Love-hate relationship - 2012 Fiat 500
  By molly40 - July 13 - 4:31 pm

  I bought my 500 sport with 3,000 miles on it - dealer sales staff drove the car. While it looked cool and was extremely fun to drive, I quickly learned to loathe the car. Two steering arms and one master control module later (car had less than 20,000 miles on it), I looked for any way to unload this car without taking a huge loss. In addition to these issues, the backseat began to come apart at 12,000 miles (and rarely did I have anyone sit in the back). The engine block heater worked wonderfully but it began to malfunction and send error codes to the main computer. I was calling the dealer (90 miles away) for service every few weeks. Finally, at 24,500 miles, I called it quits.

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  NO BUENO!! - 2012 Fiat 500
  By penelope_ptstp - January 9 - 10:58 am

  Car had to have engine replaced at 10K miles and had transmission problems at 16K miles.

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  Open Body Seams During Manufacture - 2012 Fiat 500
  By jchasp59 - March 1 - 9:30 am

  I bought my new, 2012 Fiat 500 Pop on 12/22/2011. Three days after purchase, I noticed an interior water leak and returned the car to the dealer. The dealer found that the cause of the leaks were, "body seams that were left open, unwelded and unpainted during manufacture." Got the car back after 23 days in the shop. That day, I noticed electrical problems and that the leak wasnt repaired. Returned it to the shop More open body seams were found around the windshield. I requested a replacement. Fiat agreed. The dealership acquired my replacement on 02/10/2012, but has yet to get it to me (03/01). My Fiat Case Manager is Kathy Nelson, but I have no way to contact her. I regret my purchase.

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  Made me smile - UNTILÂ… - 2012 Fiat 500
  By freefall1 - December 21 - 4:10 pm

  The Fiat made me smile too, until it began having issues. Basically cold start problems, but finally a stall in traffic. In so many ways, the Fiat is a super little car, but if it isnt reliable, it isnt in the running. Ive sold mine and have no sellers remorse except for the monitory loss.

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  Dont be fooled ... check these out first - 2012 Fiat 500
  By archi2 - August 3 - 11:39 am

  I bought my 2012 Fiat 500 Lounge in May 2011 and traded it in in July 2011. I continued to have problems with the vehicle since my purchase. Lemon? The service manager says it would take up to a year before it would even qualify as a lemon. I had 8 problems to be resolved at my first visit with the Fiat mechanic. Only one was resolved - the clicking noise on the driver door whenever opening. Apparently a loose screw. The other seven? The Fiat mechanic says for all seven, "Normal Condition. No Fix." The worst of the seven was being thrown around in a freeway lane, and not because of trucks or wind.

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  Overall ok, now that we learned more - 2014 Fiat 500L
  By Jeremy Stewart - March 19 - 2:36 am

