I have been a Fiat owner for 39 years I have a 1977 Fiat Spider. I have belonged to Fiat Lancia Unlimited and attended Fiat conventions and now under it’s new name of Fiat Club America. I love Fiat. I have been a ambassador for the brand for years. I wanted a 500x desperately ever since they were announced and it seemed to take forever to get them in this country and to dealerships. I wanted a Trekking PLUS with ALL WHEEL DRIVE. Sun roof. Heading seats and steering wheel. 6.5 inch media console with gps and satellite radio. 18in wheels, Lane sense. Rear view View camera and parksense and Blind spot detection and leather seats. And I did not want a car that was White, Black, Grey or Brown.
Unfortunately, those cars seemed to come mostly black and white for the first few weeks. I was in touch with Fiat dealer in every New England state looking for a car with all the features. In live in NH the only dealer in the whole state, did not have the model that I wanted. So I was taking my daughter to providence RI to a zoo and decided to stop in to the Metro Fiat dealership. Told the salesman what I wanted, and he led me to a car. We went on test ride. During the test ride, he talked about lane sense. This car had it and how to engage the 4 wheel drive model in the car. It was a 4 wheel drive model. (what i wanted). I drove fine. I said I want to buy it. It took a while for price/trade in negotiations to happen and I bought the car and drove home with it. The window sticker did not come with the car. I showed up mysteriously 9 days letter in an envelope by itself. Then suddenly the car would not lock. Either with remote or inside/outside switches and buttons. I took it to my NH Holloway Fiat dealer for service. They came back and asked if Metro Fiat had done prep work on the car before it was delivered. I told him it was late Saturday when I bought the car and probably not. He said that the transmission/drivetrain was running incompatible software. An update to the factory software was done on one but not the other and that Fiat recommended that you update both at the same time or it cause cause problems (Like a body computer having a fault and you can’t lock the doors anymore).
Holloway Fiat serviceman upgraded the software to right versions and asked me if it was really a Fiat Trekking Plus because it was not 4 wheel drive. Well that was news to me because I thought I had bought a 4 wheel drive model. It also did not have lane sense. I am not really sure what happened so either of two things happened:
#1 I was lied to by the Metro Fiatdealership and sold a car that was supposedly a AWD and it is not. Also no lane sense feature in the model. ( and the whole thing about the sticker not been included with the car makes more sense now) or
#2 The car I was sold was not the car I test drove. Either way dealer misrepresented the car I bought. Ok. I live in New Hampshire. That’s why I wanted a AWD model. So the Metro Fiat dealer screwed me.
When I bought the car, the Metro Fiat General Manager, told me that I better give the dealership all 10’s in the new car buyer survey or my salesman would not get his commission. (lies by the way). Well after I found out about the car not been prepared properly and the misrepresentation, I thought I would fill out the survey. Well guess what. I clicked on the link in the email send to me by the Metro Fiat and found my survey had already been completed just not by me.
I sent two emails to the Metro Fiat dealer GM about the survey and they went unanswered. It is my belief that Metro Fiat is committed fraud by filling out their own customer surveys. I sent a email to the owner of the group that owns many other dealerships besides Metro Fiat. It went unanswered. So maybe the whole Fraud around the customer surveys is not a isolated issue, but the way they handle it at all their dealerships.
Called Fiat customer service line. They did not seem to care. Spoke to someone on Facebook at Fiat USA page. I am being referred to someone in the area. (This person never called). The bad dealers in the 1970s and 1980s caused the bad image of Fiat in the US and forced them to exit the American Market. I really thought that Fiat would be interested in a dealer committing fraud on customer surveys. So far I am wrong. They don’t seem to care.
Update: Manchester Fiat (Hollaway Fiat) fixed the problem with the locking and got the new computer to talk to the old computer.
I I spent last Sunday at the Tutto Italiano car show at the Larz Museum in Brookline. My 1977 Fiat Spider has won awards there before. I had 100’s of Italian car fans stop by and look at my 500x. It was the only 500x (200 Ferraris, 50 Alfas, around 50 Fiats as well). I told everyone that I loved the 500x and they should all buy one, but not from Metro Fiat.
Going on Fiat Club of America New England weekend next week. I will be telling those people not to buy anything from Metro Fiat. I have filed out reviews on Cars.com and Yelp. I will fill out more reviews elsewhere as well. I go to 10-15 Fiat/Italian car events a car including conventions. I will continue to evangelize on what a great car a Fiat 500x is. And what a horrible dealership Metro Fiat is !
#UPDATE 2. Three weeks after I bought the car, the general manager of Metro Fiat sent me a email that they made a mistake on the paperwork and that I owed them $600 more because the registration cost more than they thought.
I was amazed at the brazen attempt to try and get money out of me. She said, she could not release the car plates unless I sent her $600. This was really funny, because the plates had been on my car for a week already. I sent her a reply that said any further attempt to contact me would be considered harassment and handled accordingly. I can’t believe that Metro Fiat is that dishonest.
myfiats 