Fiat 500

[Rangerman40]

Thinking of buying one as a third car for my wife and I with eventual use as a Toad. It's a manual, convertible. Anyone else have one? How do they tow? Any special considerations when outfitting it for towing?

[FunTwoDrv]

We bought a Vega based on Consumer Reports rating them as a "Buy"! So much for them...

Gary

[Horizon170]

DownTheAvenue wrote:

Horizon170 wrote:

DownTheAvenue wrote:

Rangerman40 wrote:
Any special considerations when outfitting it for towing?

The special consideration is that it is a terrible car with very poor ratings from many sources and has one of the worst reliability ratings of any car sold in the USA.

AS far as towing, it is light and has no restrictions as to distance or speed with a manual transmission. That is probably good, since it may well be towed to a repair shop more than it is driven!

That is total BS as ours with 70K has never been the shop except for oil changes.
We cant tow ours as it is an automatic.
Marvin

I am glad you have had good service from your Fiat. However, what I posted is not B.S. Consumer Reports maintains a data base for repairs and their records form actual consumers say different.

You are right about the consensus--------------we are lucky I guess.
Forgive me.
Marvin

[DownTheAvenue]

Horizon170 wrote:

DownTheAvenue wrote:

Rangerman40 wrote:
Any special considerations when outfitting it for towing?

The special consideration is that it is a terrible car with very poor ratings from many sources and has one of the worst reliability ratings of any car sold in the USA.

AS far as towing, it is light and has no restrictions as to distance or speed with a manual transmission. That is probably good, since it may well be towed to a repair shop more than it is driven!

That is total BS as ours with 70K has never been the shop except for oil changes.
We cant tow ours as it is an automatic.
Marvin

I am glad you have had good service from your Fiat. However, what I posted is not B.S. Consumer Reports maintains a data base for repairs and their records form actual consumers say different.

[Horizon170]

DownTheAvenue wrote:

Rangerman40 wrote:
Any special considerations when outfitting it for towing?

The special consideration is that it is a terrible car with very poor ratings from many sources and has one of the worst reliability ratings of any car sold in the USA.

AS far as towing, it is light and has no restrictions as to distance or speed with a manual transmission. That is probably good, since it may well be towed to a repair shop more than it is driven!

That is total BS as ours with 70K has never been the shop except for oil changes.
We cant tow ours as it is an automatic.
Marvin

[Rangerman40]

Wow, quite the bunch of opinions lol. We shall see how it shakes out.

[Tyler0215]

A used anything is better than a new Fiat.

[Geeze]

Have you read the reviews on the Fiat. If I'm not mistaken I believe it had the lowest reliability rating of any car sold in America.

On a positive note you could always tow it to the dealer when it needs worked on. 😉

[ThomBoles]

We left a park in Largo, FL last weekend. There was a couple there that was towing a Fiat Convertible. Didn't stop to talk to them as there was a bit of a language challenge (from Quebec). I didn't really look at the car too much other than to notice that it was a Fiat 500 Convertible.

We are currently 4-down towing a 6-speed 2013 Mini Cooper Roadster S. I've seen some convertibles being towed 4-down too as an alternative. I'm guessing that there will be some comments about people not liking the Mini's either but we're on our 3rd and yea, they aren't cheap to fix but the first one we ordered is still on the road 13 years later with over 200K miles.

[lryrob9301]

Fiat stands for = Fix It Again Tony

[jfkmk]

1995brave wrote:
Are you talking about a Fiat or a Yugo ? Or maybe a Vega? 🙂

All very similar, no?

[1995brave]

Are you talking about a Fiat or a Yugo ? Or maybe a Vega? 🙂

[gbopp]

DownTheAvenue wrote:

Rangerman40 wrote:
Any special considerations when outfitting it for towing?

The special consideration is that it is a terrible car with very poor ratings from many sources and has one of the worst reliability ratings of any car sold in the USA.

AS far as towing, it is light and has no restrictions as to distance or speed with a manual transmission. That is probably good, since it may well be towed to a repair shop more than it is driven!

That's special, Forward Thinking engineering. :B

[DownTheAvenue]

Rangerman40 wrote:
Any special considerations when outfitting it for towing?

The special consideration is that it is a terrible car with very poor ratings from many sources and has one of the worst reliability ratings of any car sold in the USA.

AS far as towing, it is light and has no restrictions as to distance or speed with a manual transmission. That is probably good, since it may well be towed to a repair shop more than it is driven!

[jspringator]

We rented one on vacation too. The driver's armrest was already broken. My wife refers to it as the worst car ever. And it isn't like she is used to the best; she drives a base Versa. It was easy to park at the campsite because it was so short. I remember the engine being loud.