  Overall this has been a decent car for us. Weve taken a number of long-ish trips (3-8 hours in the car), and weve never had an issue. Its a comfortable ride (Im 510, my wife 54 and we both fit comfortably in front or in back. We now have a son who is almost 1 and hes spent his entire life thus far riding in this car. With the car seat in the middle, its a little cramped in the back, but nothing bad. The trunk doesnt fit the jogger stroller very well, well just enough for the stroller and nothing else. It will fit in the front seat (upside down), but it makes reaching the shifter a bit awkward. We really should have gotten a larger car, but my wife LOVED the unique look of the car and the fact that you just dont see many of them around. The Navigation is acceptable, though I wish it had real time traffic updates and I wish the head unit had CarPlay (by Apple) support, it would make things noticeably easier for us, but after a few software updates the bluetooth connects to Siri and now we dont have the terrible default voice recognition software. Plugging your iPhone into the USB port gets you a few different experiences, but the bluetooth pairing has been pretty good now. The only thing I havent liked about the car is the transmission, and probably more about the lack of education about it. When we bought the car, we were told about the different transmission, but never how it meant we had to treat the car differently than any other automatic. A few months after buying the car, a drive through Starbucks opened up near our house to which my wife has become a regular at. Sometimes shes had to wait in line quite a while and shed sit in drive with her foot on the brake. After a few minutes shed notice a smell. It smelled like burning coolant or something sweet like that. She tried to figure out the cause, but couldnt. Every time we took it to dealer they could never replicate it. Another time she actually had some smoke coming out from under her car. After some serious google-fu, I was able to track it down to the fact we should put the car in neutral when at a stop for "a while". Theres no documentation that says what "a while" is or anything, so now so long as its not a stop sign we put it into neutral (stop light, drive through, or stop & go traffic). We wish the dealer was more forth coming with this information when buying the car, in fact my wife may have actually changed her mind on the car with that information at hand, but all said she loves the car, just wishes it was a LITTLE bit bigger in the trunk. Update: 2/4/2017 - weve added another child to our lives and this makes the car feel even smaller. A double stroller will fit in the trunk but it takes some Tetris skills. Theres no fitting an adult in the back with the 2 car seats. Maybe a super thin adult. When it comes down to it, when we are done with the payments this car will go to me and my wife will get a larger car to drive the kids around in. We should have gotten a larger car from day 1 unfortunately. If this car were larger it would be great. Repair wise its been pretty trouble free, which is good considering our local dealer stopped servicing FIATs and we now have to go 30 miles to get dealer warranties. Update 2/6/2018 - December 2017 the car had transmission issues with a lack of power. Could force it into lower gears via manual selection and go but it was tough moving from a stop. Took it to the local dealer (who never stopped servicing fiats even though they told me they were going to) and had them look at it. They thought it was one thing. 2 weeks later they still had it and it wasn’t fixed so they had to replace the entire transmission. That fixed it. But a new transmission at 30k miles is ridiculous. It was outside the warranty but we had our extended warranty which covers it for 10yrs or 100k miles, so out of pocket for us was $100. Would have been roughly $10k without the warranty according to the service rep. I can’t with good conscience recommend this car. I know with the 2014 or 2015 model they redesigned the transmission (pretty much standard instead of some double dry clutch monstrosity), and maybe that will improve the reliability of the car for those models.

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  Poor service, good car - 2012 Fiat 500
  By Jeff L - September 27 - 3:48 pm

  While the electric car is great, we broke a windshield badly. The car hasnt been drivable for 6 months and we are expected to pay our lease. Not very customer friendly. Things still arent resolved so we still dont have a car and Fiat doesnt give a darn.

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  Coming up on 4 yrs of ownership - 2012 Fiat 500
  By KenN - June 18 - 7:07 pm

  Love the car, but hate the quality - and depreciation. Purchased new for HS graduate in May 2012. Rear bumper reflector just dropped off randomly - covered under warranty. Shift knob top broke off - covered under warranty. Steering clunk - tightened but not replaced with correct new intermediate shaft under warranty - clunk is back, but now 2 thousand miles out of warranty. Arm rest broke - cushion fell off - fixed my self with gorilla glue. Sun roof does not work - and pealed paint on strip in front of sun roof ( for over 20 months ) - but out of warranty - as I had no access to car since daughter had it at college. I am deathly afraid the clutch will die per other reviews - we have 54000 miles on the car. I do my own oil and filter changes as dealership service shop is only open during week and my daughter only comes home on weekends. Having said all that - the car is fun to drive with great brakes and decent enough acceleration for a guy who grew up in a time when zero to 60 in 10 seconds was considered fast. I asked dealership to make me an offer for trade in to purchase a used car off the lot ( Korean or Japanese ) - and even they dont want the car. NO offer. Paid 21K for it and now worth less than 7 K I expect for trade in. The Bose stereo is awesome. Gas mileage driving highway is above 38 mpg at 75 mph, so decent - but bigger cars get that now days. Would I buy again - no - way - ... will I keep it - probably will take it over and keep as 3rd car. Im 6 foot 2 and just barely stay under the (broken) sunroof - so I can live with it - driving position is strange, but I am used to it. I like the car - I hate the quality and/or lack of responsibility by Fiat / Chrysler for standing behind the product for the following issues - Steering rack clunk / Paint peeling / arm rest - cant comment on the Sun Roof other than I read it was glued in from the interior and there is no way Im paying for that repair.