Motoring Discussion > FIAT 500 - Twinair Buying / Selling
Thread Author: mattbod Replies: 17
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 03:56 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - mattbod
Was really looking forward to the launch of this: character and pep with economy. Very disappointed then that Autocar only got an abysmal 35mpg and Fifth Gear 45 mpg on a mixed run in economy mode. Why is an 875 hi tech engine returning such crap economy? Will put me off one when my Fabia Vrs does an easy 50 mpg on a run with a lot more grunt.

Anyone driven one. The ex boss is raving but his test has no mention of real world economy.
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 07:43 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - PR
That same Autocar test mentioned it is comfortable at 85mph. You certainly arent going to get the stated fuel economy at those speeds.

If you are interested you need to drive one for yourself and measure it yourself with your driving style and type of roads.
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 08:02 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - Baz
The magazines thrash the living daylights out of them, they're just kids with new toys . I would check out owners forums to get a more realistic fuel consumption idea, also real owners keep them more than a day or two and rack up some miles to get a more accurate picture.
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 09:00 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - Iffy
This Autocar test only mentions the combined figure of 69mpg.

I usually get around the combined figure for my cars, so I'd base my decision on that.

Sounds pretty good for a petrol with a bit of grunt,

www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstDrives/Fiat-500-0.9-Twin-Air/251295/
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 09:40 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - Perky Penguin
My car has a claimed combined mpg of 55; I can get 50+ most of the time and I note that it seems to be temperature related ie better in Summer than Winter.
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 14:44 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - RattleandSmoke
It should be a reliable engine too as it has taken FIAT 8 years to develop it. Much of that was testing.

I am half considering a new Panda multiair but they won't be on sale for a few years, the 500 is no good as I need 5 doors.

I would be put off if the new Panda was built in Itally too, I don't think they can match the Polish build quality.
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 15:09 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - Mike Hannon
>>I would be put off if the new Panda was built in Itally too, I don't think they can match the Polish build quality. <<

Blimey, times change, eh? It used to be said some Polish-built 126s arrived in the UK without the benefit of head gaskets!
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 15:14 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - RattleandSmoke
That factory has had a lot of development since then. You only need to look at the reliability charges to see that Polish built Panda and 500 are much higher up than the Italian built Puntos.

It will be interesting to see how the newish Bravo performs.

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 Thu 16 Dec 10 16:03 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - PR
The Bravo is excellent. Ours (92k in 37 months) and has had 2 warranty jobs.

The factory where they are to build the new Panda will have £700m spent on it to bring it up to "World Class" status.
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 16:11 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - Old Navy
These small (900cc) engines are OK until you remember it has to drag around a car made heavy by NCAP requirements and it has to work hard. My original 850cc MINI did 50mpg, but I would probably not survive an accident in one.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 16 Dec 10 at 16:12
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 16:24 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - Baz
Our two Pandas have clocked up about 20000 miles now between them without a single problem,averaging 50 mpg plus. Well pleased though one will have to make way for something bigger soon.
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 17:04 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - RattleandSmoke
The new Panda won't be built in Poland will it?
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 20:44 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - Glaikit Wee Scunner Snr. {P}
As mentioned on another post, Autocar did recently test the 500- Twinair.
They could only get 42mpg touring- this is not on the Autocar website but in the real paper version.. Well short of the official figures and this was done with the eco setting (reduced torque).
Maybe the Fiat lawyers made them an offer they can't refuse?
Last edited by: Glaikit Wee Scunner Snr. {P} on Thu 16 Dec 10 at 20:49
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 Thu 16 Dec 10 22:33 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - teabelly
Official figures are nonsense for the majority of cars as they can never reflect real world driving. I usually assume the city figure is likely to be more indicative of actual likely economy under normal use and the combined one is roughly what you'd get on a good long run.
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 Fri 17 Dec 10 01:25 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - Skoda
I guess with this engine, vastly different fuel economy could just be a software update away.

To flip that on it's head, if there was a bug discovered in the software for one of this engines fancy running modes that saves fuel, it's conceivable it could have been turned off to enable shipping on schedule.

Out there with the who shot JFK and what type of cheese is the moon made of theories i admit :-)
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 Fri 17 Dec 10 01:27 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - rtj70
And the moon is shrinking too!
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 Fri 17 Dec 10 07:43 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - PR
No it won't. Pomigliano D'Arco near Naples, a factory Fiat have had workforce problems with in the past is where they will build the new Panda. As well as the investment they have started a new company to employ the workforce with under new terms and conditions, to rid themselves of the previous problems (for example 1 in 3 were absent during key World Cup 2010 matches!).
Last edited by: PR on Fri 17 Dec 10 at 07:44
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 Sat 18 Dec 10 14:19 
 FIAT 500 - Twinair - mattbod
But do you think this would be a better bet than the 1.3 Multijet 90? I think the particulate filter and CR injection ( which I am supicious of in terms of reliability) would put me off. However the economy quoted in tests has been bad: where is the benefit of this multiair tech except in the low CO2?
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