Fiat Ranked Last in the Consumer Reports List of Top Brands
Jane Lu
· 3 min read
Fiat
is a large Italian car brand that owns Chrysler
, and it’s been struggling in recent years. They’ve recently merged with Stellantis which was first announced in 2019, according to Car and Driver
. The Fiat brand wasn’t doing well despite its size, and it received poor consumer reviews.
Consumer Reports
(CR) ranked the automaker last in their list of car brands that make the best vehicles in 2021.Are Fiats good cars?
Mazda
, Subaru, and Porsche were among the top of the CR list for best car brands. While Chrysler made it into the top 10, Fiat didn’t have the minimum number of models tested to make the list. Last year, Fiat was the lowest-ranked brand.The car brands are ranked using an Overall Score that consists of a Road-Test Score, Predicted Reliability, Owner Satisfaction, Safety, and Green Choices. Consumer Reports found that the Fiat 500L and 500X both had mediocre performance in their testing.
The data CR has on Fiat shows that reliability and owner satisfaction is quite low. The Fiat 124 Spider was a bright spot, and the 2017 model had a solid consumer satisfaction score, but the car was discontinued.
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Why does Fiat have poor customer reviews?
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Fiat was reintroduced in the U.S. in 2011 with the retro-styled Fiat 500. Fiat vehicles look attractive and stylish but a lot of factors make it unappealing to consumers.
The Fiat 500X in particular had poor predicted reliability and owner satisfaction, with a score of one out of five for both ratings. It’s the only model left in the U.S. lineup.
The 500X has a noisy cabin, limited visibility, a vibration when idling, and unsupportive seats. The nine-speed automatic isn’t smooth or responsive. Even with its small size, it only gets about 23 mpg of fuel economy overall. There were similar issues across past Fiat models.
Fiat models and specs
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As mentioned, some of the past models in Fiat’s lineup include the Fiat 124, Fiat 500, and Fiat 500L.
The Fiat 500 is fun to drive with agile handling and a manual transmission with satisfying shifting. It offers 101 horsepower, 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine, and five-speed manual transmission that gives you 33 mpg overall. However, it has a noisy cabin and hard-to-access rear seats. It was discontinued in 2019.
The Fiat 500L also has a stiff ride and a jerky sequential automatic transmission. On the plus side, the conventional automatic improves the driving experience, and the interior is spacious. However, the driving position is strange, and the model scored a "Poor" rating in the IIHS small-overlap crash test.
The 500L and 124 Spider were both discontinued in 2020. The 124 Spider offered 160 horsepower and a 1.4-liter turbo four-cylinder engine. This model competed with the Mazda Miata and had more comfortable seats. Similar to other models, the cabin is noisy and the ride is jittery.
If you’re looking for a sports car or a smaller car, you might want to check out the Mazda lineup. They’ve been seeing a big rise in sales and received a lot of praise for vehicle reliability and consumer satisfaction.
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