Fiat Secento as first car

fletch

templetonpeck wrote:

I can tell you 100% that I bought a Seicento brand new in 2000 and it did not come with an airbag as standard. You'll just have to make enquiries with the person you're buying from, or with a Fiat Garage. But mine definitely didn't have one as standard.

Yes and so did my mother and I agree with you 100% but jjbrien seems to think differently

jjbrien wrote:

I have a Seitento S and it comes with drivers airbag as standard. My father used to work in a fiat garage for 26 years and he says all they all should have drivers airbag as standard. One question is it the 1108cc or 899cc model she has?

Wossack

buying tips: here

re the airbag issue: far more evidence pointing towards non-standard then otherwise, but whatever

Masada

templetonpeck wrote:

You may have a point there Though I treated my car well and other than the one oil leak (after five years) I had no probs with it.

I really couldn't recommend the car highly enough.

question is though, where was the oil leak from? most likely from the rocker cover gasket as this is a very common problem with all fiat FIRE engines and is a very easy fix,., new gasket is €7 and a bit of sealant and your done., people tend to over react when they find its leaking and think its the head gasket.,lol.,

jjbrien

If you check the oweners hand book it says it does come with airbag as standard. Mine is the 1108cc with power steering and it does come with airbag as standard but only the drivers airbag. You can request a passengers airbag when ordering the car. Another draw back is the S version which is what I have does not come with central locking or electric windows which really get to me sometimes.

Jamar

My (now) wife had one we both used to drive.

Handbrake was always bad, needing yearly tune. The clutch snapped, and the gear box failed, I think. There was a problem with the heating that caused a fair bit of money too. The pedals are very close together. At the time, I was also driving a bigger (micra ) car, and there were a few times I wasn't 100% my foot was on the brake or the accelerator when I got into the fiat, although it never came to any bad.

In one year, this car caused us a lot of trouble and money. It let us down on a few trips too. However, it's cheap and it was mostly fun to drive. HTH

Masada

it could also be that near the end of the range when there not going to make them anymore they add all the extras to sell them off., does the car have a number with the name? a lot of them do for instance, punto 55SX or 60S.,

Tabnabs

jjbrien wrote:

If you check the oweners hand book it says it does come with airbag as standard.

So is it the owners handbook or the 26 years of family involvment with FIAT that makes the drivers airbag standard, despite the first hand experience of others (myself included with S model)?

jjbrien

Dyflin wrote:

So is it the owners handbook or the 26 years of family involvment with FIAT that makes the drivers airbag standard, despite the first hand experience of others (myself included with S model)?

Check the book if you look at your steering whell you will notice its a little fat in the middle compaired to the chinq this is where your airbag is located. It does have an airbag. I have seen a few of them going back into the garage where my cousin and dad worked written off with the airbag deployed. So from seeing these cars first hand. You dont really know what your talking about. I only checked the oner handbook to be 100% sure. My dad also said its as standard.

Fiii

I bought a 00' Seicento as my first car 4months ago. Not a long time to have it I admit, but enough time to make a judgement on it from an owners point of view.

Bought it for a very reasonable 1,750euro. It's the 899cc S model, has power stearing but not central locking, sunroof etc.
The way I look at it, it's a good little beginners car. No, it's not great for the 'ol street cred and it may not be the safest car on the roads, but if it was unsafe it would not be allowed out of the factory.
Had a minor crash in it 1month after I got it, truck overtaking a car parked at a corner at speed was over my side of the road and never saw me coming, and it held up fairly well. Considering the truck was alot bigger than my wee car, I had expected the damage to be worse, but just a dent and scratch on the front drivers side panel.
It's cheap to buy, cheap to tax (only 151) and cheap to run. I average 15 quid a week on petrol and I do drive quite a bit.
I have been told the pedals are close together, but since it's the car I learned to drive in, I don't know any better so I am used to it.
My dad has driven it and found it fine.

I've got to be honest, when looking for my first car, a Seicento did not feature on my shortlist, but I ave it a chance (at that price I couldn't refuse ) and tis a fine little run around for learners in the city.

My two cents anyay.

galwaytt

vtec wrote:

by the looks of things (and i might be wrong) but the people who advise against it dont seem to be the ones who owned one., i would recommend it as a first car as it is cheap., and all this stuff about not being reliable?
this is usually people who dont look after their car or are just following trend from other peoples impression of fiat., if you do go for one the sporting it the best model to go for as far as extras go and has a 1.1 engine, the SX and the s are lower models respectively with electric windows in the SX IIRC.,
also they use fiats FIRE 8v engines which make them cheap for timing belt repairs, water pump, tensioner issuses etc., and it the belt goes it doesnt do any damage to the engine like a lot of other cars.,

personally i would prefer the cinquento instead as i think it looks better but uses the same engine so your practically getting the same car for a lot less money with the cinquento and its not AS girly as the sei.,lol.,

spot on. Despite all the lovely cars I've had in the last 10 years, I still remember vividly the day I bought my spanking new Cinqueqento Sporting - yellow, of course.

Without a doubt, it was then, and remains to this day, the best value motoring I've ever had. Period. True about the (awful) handbrake, but other than that I didn't need to spend a red cent on it in 4 years outside of normal servicing. Damn, it didn't even need tyres !! Always regretted selling it.............and am currently looking at buying another, btw........

as for NCAP, etc, well, you're not buying new, and you're not paying big money - so, € for €, does anything else at that price fare any better ? No, of course not. Look at the Chrysler Voyager's ratings for proof that big is not necessarily any better.........

And yes, I'd weigh more on those who've owned, than those who've only........moaned (;) .......(good one, that...)

templetonpeck

jjbrien wrote:

If you check the owners hand book it says it does come with airbag as standard. Mine is the 1108cc with power steering and it does come with airbag as standard but only the drivers airbag. You can request a passengers airbag when ordering the car. Another draw back is the S version which is what I have does not come with central locking or electric windows which really get to me sometimes.

JJ, as I've said before, I bought a Seicento S model 899CC in 2000 brand new and the drivers airbag did not come as standard, so I didn't have one. A friend of mine bought the SX 1108CC version also in 2000 and brand new and airbags didn't come as standard in that either, but she got one put in. The manuals say a lot of things a car should have.

Central locking and electric windows are added luxuries you don't need with the seicento. Same with power steering, because it's so light. Enjoy the fact that you have a nippy wee vehicle that you can park anywhere without putting too much of a dent in your pocket.

templetonpeck

vtec wrote:

question is though, where was the oil leak from? most likely from the rocker cover gasket as this is a very common problem with all fiat FIRE engines and is a very easy fix,., new gasket is €7 and a bit of sealant and your done., people tend to over react when they find its leaking and think its the head gasket.,lol.,

I don't know where it was coming from, but it was easily fixed. But you're right I was totally scarred off when I heard leaking engine and that's why I got rid of it. Well that and after five years, I really thought I'd paid my dues and earned myself a bigger set of wheels!!

Again I say though, as a first car, you can't go wrong with it!