2015 FIAT 500 Complaints

I was driving our Fiat 500e (31K miles) in late June, when suddenly the HV Battery System (and primarily the PIM/Power Inverter Module that controls the HV battery system and propulsion system) failed, causing my moving vehicle to lose it's ability to use power steering. I was on a steep hill and was barely able to control the car. I contacted my local Fiat dealer, had the car towed there, and it has sat there for 3.5 months, while the dealership and Fiat USA have argued over how to repair it. In the meantime, the 8 year warranty on the HV battery system has winnowed down and will go out of warranty this month. It is my belief that Fiat USA has purposely delayed a resolution so they could not have to pay to repair the car under warranty. The PIM controls the HV system and propulsion and yet Fiat claims that the PIM is not their responsibility to repair. This is an otherwise perfect car with only 31K miles and the idea that it would be junked and sent to landfill over a bad PIM controller (a small component the size of a football) is a tragedy. Via online messaging boards, I have spoken to numerous other owners of Fiat 500e autos who have suffered a similar PIM failure and whom Fiat also refused to help. Fiat should stand behind the cars they sold to us and should pay to repair the PIM controller so the car runs. Barring that, they should pay the market value of the car. I have specific engine error codes and reports that I would be happy to provide. Thank you in advance for your help.

Rear end car crash. Seat back collapsed and threw me into back seat where I sufferred brain injury.

Bought the vehicle used and it had zero issues. I bought 4 new tires and immediately after the RBS and ESC warning lights appeared but disappeared one day later. Fives days after the new tires the RBS & ESC warning lights reappeared but remained. I took it to the FIAT Dealership for a diagnostic and they stated that after following the flow chart it states to replace ABS Module due to internal failure. I held off on replacing the ABS module because a separate mechanic stated that it’s common with Fiats for the RBS & ECA warnings to appear after changing all tires. One month later the BRAKE warning light turned on (without the emergency brake in use) and the car began to jerk when in drive or when using the brakes (as I was driving). I had to drive slow with little pressure on the gas so that I would not have to use the brakes as every time I did the car would jerk very roughly and felt as if it was going to break.

Vehicle randomly stuck in park and will not move in reverse or drive, at one point was in drive and moving while saying gear not available. All the complaints of the 2014 models and mine was manufactured in 2014 but labeled a 2015. Fiat is quoting the repair at 3000- to over 10k while second opinion transmission specialist says there is no fix and it's a manufacturer computer defect only temporarily fixed with a new transmission.

Our FIAT was rear-ended on October 20. My wife suffered multiple critical injuries. The accident occurred in Manatee County Florida. I have the accident report, a picture of the vehicle, and a reported recall of the vehicle for a seat problem that took place in Australia. There has been no recall in the U.S. I will upload the relevant documents. The company reports the front seat’s guide tracks may not comply to safety standards do to a manufacturing fault. If the guide tracks are faulty, the seat could suddenly shift backwards or forwards during a crash, which poses an increased risk of injury.

The contact owns a 2015 Fiat 500. The contact stated that the interior door handles on the driver’s and passenger’s side front doors fractured making it difficult to open the door from the inside or outside of the vehicle. The local dealer was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not yet contacted. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 55,000. Consumer stated handles break too often causing allot of inconvenience and expense. Appointment to get both handles on the car fixed again for Jan 3, 2022.

Fiat made their 500e vehicles (electric) and sold them off as a tax relief. Unfortunately, many who have purchased this vehicles are experiencing similar issues. The car dies and the main battery is dead (not the small battery that you can replace/charge - the big one). Upon calling Fiat, they said it was covered under warranty - BUT- there is one part that is crucial to the install and the part costs $7,000. Our car is not worth 7k. We bought it for 10k four years ago and it has depreciated value. When we appealed with Fiat - they would not budge. We filed a claim for loss damages and it goes denied - twice. This is a known problem - many insurance companies and mechanics do not know how to process electric vehicles.

