Fiat 500 Common Faults in the UK
Type 312, 2008–2024 — city car. Updated 24 September 2026.
This guide covers the Type 312, 2008–2024. For any other version of the 500, see how to check any car for known faults.
Two things decide a used Fiat 500: the gearbox and the engine. The Dualogic automated manual is the most reported problem on the car and the reason many buyers stick to the manual, and the 0.9 TwinAir is the engine owners most often report for oil consumption. The 1.2 8V and 1.4 16V petrols use a timing BELT with a published Fiat interval; the 0.9 TwinAir and 1.3 MultiJet have no belt operation at all. Its Euro NCAP result is three stars, tested in 2017 under that year’s protocol.
Largest DVSA recall for the 500: R/2014/088, 91,448 vehicles — Interior and exterior vehicle lighting may fail. See the 6 DVSA recalls listed for this model.
72.0% of Fiat 500s pass the MOT first time, 4.4 points worse than the national average for cars of the same age (76.4%). Counted from 37,554 DVSA tests on cars registered 2008–2022; a pass with rectification at the station counts as a pass here, and as a failure in DVSA's own initial-test measure.
Source: DVSA MOT Anonymised Data 2025 (Open Government Licence v3.0). Class 4 tests in Great Britain, test type NT (a normal annual test), retests excluded. A pass, or a pass with rectification at the station, counts as a first-time pass; DVSA's own initial-test measure counts a rectified pass as a failure and so reports a lower figure. Testing in Northern Ireland is run separately by the DVA under its own rules. Compared against cars of the same registration years, because pass rates otherwise mostly measure how old a model's surviving fleet is.
See it by registration year and by mileage ↓The asking-price figures above are the middle 80% and the median of what sellers were asking on Autoza on 1 October 2026 — not what buyers pay — for Fiat 500 cars registered 2008–2024, electric versions excluded. They are worked out from the cars on sale when this page is generated, and none is shown when fewer than 10 cars qualify. The other quick-stats values are indicative editorial estimates aggregated from owner-forum sentiment, recall data and reliability surveys. We do not publish a UK price index, and no figure here should be quoted as one. See our research methodology for the sample sizes behind any figure we publish.
Best and worst years to buy
We name a year as a best or worst buy only where the DVSA MOT table further down does not rate it the other way.
Later cars had the early recall exposure behind them and are more likely to have had the belt done at least once on the engines that need it. The DVSA MOT table on this page rates 2016, 2017 and 2018 registrations below all cars registered those years, so they are not named as best-buy years.
The earliest cars carry several DVSA recalls including two separate steering-column campaigns, and are old enough that corrosion becomes the deciding factor.
Known faults — Fiat 500 Type 312, 2008–2024
How to read this list. Items marked Safety recall are DVSA safety recalls, shown with DVSA’s own reference. Whether a particular car is affected depends on when it was built: check it by registration through GOV.UK’s vehicle recall check. Items marked Manufacturer service action are published fixes that are not formal safety recalls — a dealer will know them by number, but they carry no DVSA reference and no obligation. Everything else in this list is owner-reported: patterns that come up repeatedly with workshops, owner forums and reliability surveys. Those are worth checking on a viewing, but how often they happen is not known — there is no published dataset behind them, and most cars of a given model will never show them. Treat an owner-reported item as a question to ask, not a fault this car has.
Airbags — the wrong airbag may deploy in a collision
- Symptoms
- Incorrect airbag deployment.
- Years affected
- Check by registration on GOV.UK
- Indicative repair (UK)
- Free under recall
- What to check before buying
- Check this one by registration through GOV.UK’s vehicle recall check (gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall) before you buy — an outstanding recall is free to put right and a completed one should be on the service record.
Brakes — risk of rear brake lock up
- Symptoms
- Rear brakes may lock.
- Years affected
- Check by registration on GOV.UK
- Indicative repair (UK)
- Free under recall
- What to check before buying
- Check this one by registration through GOV.UK’s vehicle recall check (gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall) before you buy — an outstanding recall is free to put right and a completed one should be on the service record.
Steering — loss of steering control, upper shaft fork
- Symptoms
- A second, separate steering column campaign.
- Years affected
- Check by registration on GOV.UK
- Indicative repair (UK)
- Free under recall
- What to check before buying
- Check this one by registration through GOV.UK’s vehicle recall check (gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall) before you buy — an outstanding recall is free to put right and a completed one should be on the service record.
