Arnold Clark (see website) currently have £605 off the fixed RRP of a Fiat 500 1.2 Lounge, which works out much cheaper than even adding a few extras to the very basic £8100 Fiat 500 1.2 Pop.
This deal seemingly does not apply in conjunction with Fiat's PCP deal where the price then reverts to £9500 costing £146 for 36 months (£900 deposit) and a Guaranteed Future Value of £4505 on 8000 miles. Any dealer will offer you this. It still works out cheaper than a 6 year loan of £8895 though.
With the worsening euro exch rate the cost of Fiats and other imports can only go up.
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over at fiat forum and similar sites a few things to note
majority of people who try both end up buying a panda not the 500
quite a few people who buy the 500 end up getting rid of it and swapping back for panda
perrys do some amazing fiat deals
as do fiatsupersaver
if it was me, new panda 100 hp are available for shade over 7 K, and it would be between that and a panda multijet
cannot for the life of me see why people other than art lecturers would buy a 500 it really is style over substance, and as per mini production slowdown the market for style over substance cars is dropping off a cliff face in the recession
but of course its your money...
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fiatsupasaver:
new Panda
100HP £6999 OTR
diesel £5994 OTR
diesel (air con) £6488 OTR
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Apparently the £8895 deal ends today 16 Feb 09 and the different branches of Arnold Clark Fiat give totally different PCP figures and different stories about whether the PCP price is £9500 RRP or £8895. Some say there's a £200 delivery charge too.
I have got our local Fiat dealer to match the above PCP price of £146, which works out as £10661 over 3 years assuming a GFV of £4505.20, so the interest costs me £1161 over 3 years ie 6% apr.
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google perrys fiat
give them a ring
bet you they beat that significantly
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I will do.
Personally I love the Panda on which the 500 is based. Whilst searching for a 500, I saw you can get a 1.1 Panda Active for £4900. There's loads of used 04 plates for around £2200 which is such a bargain.
Unfortunately the wife & daughter dont like them (too tinny / ugly etc etc) .... c'est la vie
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get her to test drive a panda 100 hp bet ya she would change her mind
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Nearly £9.000 for a baked bean sized can with an engine in it. Fiat haven't lost the plot, only the people who are prepared to stump up the readies for the 500 roller skate
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Yes, you can get sooo much for £9,000 these days.
Edited by krs one on 16/02/2009 at 20:40
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Cheaper than a Mini with no more interior space though... If I was buying a car of this size again for my wife the 500 would be high on the list.
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The 500 is also safer than the Panda according to the NCAP ratings. Yes the Panda is cheaper but as rj70 said it is a lot cheaper than a mini. I hate all this style stuff but if I had £9k to spend on a city car I would very much consider the 500.
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500 - 5-star NCAP.
Panda - 3-star NCAP.
With the vast majority of new cars being 4 or 5 stars you'd better hope if you crash the Panda it is into an old banger.
One of the biggest crash risks seems to be hitting something with a higher rating:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvoumToSP5c
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The safety this is quite a lot more complex than that though due to the laws of physics but as the Panda and 500 are pretty much the same size the 500 is a lot safer. I would like to see a real world test where they crash something like a 500 into a big old Volvo 940. I know 5th gear did this with the Modus but they are fairly large cars, it would be interesting to see how well a modern 5 star city car would cope when wacked into a big barge.
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Not as badly as if it hits a modern barge:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Tmk-uufGw
The 500 is only 100-150kg less than a modus so it might not be that disatrous - the real worry is hitting a bigger modern car, that is built to a much safer standard than even 15yrs ago.
Remember when Euro NCAP first hit the scene - most manufacturers scorned it, saying such safety levels were impossible - once a few makers managed tho, everyone else fell in line.
I'm pretty sure the fairly consistent 3,000 deaths per year despite 'safer' cars is due to a recent higher %age of fatalities in older cars hitting newer ones (whose occupants walk away), where before the energy would be more evenly dissipated perhaps leaving no fatalities but both groups injured.
The element of good old-fashioned luck is always in the mix too, of course.
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This is a thread on cost of the FIAT 500 (and yes it should be all capitals).
This is not meant to discuss crash protection - that if someone wants to start it is another thread :-)
Only closing comment on NCAP is ratings for NCAP can only be compared in class. An NCAP 5 super-mini is just that. It is not perhaps not better than an NCAP 4 family car. But not for debate in this thread.
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spec the panda up with the optional side/window airbags and youll find safety ratings would be similar ?
and itll still be a lot cheaper and better in my view than the dodgem like 500
anyone choosing a mid or low model 500 over a panda 100 hp must be mad in my view
or a real style guru
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Going back to the original topic, Perrys had no deals on a 500 and the salesman there said I should bite their hand off for the deal that I'd been offered locally ie £146 a month. Fiatsupersaver don't do 500s.
A 100hp Panda is £7100 discounted but will be worth nothing in 3 yrs. At least a 500 is predicted to have good residuals ie £4505 min in 3 years. The style is a matter of personal choice and I agree with Honest John's car by car breakdown that's it's a lovely little car and cheaper than the basic Mini at £10500.
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weve been offered 500 quid less than we paid for it new on a 10 month old diesel panda
the diesels are really popular, 35 quid road tax etc
good chance we will accept and buy a new one, not much more price to change than paying for a service on the current one
if you can beat residuals like that go for it
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>>get her to test drive a panda 100 hp bet ya she would change her mind
In my albeit limited experience (one wife - to date) many women don't buy on the basis of how the car drives on a test drive. SWMBO has never test driven a car she has bought - she's had me drive it and sat in it (in her 500 the back of it as the sales guy wouldn't sit in the back!) She fell in love with the looks and her Picanto was gone! Didn't look at anything else, hated the looks of the Panda and the MINI and the Clio and the Yaris and the Jazz and .... Last thing I was going to do was guide her towards a car that might be a bit quicker or a tad more composed over a bump and have her regret not going for the 500 every time she got in the car for the next 3 or 4 years.
FWIW I disagree with the comments about impossibly bumpy ride and no guts - SWMBO's 1.2 goes well if you keep the revs over 3,000 - it picks up really well from 4,000 and is rapid enough with an excellent gearchange and light controls. OK in town you don't drive it like that but its fine and a comfortable, bright and quiet place to be. Perfectly at ease on the motorway and enough torque to accelerate from 70 mph if you need. I wouldn't have one myself as I do too many miles and the seats are short on squab and when you lower them the back of the seat base dips but not the front leaving an uncomfortable hole where something should be supporting. The C pillars are too wide making reversing much more difficult than it should be but helping the rigidity no doubt. None of this matters to SWMBO she loves it as much as her 2CVs from yesteryear.
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