FIAT 500E VEHICLE BRAKING BEHAVIOR IS UNEXPECTEDLY HARD, SUDDEN, OR UNPREDICTABLE UNTIL THE USER USES AN OBD SCAN TOOL WITH APPROPRIATE DIAGNOSTIC SOFTWARE- AND INITIATES BRAKE CONTROLLER SENSOR RE-CALIBRATION. THIS OPTION IS FOUND UNDER THE DIAGNOSTIC MENU UNDER: ABS>RENENERATIVE BRAKE CONTROLLER>ACTIVE DIAGNOSTICS, AND THEN SELECTING THE PROCEDURE TO START (RBC SENSOR CALIBRATION). ONLINE FORUM USERS (PLEASE SEE LINK BELOW) ARE CURRENTLY USING 3RD PARTY SOFTWARE, AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE, TO CORRECT THE BRAKING DEFICIENCY (APPROXIMATELY $49). MY PERSONAL VEHICLE WAS PURCHASED USED AND WAS EXHIBITING SUDDEN AND UNEXPECTED BRAKING ISSUES AT APPROXIMATELY 8,500 MILES; THIS IS IN MY OPINION A VERY LOW NUMBER OF MILES TO BE EXPERIENCING REGENERATE BRAKING AND CONTROL ISSUES. PLEASE REFERENCE THE ONGOING DISCUSSION THREAD AT FIAT 500E ONLINE FORUMS: HTTPS://WWW.FIAT500OWNERS.COM/THREADS/FIX-GRABBY-BRAKES-FOR-70.149282/#POST-1292483

What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request: High voltage battery system, the vehicle is available for viewing. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk?: Long time garage storage of vehicle and limited owners manual description on procedure to maintain high voltage battery during extended non use of vehicle. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center?: The problem has been reproduced and the vehicle is currently at a Fiat/Chrysler dealership. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others?: The component is currently under inspection, the vehicle has been at the Fiat/Chrysler since 8/11/2021, it is now 9/18/2021. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear?: Error message display on cluster stating HV battery unable to be charged. General Description: Fiat 500e parked in closed garage for a year after following Fiat's Vehicle Storage instructions instruction shown pages 321 & 322 of the owners manual for the Fiat's electrical system. Returned after one year found Fiat's electric system a car went in fail mode. The instructions are limited and do not long term issues of fire danger in a enclosed space like a garage and power outages or brown outs. Fiat will not honor the vehicles warranty as the milage is a 42,625 and the warranty is only good up to 40,000 miles. The California Lemon Law does not cover this as well as it's as well. I need help!

I am a retired master certified automotive technician. Ever since I bought this 2015 Fiat 500e [it is battery electric] in 2017 with NO warning all kinds of trouble/service lights will go on as the car shuts down & stops as if it was thrown into Park, & most of the time it does this it is at highway speeds on crowded L.A. freeways, which has become very close to getting me killed several times I have taken it to local dealers for this problem since shortly after I bought it in 2017, long before the bumper to bumper warranty expired. Most of the time the dealer reads/clears the codes, then parks it in a back lot for days, weeks, & months, then after a while tells me it's done & I can pick it up, but normally within 100 miles the exact same thing happens so I have to take it back to the dealer. Most recently it did not even make it off the dealers lot before it did it. The latest dealer I have been taking it to for this problems, [5 times in a few months] clearly doesn't know the car or what they are doing & is now brazenly lying on repair orders. They have also been claiming it had no problems or trouble codes when I brought it in, after the service writer read & printed out dozens of codes, which they promised to give me a copy of but then refused to give to me. Because this is the exact same problem covered by previous recalls on this car I believe dealers have charged for services & doing recalls that they did not do, because I marked the parts & see NO indication they changed the parts required or did the procedures required to perform the services claimed. This car has had the exact same dangerous problems covered by the recalls since I bought it & I must now pay dealers to service it even though the propulsion system is under warranty. At this point I believe this is brazen dangerous widespread fraud with the factories participation