As one of the oldest and indeed, largest Italian car manufacturers, Fiat has built a reputation as experts when it comes to producing affordable small cars, with the likes of the Panda, the 500, the Uno, the Punto, and even slightly larger models such as the 500X and Tipo. The brand also has a successful commercial vehicle division with models such as the Fullback, Fiorino and Doblo. Are Fiats expensive to repair, though?
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Fiat forms part of the Stellantis Group, a large multinational that includes other brands such as Jeep, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, and Citroen among others. Being part of such a large group, Fiat appears, from a local perspective at least, to have been reinvigorated, with an updated model range and a greater emphasis placed on backup and customer support. We struggled to find much reliability information and part pricing comparisons for Fiat products in the local market but did manage to find a few surveys from other right-hand drive markets that have similar products to South Africa.
Surveys
British-based motoring marketplace Carwow conducted a survey in conjunction with aftermarket vehicle warranty company Warranty Wise where the companies surveyed car owners to determine how reliable the 29 key brands within that market are. The results include a percentage score and the average cost of repairs. Fiat ranked an impressive sixth on this list, scoring 71% from the owners that were surveyed.
The 2021 WhatCar survey in the UK had 16 000 vehicle owners submit details of their ownership experience. The website listed 30 brands in total, and unfortunately for Fiat, the brand was ranked last, scoring 82% versus the top-performing brand, Lexus, which scored 98.8%.
The only local information that we could find was from the 2015 Kinsey Report where the brand's entry-level 500 was compared with its rivals. The 500 scored well, coming second overall, with a 33.90% score when looking at the total basket price for parts versus the list price of the vehicle. It is important to note that in the service parts department, the 500 scored very well, however, in the replacement body part category, the Fiat scored slightly worse, coming in third.
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Verdict
Despite not having the best reputation for reliability and repair costs, there is very little information petaining to the repair costs of Fiat locally. However, from the data seen online coupled with the fact that Fiat models are full imports with no local production, it is fair to state that a Fiat will likely be as reliable as many of its competitors, but may prove more expensive to maintain thanks to part pricing.
