I am thinking about buying a Marea Weekend 1.9TDI ELX 110, and was wandering if anyone has any experiences good or bad with this car. It is a 2001 Y plate, with about 40000 miles on the clock. The car i am looking at is for sale on a forecourt at £5400, is this a fair price or should I look around some more???
My main concern is the mileage, is there anything likely to need replacing shortly that could be costly?
In addition, This is my first Fiat, what are the parts/service cost like compared to other manufacturers???
I bought my 2.0/20 HLX in Aug. 99 at auction for £7500, 10 months old, 10
000 miles on the clock. No complaints about it overall, its interestingly designed, like the drop down tail gate, versatile, spacious for its external size, fast! My one's the 150bhp version. However, its let down by the quality of some of its parts.
At 15 000 miles the clutch pedal return spring broke, not a problem though, works perfectly without so never bothered replacing it.
At 30 000 miles the exhaust simply fell off at speed on the motorway. It wasn't corroded, just broke at the weld joints, poor workmanship and quality control at Fiat.
45 000 miles: the seat height mechanism broke, drilled a couple of holes and screwed the frame to the runners. The tailgate wiper failed due to corrosion. Water got inside its sleeve bearing. Shortly after the tailgate release handle also failed due to corrosion. Had a real job releasing the locks and opening the tailgate in order to fix it.
60 000 miles: the seat frame broke, just cleanly snapped on the side. Did a temporary fix using a steel tube and a few screws. Clearly poor quality steel used here. I'm now looking for a replacement seat.
Front tyres last 16 000 miles, rear at least twice that. The 5 cylinder engine is an absolute gem. Never missed a beat or failed to start on the first turn of a key.
I've always done my own servicing so do not know much Fiat charge but I was pleased to find out that Fiat's original parts are very often cheaper than Halford's replacements.
Its now done 68 000 miles and I'm getting ready for a cambelt change. Too big a job for me so I've chosen an independent garage as Fiat quoted over £1000, the independent quoted under £200 and does have a good reputation locally.
It's worth pointing out that the reason for the high price here is that the 2 Litre engine has been shoe-horned into the engine bay and is a right bastard to work on. Cambelt changes on the other engines are a lot easier and cheaper.
I've got a 2000 JTD 130 and the list almost ! reads like yours... Broken seat (not fixed yet) and clutch spring about the same milage - exhaust is still on though ;-).
54,000 on the clock now and counting - usually get mine serviced at Coupers in St Albans (very slow at getting parts though).
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