Fiat Stilo gearbox

audiobookman

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Aggghhhh, Ive owned a fiat stilo from new, its been a pretty damn good car until last week. I was on my way to work when my gearbox decided it didnt like its oil any more and dumped it all over the road. After an hour the RAC turned up and promptly told me its needs to be low loaded home.
Anyways, ive pulled the box out and there are two wacking holes in the diff housing and bell housing. I called fiat and they told me basically to go away and buy a new box at £1900 + VAT, with the added cost of the clutch its was heading towards the 2.5k for a 4 year old car with only 50k on the clock, im still on the original tires on the rear and same clutch from new. Well ive failed to find out what has caused the damage, there is no damage to the actual gearbox and no missing parts that i can find.
Well ive been looking around on the net for a new box or second hand one (which ive located after over 130phone calls) and i stumbled across a fiat website, it turns out that my box is prone to failure around 45-55k, there are about 100ppl who have reported the same probs ive had. With this in hand i called fiat to see if they would help me out....... nope as the car is out of warrenty etc etc etc. Funny part was i was about to order an brand new bravo, they have managed to talk me out of that now.
So keep your eye on watchdog in coming weeks, im totally pi$$ed off with the lack of care from fiat especially from a returning customer over many years, and its obvious to me there is a design fault with the box.
As ive also owned the car from new i may have a case with trading standard we will see.
So if anyone has any mind to buy a 1.6 Fiat Stilo i advise you walk away unless you dont mind a massive bill after 40 or so k.
Poxy cars i wouldnt have minded if the thing had done 100k and i was a boy racer, but im a rather calm and never thrash any of my cars, with fuel costs being as they are............
 
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Since you've owned the car from new I would have thought you'd have a good case to go to the trading standards. A gearbox shouldn't fail at 50k.

I would send a letter to their head office (recorded delivery) stating you will be taking that matter to the small courts if they don't resolve this for you or come up with an alternative.

If what you say is true, they already know it's a common point of failure and if one person wins a lawsuit against them, everyone will be trying to do the same. If they can keep it quiet and get you sorted, they might prefer to do that!

Good luck and I hope you get a result.
 
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