The Fiat 500

[UTVitz]

I look at vehicles as long term ownership costs and experiences. And the Fiat uses a timing belt that will need expensive replacement-this is with hope the belt makes it to recommended change miles-Aveo owners know this is not always true. This multi-air valve train seems like marketing hype as it does nothing for fuel economy and just adds to something new to break and no one that knows how to fix it when it does. Biggest mechanical gripe is the iron block aluminum head-this has proven over and over again to be a long term ownership mismatch. The two metals heat and cool differently and almost guarantees headgasket leaks usually after 100K miles. I know this from owning a 92 Miata that has this problem. The sport button is electronic gee wizardry at work on the power steering boost and automatic transmission shift points. That button has to be pushed everytime you start the car to keep it active. Otherwise the power steering reverts to super overboost and the auto making long rubbery shifts.

If you're thinking of purchasing one for long term ownership review the Fiat 500 forum to see what problems people are reporting-most are minor gripes, but this is only after a few months of ownership. I could go on, but to me the Fiat is in the same boat as the Smart fourtwo and mini cooper-expensive to own long term. Search Mini Cooper problems and the nightmare stories fill pages after 45K miles with that car especially the auto version. And Smarts 3 cylinder Mitsubishi engine is not making it long term either.

Now if you only intend to keep the car till it's out of warranty this may not matter. I tend to keep mine to 200K and that only works out if I don't have to buy the car a seond time in repair costs. While looks and comfort/fun are important I look at the mechanicals first and go from there. Reliablity reports are great places to start and the Scion xd was numero uno which is pretty much a yaris clone