Faults:

At the moment nothing has actually gone wrong with my car. In hot weather the gear stick can sometimes make a crunching noise.

I was a little disappointed when I researched into purchasing a roof rack, being quoted over £120 to have one fitted.

General Comments:

The Seicento is a 'perfect' small car.

It is cheap to run and so far I have found it very reliable.

The interior is tidy and very efficient.

I am a keen angler and with the 60/40 rear split on the back seats my tackle fits in nicely.

I recommend driving on the motorway consistently at about 65mph, for maximum fuel efficiency.

Faults:

Front tires wear out at approximately 10,000 miles with CAREFUL driving!!

Handbrake decided to stop working at 5,000 miles. Has been fixed 3 times. Still having to use the gears for parking.

Engine cooling fan doesn't work. As a consequence, the car overheats when static. Fed up having it fixed.

On it's second exhaust, which only comes as a one piece unit. Clever thinking there eh??

Rear screen washer jet stopped working after first year. Had to strip out offside splash-guard to get to pipes. A nightmare.

Engine has developed a resonance (Howl) at 2,500 rpm. Annoying.

Car pulls to the left despite numerous checks of the tracking/balancing.

The rev counter has developed an ominous 'ticking' sound when driving at slow speeds.

General Comments:

What was I thinking? What WAS I THINKING, buying this car???

Initially I fell in love with the little puddle-jumper after deciding to downsize from a Calibra and save some money. I placed an order for a Sporting model in yellow with the full fabric roof from Arnold Clark and waited in anticipation.

And waited...

A few MONTHS later the car arrived, and I must admit that the first couple of months ownership was something of a honeymoon period. Great fun, go cart!!

Then, the little niggles started. The steering began to feel progressively vauge, and soon noticed the tyres beginning to wear on the inside. The brakes inspire no confidence, the handbrake in particular tends to bind overnight, releases with a 'bang', and doesn't hold the car on a hill, despite being overhauled three times. When I finally decided to err on the side of caution and change the tires, I discover that they are the most obscure size on earth, and cost a fortune!! As with the exhaust, which comes as a whole unit.

In fact, after close scrutiy at the design, a cynical person might think that the whole car is designed to rip-off the owner...

I feel sorry for the designers, who have pushed the boat out and come up with a cute car full of character. Unfortunately, The build quality is nothing short of CRAP, If I didn't know better I would have thought British Layland built it. It's so bad, I've given it to the wife to drive!!!

Faults:

Fuel pump died at 28,000 miles while in body repair shop after someone hit me, according to them, this is a known fault on the Seicento, but I have found no other evidence as yet to support the claim.

Interior is basic, but is none-the-less a strikingly different design, nothing but basic controls on the dashboard.

Handling isn't great, you sometimes feel like your on two wheels going around some corners!

Road noise is loud at high speeds (50mph+), but then again it is a city car...

General Comments:

Certainly a fun car to drive, very fast for a 1.1, with even acceleration through all gears at all engine speeds.

Wheels are sufficient, but very basic, could certainly do with at least decent trims, or better still half-decent alloys.

Pedals are OK, although they take a bit of getting used to because they are very small and very close together!

Have used car for commuting back and forth work (75 miles per week) and my girlfriends house (270 miles per week), not had any reliability problems at all, even though I'm doing serious mileage for a small city car.