Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
Just what you've all been waiting for! I've been in England for about 2 weeks and had a rental car booked to travel from Liverpool over to the Peak District, then down through the Cotswold to Cardiff in Wales, then I returned it today in London. Overall I logged about 575 miles. I was going to rent a nicer car but decided I wanted the full England experience, being crammed in a tiny car that they all would drive and it had to be a stick shift! Car had 1300ish miles on it at pickup. I'm not sure I understand the "hybrid" part. It never ran on full electric. Coasting would recharge the battery level indicated on the dash, accelerating would usually lower it. Other than that it was just like normal stop-start.
Keep in mind I owned a 2004 VW Beetle which was leaps and bounds a better car. The only better thing in the Fiat was the cupholders.
Pros:
Keep in mind I owned a 2004 VW Beetle which was leaps and bounds a better car. The only better thing in the Fiat was the cupholders.
Pros:
- Decent fuel economy. The computer logged 52 mpg but I hand calculated 42 mpg. Maybe their gallons are different? I didn't drive for fuel economy though. But I also didn't drive it like the fine Italian sports car that it is...
- Stop-start was pretty good. Push in the clutch and the engine started. I was more ok with it since it was in a cool climate and the a/c turning off while the engine was off was fine. I'd die in Phoenix.
- Decent handling. Lots of twists and turns on the country roads here and it held it's ground.
- It had 4 cupholders
- Ride. It was pretty rough but not sure they can do much else in such a tiny car.
- Interior quality. Actually pretty decent materials for a budget car but the turn signal, cruise control, and wiper switch were like they were 3D printed they were so cheap.
- My god this thing was SLOW. 1.2L of fury. Around the city it was just fine but it has no torque out on the road it runs out of steam easily in the higher RPMs.
- Ground clearance. This thing scraped bottom several times when pulling off to the side of the road where you'd never think it would scrape. It even scraped the belly on a PAVED road that had a bit of a crown to it.
- Comfort. It wasn't awful but the seating ergonomics are bizarre. Maybe ok for shorter people. The seat bottom is only adjustable 1 way which would be fine if it would move the entire seat bottom and not just the rear of it.
- No backup camera. Standard on US cars for the last 5+ years, you'd think they could throw one in here.