I bought a brand new Grande Punto in 2008.

Since I bought it, I have had problem upon problem with various faults on the car.  Unfortunately, the dealer went bust very shortly after I bought it, so couldn't simply return it under the sale of goods act.

One of the common problems has caused the car to be returned to the garage 14 times now, over the last 2 years.  Every time I drive away from the garage, the fault comes back.  The longest they have ever been able to fix it for is 6 days.

I got to the point where I was so fed up with the garage; I got in touch with Fiat HQ a year ago.  Another mistake.  Their staff appear to constantly be reading from scripts, and going around and around in loops.  Every time you ring up, they tell you to take it to the nearest dealer. 

So, then I was left in writing a letter to the head office to try and get additional escalation.  I have finally after a year of battling with staff got the matter to the head of customer services.  The last conversation was to give them one final opportunity to fix the problem, and if they couldn't they would replace the car with a new one.

Fantastic, finally a result!  When I asked them to put that in writing, they changed their story slightly to being "we could assist with some funding towards you buying a car of similar age and millage"....hmmm, i bought a new car...why am I being told they will give me some money towards a second hand car?

Anyway, replied to them, saying that wasn't acceptable, and that they either needed to repair the car under the warranty or replace with a NEW car.  The car went in last week, for 3 days.  Get a call last Thursday saying the car was ready for collection.  Called fiat head office again to get confirmation they were happy with the fix, and were 100% sure it was resolved.  They didn't return my call.

Saturday, problem comes back.  Put a call in yesterday morning, yesterday afternoon, and this morning to Fiat, awaiting their call back.  Every time I call, the staff tell me the people I want to talk to are in, but on the phone. 

I suspect they aren't looking forward to returning my call, but seems incredibly rude that they just refuse to out and out talk to me at all, let alone that they can't honour the warranty.

Wow, that really is shockingly poor!  They don't deserve your business after all that.

I said I'd never buy a new Fiat again after the runaround I got waiting for my 500, but now I've got it, I'm happy enough and would consider 2nd hand.  Better luck with your next motor!

MadRainbow, what exactly is the problem with the car?

The fault which has caused the 14 visits is "HILL HOLDER NOT AVAILABLE".

The garage have replaced part upon part upon part, and although keep admitting they find faults, can't seem to resolve it.

The latest was last week, they found an intermitant fault within the ECU, which was resplaced, but still not resolved the problem.

Had a conversation with Fiat this morning, and there is a suggestion that there is atmospheric conditions causing it to be an issue.....hhmmmm

 There are other fault.  One had it off the road for 3 weeks, and they had to replace about a third of the parts in the engine.

Have got video footage of the radio flicking on and off whilst driving.  Shown this to them, and they state "We can not replicate the fault"....does this mean there isn't a fault?  The stereo is a minor issue, but shouldn't happen....there is no way to stop it when it starts, just got to let it play itself out.

Drivers window works intermitantly, moaning noise from the enginer, although the garage whitness it when I come in with the car, they "Can't replicate it"....

Following the conversation this morning, Fiat have added more caveats to there offer, one being that I arrange a court appointed engineer to confirm the fault....they really aren't on this planet!

MadRainbow, the hill holder function is incorporated into the ESP and it only needs one component part to be faulty to display this message. I'm surprised that it hasn't generated a fault code that a Fiat engineer can download via the "examiner" to isolate the fault. However, in my experience some dealers are a lot better than others. However if Fiat were to send out their mobile troubleshooter I bet that the fault would be diagnosed in a few minutes. In my experience it will almost certainly be a sensor on one of the wheels that is faulty which is an easy and quick repair. Keep us posted as and when you get it sorted out.

Fiat have been out on the last 3 visits, and have not come up witht he solution.

I have just downloaded the details of the directors from Companies house, and sending them all individual letters, detailing the issue, and getting them to resolve it.

Clearly its gone past their customer service team after 14 attempts!

Oh...and found out this weekend, whilst on a motorway drive, no Cruise Control!!!!

hi madrainbow

don't know if there is a clue in your name as to your temprement...obviously if you have been let down by the fiat group /dealers ..your quiet entitled to not want to buy fiat again ,and i would probably feel the same ,as it doesn't take much for me  to scrub  a manufacturer / company from my choice  of suppliers ...

 i have a few questions .i will say i am a mechanic /technician in the motor trade ,though i do trucks ,most of the systems roughly work the same ...if you have a warning light on ,then 99% of the time there should be a pending or a stored error ..i have personally experienced a warning light on ,and  no errors in the system ...in the truck side  we  technicians will actually  talk to the driver show him on the computer whats happening etc lets them see that we have done something ..and they are not being fobbed off ...i generally take the driver out on the roadtest ..so even if you had a warning light on ,if it then goes out ..the fault should then be moved to the stored section ...i'm not sure how fiats diagnostics work ,though for some errors it will date time them ...if it is confusing the dealer and they can't understand what the diagnostics are telling them..they can ,clear the memory ..that way the next time you have an issue, the  faults stored are  what is causing the problem ..there should i imagine be a functions test ..where they can check items work .... for example ..your cruise control being inop ...there will be switch off conditions for cruise ie brake pedal ..if you press it ,cruise switches off ,same for the clutch ....now  as previously mentioned by someone else ,if you have an ABS  fault the hill holder and cruise won't work ...now the diagnostic laptop should be able to diagnoise these faults ..can only suggest  try another dealer ,or tell the dealer you want the fiat trouble shooter out ...ABS  sensors on trucks are 1.2 ohms can't see cars being that different ,then again check the 4 of them if they all read the same ,check them to earth and see if 1 is shorting ..it really isn't rocket science ....i know for a fact being in the trade ,and i have mates who work at fiat dealers....the training is 2nd to none ,just seems to be the dealers employ some poor mechanics ...if they aint interested then they don't care

