First Day driving my Fiat 500 Prima Edizione

[rbrf2]

Today I picked up my PE and drove it home.  I cannot tell you how many heads turned, I got so many thumbs up.  Having never seen or test driven the Fiat 500 before today, I wasn't sure what to expect, but it exceeded my expectations.  This car was awesome I was just amazed.  The quality, the drive everything just blew me away.  The car is smooth, quick, and very spacious.  The suspension, the drive is so comfortable.  The manual tranny is so smooth, I cannot believe how easy it is to change gears.  

1 thing I did not like is this feature called Hill Assist.  It needs to be turned off.  When I left the dealership I was so disappointed with the tranny and how the gears was hanging and lagging when changing gears.  When I got home I started to play with the menu on the dashboard when I realized that by default the Hill Assist is ON.  Once I turned it off, I was so relieved to see changing gears was normal now.  

If you have any questions which I may be able to answer, ask away.



 

[sjmst]

Congrats! Enjoy, and always feel free to post more pics, now that it is out from under the artificial lights of the showroom!

[rbrf2]

Thank you, tomorrow I'll take new pictures for you guys.

[Mike S]

Thank you for your report. I can't believe you stopped to let us know.

Happy for you, now get back in the car and drive.  You are the only one.

[Alvon Elrod]

Did you contact your dealer about the Hill Assist feature.  My understanding is that is for temporarily holding the brake down when stopped on a hill, so that you get get going again without having to use the old handbrake trick.  If we're talking about the same fearure, it shouldn't have anything to do with how the tranny feels once you get going.  I would report it to the dealer and let them help you sort it out.

Then, again, I may be talking about the wrong thing entirely, in which case . . . . never mind!

Alvon

[sketch]

Weird, that doesn't sound like the hill holder is working like it should.  I'm not sure whether it was set on or off on the demo unit I drove, though.

Not that there are any hills around here :P

[Thad]

I played with turning the hill assist on and off on two different demo cars. It works like Alvon states. I should also add that it works when reversing up a hill. The post above about shifting issues should NOT be related to the hill assist unless the brakes are being applied when they should not be.

[ciddyguy]

Thad wrote

I played with turning the hill assist on and off on two different demo cars. It works like Alvon states. I should also add that it works when reversing up a hill. The post above about shifting issues should NOT be related to the hill assist unless the brakes are being applied when they should not be.

I was going to say the same thing although I don't know if the demo I drove had it or not but here in Seattle where there ARE hills, some of them fairly steep, it can come in very handy and believe you me, I have had to do the handbrake or in the case of the truck, so the same thing with the foot brake, but it's not as easy to do as with a hand brake though and requires even more dexterity than normal to accomplish it well.

Heck, even Subaru has had a hill holder feature for decades and may still on their manual gearboxes.

Either the brake pedal keeps getting bumped or the hill assist is not working right or something.

[Alvon Elrod]

BTW, Congratulations on taking delivery of your new PE, and thanks for all the information that you've been kindly sharing with all of us out here waiting in great anticipation.  You seem to be the first --  which is a little perplexing, in that I heard today that Laura Soave is personally delivering the 'first' PE to Shaun Folkerts in Pennsylvania this Thursday.  I get the impression that your situation jumped the gun by several days, and haven't heard of any other deliveries, so my impression is that the Dealer may have made a mistake in releasing your car prior to Fiat's master plan!  

I'm curious -- did anyone from Fiat contact you or the dealer and ask you to keep things quiet for a few more days until they can get the rest of their cars ready for release, especially with the Grand formal acknowledgement that Laura is 'starting' the ball rolling by handing the keys over to Shaun?  I thought that might have been the reason that we didn't hear anything about your diriving the car (it's been several days now since we saw your first pictures), but now that you've told us about driving the car, I'm back to trying to figure the whole thing out again.

Like I said, I'm just curious --  and curiosity killed the cat, so you don't need to answer if you don't want to, but inquiring minds want to know . . .

Alvon

[sketch]

Could be that they're doing it a bit differently up in Canada.

[sam500]

This is what I hear, and FIAT USA people seem to be aware of Canada having the PEs available already.

[rbrf2]

No, nobody contacted me at all.  Maybe the dealership did jump the gun.  If that was the case with Fiat's grand scheme of things to release the PE all across North America on the 10th of March, I sure wasn't told or notified of this from Fiat or the dealership.  

If I ruined Fiat's launch surprise, I apologize in advance to Fiat Canada and Fiat USA.  

The dealership did tell me that I was might be the first person in North America.  But they sure did not make a big deal about it, no camera's, no interviews, no celebration.  I just went in paid last week and picked up my car yesterday.  You may be right, the dealership might have made a mistake in the end releasing the car prematurely.  
 

 

[rbrf2]

No, nobody contacted me at all.  Maybe the dealership did jump the gun.  If that was the case with Fiat's grand scheme of things to release the PE all across North America on the 10th of March, I sure wasn't told or notified of this from Fiat or the dealership.  

If I ruined Fiat's launch surprise, I apologize in advance to Fiat Canada and Fiat USA.  

The dealership did tell me that I was might be the first person in North America.  But they sure did not make a big deal about it, no camera's, no interviews, no celebration.  I just went in paid last week and picked up my car yesterday.  You may be right, the dealership might have made a mistake in the end releasing the car prematurely.  
 

 

[5*(10)^2]

rbrf2 wrote

If I ruined Fiat's launch surprise, I apologize in advance to Fiat Canada and Fiat USA.  

Man...why even apologize to them?  You didn't do anything wrong! We still owe you a huge favor for posting the pics despite how some accused you of being a troll.

Just enjoy your ride and don't let this trivial matter bother you. I expect you to be driving more and posting less here! lol!

[Gavin]

5*(10)^2 wrote

rbrf2 wrote

If I ruined Fiat's launch surprise, I apologize in advance to Fiat Canada and Fiat USA.  

Man...why even apologize to them?  You didn't do anything wrong! We still owe you a huge favor for posting the pics despite how some accused you of being a troll.

Just enjoy your ride and don't let this trivial matter bother you. I expect you to be driving more and posting less here! lol!

+1

Loved your photos...Now go ENJOY your car :)

me=jealous....but also happy for you.

Gavin

[sjmst]

5*(10)^2 wrote

rbrf2 wrote

If I ruined Fiat's launch surprise, I apologize in advance to Fiat Canada and Fiat USA.  

Man...why even apologize to them?  You didn't do anything wrong! We still owe you a huge favor for posting the pics despite how some accused you of being a troll.

Just enjoy your ride and don't let this trivial matter bother you. I expect you to be driving more and posting less here! lol!

+1,000 It is people like me...and Fiat... who should apologize to YOU.

[rbrf2]

Here are some pics of the car out in the real world.

[cinquecento]

Awesome pics man, great looking car and great backgrounds too!

Enjoy being the very first, I'm envious!

[Gavin]

NICE

Thanks

Gavin

[sjmst]

Beautiful! I think I'm liking the stripe too!