Steering — loss of steering control, upper column shaft
- Symptoms
- Loss of steering control. Two separate DVSA campaigns cover the steering column area on early cars.
- Years affected
- Check by registration on GOV.UK
- Indicative repair (UK)
- Free under recall
- What to check before buying
- Check this one by registration through GOV.UK’s vehicle recall check (gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall) before you buy — an outstanding recall is free to put right and a completed one should be on the service record.
Transmission — Dualogic automated manual
- Symptoms
- Jerky changes, hesitation pulling away, or a failure to select a gear. This is an automated manual, not a conventional automatic, and it does not behave like one.
- Years affected
- Dualogic-equipped cars
- Indicative repair (UK)
- £400–£1,500 for actuator work
- What to check before buying
- Drive it in traffic, from cold, and do several pull-aways on a slight incline. This is the single most reported problem on the car and the reason many buyers hold out for a manual. Frequency is not published, but the volume of reports is high enough that a test drive in traffic is not optional.
Engine — 0.9 TwinAir oil consumption
- Symptoms
- Oil level dropping noticeably between services.
- Years affected
- TwinAir petrol
- Indicative repair (UK)
- Varies enormously by cause
- What to check before buying
- Check the oil on the dipstick before the test drive and ask the seller how often they top it up. An owner who does not know is telling you something.
Body and structure — rear torsion-beam axle and spring pans
- Symptoms
- Corrosion in the rear axle area and spring seats. Once a suspension component is excessively corroded it is a major defect under the DVSA MOT inspection manual (5.3.3), which fails the MOT, and it is a structural problem as well.
- Years affected
- Older cars
- Indicative repair (UK)
- £300–£1,200, or uneconomic
- What to check before buying
- Get it on a ramp or at least look underneath at the rear axle mounting area with a torch. On an older 500 this decides whether the car is worth buying at all, and it is the item most likely to write off a cheap one.
Electrical — water ingress into the body computer
- Symptoms
- Random electrical faults, warning lights, or things that work intermittently.
- Years affected
- Older cars
- Indicative repair (UK)
- £200–£800
- What to check before buying
- Check the footwells and under the carpets for damp. Reported often enough to be worth a look.
Timing belt — only on the 1.2 8V and 1.4 16V
- Symptoms
- Not a fault. Knowing which engine you are looking at changes what you should ask for.
- Years affected
- Petrol 1.2 8V and 1.4 16V
- What to check before buying
- The Fiat 500 Owner Handbook schedules a timing belt replacement for the 1.2 8V and 1.4 16V petrols only, and specifies NO timing belt operation at all for the 0.9 TwinAir or the 1.3 MultiJet. So ask for belt evidence on a 1.2 or 1.4 and do not let a seller charge you for one on a TwinAir. The handbook also sets the base service interval at 18,000 miles or 24 months, and a tappet clearance check on the 1.2 8V.
More DVSA safety recalls for the Fiat 500, largest first
These are the recalls DVSA lists for this model and its build years that the cards above do not already describe: every one of 10,000 or more vehicles, largest first, with DVSA’s own reference and figures. A recall covers only cars built in its dates and within its VIN range — check a particular car by registration through GOV.UK’s vehicle recall check. “Critical” here means DVSA’s own notice tells owners not to drive the car until it is fixed. It is never a size: “Large” means DVSA lists 10,000 or more vehicles in the recall.
- Safety recall · R/2014/088Large recall — 91,448 vehicles
Interior and exterior vehicle lighting may fail
It is possible under extreme conditions that the wiring harness under the dashboard could come into contact with the steering column. This over a period of time may result in the chaffing of wires in the harness.
91,448 vehicles of this model (DVSA’s figures added up) · built between 12 September 2011 and 8 July 2014 · recall launched 22 September 2014
- Safety recall · R/2023/313Large recall — 11,381 vehicles
Incorrect information on the registration document and CoC (certificate of Conformity)
On affected vehicles incorrect data has been entered on the registration document and correspondingly the Certificate of Conformity (CoC).
11,381 vehicles of this model (DVSA’s figures added up) · built between 22 August 2022 and 22 April 2023 · recall launched 24 March 2025
Source: DVSA vehicle recalls file (every recall since 1992), published under the Open Government Licence. Where DVSA gives one figure for a recall that covers several models, it is shown as the whole recall’s total.
Fiat 500 MOT results by year and mileage
Measured from DVSA’s own MOT test records for tests carried out in 2025, not from owner reports.