will add on trucks we have EBS electronic braking systems ,hill holder ,traction control ,asr ,stability control  etc etc just like a car ,though we have way more valves to operate all theses systems and it is all air /electric

hope i have been of some help...have been driving fiats for years ,and am more than happy to continue buying them,i buy what i want not what the press say is good or bad ...skoda only have a good name now because of the VW name ,same as SEAT ..if people never knew about VW  skoda would still be a joke ,as for SEAT  ,fiat flogged them to VW ...it's all jus badge snobbery ..and to get the eqivelent VW etc as you have in a FIAT  would probably cost more ...though i will suggest to FIAT if they want to charge the same price as the equivilent VW  then quailty items and control has to improve ...i like FIAT but i will criticise them

 

phil

Hi Phil,

Thanks for your message, Mad Rainbow is the name of my company, and in this case my temprement possibly more suitablydescribed as Frustrated Wind Storm.

I work in IT myself, although in strategy, rather than technical, however have been in technical before, and the process of diagnosing a fault isn't forign to me.  Although, I can just about put screen wash in the car, I wouldn't be so feable as to call out the AA just to change a tyre, but cars are not really my forte.

The car has been too two seperate dealers, neither have been able to resolve the issue.  Fiat have also been out to the car themselves, and experienced the problem, and keep confirming they have found a fault, and fixed it.

My frustration with Fiat is this ongoing expectation they have that I will simply keep returning the car to them for repairs.  I have a letter from Fiat HQ a month ago, confirming yet another fault they found, and repaired, and that they had tested the ECU, which they found was fully working.  I took the car back a week later because the fault was still there, and their diagnostics showed that the ECU was faulty. 

There are so many conflicts in the information they give, that it is impossible to sucessfully diagnose the fault.  When I take the time off of work, to take the car to them, and to pick it up again, and told that the reason the fault was there was because on the previous fault, they had forgotten to re-tighten a bracket, the whole situation wears thin. 

 Then, for Fiat customer care to continually tell me to take the car back for further repair, is just becoming silly.

 Re the cruise control, the switch to turn on cruise control, simply doesn't work, its not that there are any pedels being pushed thats deactivating it once its on, it just doesn't come on at all.  From previous discussion with the garage, they said it was related to the Hill Holder issue, and something to do with the clutch switch.  But, for me its just one problem thats been reported time and time again, fixed, and then fails again.

Interestingly, I have had several curtosy cars from the dealers, and have had Fiat Grande Punto's (the same as what I have bought), and I have no problem with those at all.

As I said in my previous post, I have sent letters to each of the Fiat directors, both their home addresses, and office addresses.  So, lets see if that prompts a more positive response.

D

hi .as i work in a main dealer for a truck manufacturer ..i tend to look at things from the truck side of things ,and how we treat customers ..for example ,i had a gearbox to do ,there is a cut off  for when to order parts ,so you get them the next day ..unfortunately the customer brought the vehicle in rather late on the friday and wanted the vehicle for the monday ,so i ordered what i thought i needed ,which was correct ,though i later saw parts ,that where at their wear limit ...to cut a long story short we got the parts couriered up from the factory at a cost of £200  which we absorbed ...

anyway , the cruise may not work at all ,if there is a fault with the clutch /brake pedal ,or the handbrake ,,,ie if there is a fault with any of the switches and the ecu sees the switches on then cruise won't work ...as with cruise on ,any of the said three are known as switch off conditions ,you touch them and  cruise switches off...

why fiat don't fit another ecu ,i don't know ,they must have one they can fit  a 2nd hand one just for diagnostic purposes ,i would suggest you keep requesting fiat lad keeps attending ,may then p him off enough  that theu actualy do something about it ,or even request to meet him the next time he looks at the car

They have replaced the ECU, although it still doesn't resolve the fault.

Its since they replaced the ECU that the cruise control has gone again.

My key point is that I don't honestly care what is causing the issue, but that Fiat have taken 14 visits, and still havn't resolved it.

I'll see what their directors come back with, if anything at all!!

Well, given that Fiat gave up trying to resolve this, I have taken the issue to the SMMT.  Unfortunatly, Fiat have issued a series of lies as their response, claiming that the only reason they have ever replaced anything, is because I have insisted.  I haven't ever insisted, I am not technically minded enough to know what needs replacing.

 

So, I responded asking them to provide proof, and they refused to, and stated that their view now is that its simply driver error.

 

Have had a look on Google, and this is a common issue, and everyone seems to end up being given the same response.  Something fishy....

with the hill hold ,that if i am correct is wired in to the abs system

for fiat to say they are replacing parts that you say are faulty is stupid ...if their tech guy who has access to  turin has attended your car and should have excellent knowledge of the product ,is replacing parts because the customer says so..well i'm speechless..who pays for all these parts that have been thrown at the car ?? afraid that isn't how i work .i like to diagnois a fault ..yes like everyone i do make the odd error ..im only human ...

also i don;t think after admitting there is faults to then say driver error will wash unless they have ecu evidence to prove abuse

it is probably some wiring fault ie can wiring as that is how the ecu's communicate to each other ..but that's just a guess and i may well be 100% wrong