By registration year
Against all cars registered in the same year, the MOT pass rate for the 500 was lower in 7 and level in 3 of the 10 registration years from 2013 to 2022 with enough tests to measure. The widest gap below is 2015 registrations: 67.9% against 76.7% for all cars registered that year.
| Registered | 500 | All cars that year | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20221,144 tests | 92.6% | 91.2% | +1.4 level |
| 20211,324 tests | 91.2% | 90.1% | +1.1 level |
| 20201,326 tests | 89.2% | 88.7% | +0.5 level |
| 20192,110 tests | 84.3% | 86.9% | −2.6 lower |
| 20182,346 tests | 80.0% | 84.5% | −4.5 lower |
| 20172,430 tests | 76.3% | 82.2% | −5.9 lower |
| 20163,432 tests | 71.4% | 79.4% | −8.0 lower |
| 20154,136 tests | 67.9% | 76.7% | −8.8 lower |
| 20144,501 tests | 69.4% | 74.3% | −4.9 lower |
| 20133,772 tests | 69.4% | 71.9% | −2.5 lower |
By mileage at the test
Against cars of the same age on the same mileage, the pass rate for the 500 was lower in every one of the 5 mileage bands with enough tests. How other models compare at the same mileage.
Show the table by mileage (5 bands)
| Mileage | 500 | Same age and mileage | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0k–20k3,511 tests | 92.0% | 93.2% | −1.2 lower |
| 20k–40k7,809 tests | 81.8% | 87.4% | −5.6 lower |
| 40k–60k9,702 tests | 71.7% | 80.2% | −8.5 lower |
| 60k–80k8,695 tests | 65.0% | 73.6% | −8.6 lower |
| 80k–100k4,987 tests | 61.9% | 68.7% | −6.8 lower |
Only a major or dangerous defect fails an MOT. A minor defect is recorded on the certificate and the car still passes, and an advisory is not a failure at all.
We don’t give a recall count for the Fiat 500: whether a recall applies depends on the individual car. Check the one you are looking at by entering its registration on GOV.UK’s vehicle recall checker, and see how to check a car for known faults for the other free checks.
Source: DVSA MOT Anonymised Data 2025 (Open Government Licence v3.0). Class 4 tests in Great Britain, test type NT (a normal annual test), retests excluded. A pass, or a pass with rectification at the station, counts as a first-time pass; DVSA's own initial-test measure counts a rectified pass as a failure and so reports a lower figure. Odometer readings below 100 or above 400,000 miles are discarded as misreadings, and cars under three years old are excluded because no MOT is yet due. Sampled from nine months of 2025 (January, February, April, May, July, August, September, October and November). Testing in Northern Ireland is run separately by the DVA under its own rules. Registration years shown are cars 3 to 12 years old when tested; the smallest rests on 1,144 tests. A gap is called level when it is under one percentage point or inside the 95% sampling margin for that number of tests. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Who this car suits — and who should look elsewhere
City drivers and new drivers who want low running costs and will accept a small car, ideally with the manual gearbox.
Anyone who needs rear-seat space, and anyone buying a Dualogic without driving it in traffic first.
Alternatives to consider
If the Fiat 500 doesn't suit, these comparable models are worth a look in the UK market:
- →Volkswagen up!
- →Hyundai i10
- →Toyota Aygo
Fiat 500: questions buyers ask
What are the most common faults on a used Fiat 500 in the UK?
Two things decide a used Fiat 500: the gearbox and the engine. The Dualogic automated manual is the most reported problem on the car and the reason many buyers stick to the manual, and the 0.9 TwinAir is the engine owners most often report for oil consumption. The 1.2 8V and 1.4 16V petrols use a timing BELT with a published Fiat interval; the 0.9 TwinAir and 1.3 MultiJet have no belt operation at all. Its Euro NCAP result is three stars, tested in 2017 under that year’s protocol.
What is the best year to buy a used Fiat 500 in the UK?
Best-buy years: no single year stands out. Later cars had the early recall exposure behind them and are more likely to have had the belt done at least once on the engines that need it. The DVSA MOT table on this page rates 2016, 2017 and 2018 registrations below all cars registered those years, so they are not named as best-buy years.
What years of Fiat 500 should I avoid in the UK?
Worst years: 2008, 2009, 2010. The earliest cars carry several DVSA recalls including two separate steering-column campaigns, and are old enough that corrosion becomes the deciding factor.
How much does a used Fiat 500 cost in the UK in 2026?
What sellers were asking on Autoza on 1 October 2026, for Fiat 500 cars registered 2008–2024, electric versions excluded: £2,957–£9,380, median £5,699 — the range is the middle 80% of asking prices. Those are asking prices, not what buyers paid, and not a UK price index. Prices vary by mileage, region and trim, so compare several adverts of the same year and mileage band before negotiating.
What is the road tax (VED) on a Fiat 500 in the UK?
Annual road tax (VED): £200/year standard rate from the second year, hybrids included — the alternative-fuel discount ended on 1 April 2025. A car registered from April 2017 with a list price over £40,000 when new adds the £440/year Expensive Car Supplement in years 2–6 (£640 in all). Cars registered 2001–2017 pay a CO2 band, roughly £20–£790/year (2026/27 rates).
What real-world fuel economy does a Fiat 500 achieve on UK roads?
Typical real-world consumption: 45–55 mpg real-world for the 1.2; the TwinAir rarely matches its official figure. UK driving (mix of motorway and single-carriageway, often wet) tends to come in 10–15% worse than the official WLTP figure.
How does a Fiat 500 compare to its rivals?
Strong alternatives in the UK: Volkswagen up!, Hyundai i10, Toyota Aygo. Choose based on dealer network in your area, parts availability, and your priorities (running cost vs. cabin quality vs. badge).
Who is the Fiat 500 most suitable for?
City drivers and new drivers who want low running costs and will accept a small car, ideally with the manual gearbox.
Who should NOT buy a Fiat 500?
Anyone who needs rear-seat space, and anyone buying a Dualogic without driving it in traffic first.
Are there safety recalls on the Fiat 500?
DVSA lists 6 safety recalls for the Fiat 500 that this guide shows, the largest first: R/2014/088 (91,448 vehicles, built between 12 September 2011 and 8 July 2014): Interior and exterior vehicle lighting may fail; R/2010/117 (29,130 vehicles in the whole recall, built between 1 December 2009 and 31 August 2010): The wrong airbag may deploy in a collision; R/2023/313 (11,381 vehicles, built between 22 August 2022 and 22 April 2023): Incorrect information on the registration document and CoC (certificate of Conformity). Whether a particular car is affected depends on its build date and VIN, so check its registration on GOV.UK (gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall) before you buy.
Is the Airbags — the wrong airbag may deploy in a collision on the Fiat 500 a serious problem?
Airbags — the wrong airbag may deploy in a collision on the Fiat 500 is covered by DVSA safety recall R/2010/117. Symptoms: Incorrect airbag deployment. Years affected: Check by registration on GOV.UK. Indicative repair cost in the UK: Free under recall. What to check before buying: Check this one by registration through GOV.UK’s vehicle recall check (gov.uk/check-vehicle-recall) before you buy — an outstanding recall is free to put right and a completed one should be on the service record.
Is the Transmission — Dualogic automated manual on the Fiat 500 a serious problem?
Owner-reported, frequency unknown: Transmission — Dualogic automated manual comes up in owner forums and workshop reports for the Fiat 500, but how often it happens is not known, so treat it as a question to ask rather than a fault every car has. Symptoms: Jerky changes, hesitation pulling away, or a failure to select a gear. This is an automated manual, not a conventional automatic, and it does not behave like one. Years affected: Dualogic-equipped cars. Indicative repair cost in the UK: £400–£1,500 for actuator work. What to check before buying: Drive it in traffic, from cold, and do several pull-aways on a slight incline. This is the single most reported problem on the car and the reason many buyers hold out for a manual. Frequency is not published, but the volume of reports is high enough that a test drive in traffic is not optional.
Is the Engine — 0.9 TwinAir oil consumption on the Fiat 500 a serious problem?
Owner-reported, frequency unknown: Engine — 0.9 TwinAir oil consumption comes up in owner forums and workshop reports for the Fiat 500, but how often it happens is not known, so treat it as a question to ask rather than a fault every car has. Symptoms: Oil level dropping noticeably between services. Years affected: TwinAir petrol. Indicative repair cost in the UK: Varies enormously by cause. What to check before buying: Check the oil on the dipstick before the test drive and ask the seller how often they top it up. An owner who does not know is telling you something.
Looking to buy a Fiat 500 in the UK?
Search Autoza listings filtered by year, mileage, and region. Dealer pages carry a public Trust Score you can check before you enquire.