Fiat Motorhome Problems

[BarryT]

Looking for some advice please...

We decided to replace our perfect RS Motorhome a few years ago for a 'smaller' burstner model that my wife could drive, the reasoning was my wife could then drive our son all over the country to do his go kart racing and i could concentrate more on work and weekends away on track days!!

Boy was this a bad idea!

The Burster has been a nightmare, its been back over 6 times for warranty work, had a new oven (another new one on order), new rams on the bed to store it away, numerous failed water pumps and the final straw, after 13k miles and being out of warranty by two days the turbo blew and damaged the top end on the engine.This resulted in my wife and son missing a one week holiday in north wales and spending 10 hours being recovered. The damage to the engine is 4k (£2k turbo and £2k engine)and Fiat are saying they will only contribute at best 50% towards the turbo repair, the reason for this is that my wife drove to the next junction as there was no lay by and damaged the engine.

We are arguing stating that the vehicle was 2 days out of warranty and the vehicle was registered by the supplying dealer 2 weeks prior to us collecting (we are basically saying it is in warranty). The question is, is it worth pursuing with a solicitor, if so, does anyone know any????

At work i have a fleet of over 70 transits and had oil pumps fail and the engine seize, Ford in all instances have been great and replaced. Fiat seem to be a PITA. My wife Fiat abarth had a new engine after only 10k miles....

Thanks in advance!

 

[PeteS]

I would get some advice from Ken on here - think he will have an experienced view as where you may end up with Fiat.

 

[Moz]

Sorry to hear your woes

Should be loads of support on here from Ferrari fanboys though, they pretty much drive Fiats at the end of the day.

 

[105tc]

Sounds like a total nightmare - cut your losses and move away.

Get it repaired and move to another brand...

 

[BarryT]

Sounds like a total nightmare - cut your losses and move away.

Get it repaired and move to another brand...

Yes, thats my thoughts. only thing is i like a fight so would be interested in taking it to them. WTF would happen if you didn't have the 3k to spend!

 

[Barry]

Ran a few of these Ducatos as work vans. Did a load of engines, all of which in their 3rd year!

I would fight hard with Fiat, from what I can remember they made a contribution to one of ours when it was slightly out of warranty.

Is it the 2.3 or 3.0 engine ?

 

[Ken]

I had a Burstner from new in 2009 on a Ford Transit chassis. I had no problems with the Transit part but I had lots of niggles with the motor home. When I bought the Burstner I thought I was getting a high quality piece of German engineering, the reality was that it was fairly cheaply made. Three years ago I bought a Concorde motor home from Pete, that is on another level in terms of build quality and whilst there have been a few maintenance issues it is holding up really well considering it is now nine years old.

In terms of your warranty claim, the only think I can suggest is that you push the dealer to push it with Fiat but frankly it is not worth getting into legal costs, only one person will win out of that and he has a law degree. Fiat are very popular motor homes as there are (as far as I understand) the only manufacturer that makes a dedicated chassis, my motor home is based on an Iveco and it is heavy duty engineering.

 

[Ken]

Ran a few of these Ducatos as work vans. Did a load of engines, all of which in their 3rd year!

?

I was talking to one of my managers this week who runs a fleet of twenty parts vans. He was saying how import the maintenance schedule is, if they miss a service it shortens the life of the engine. He was suggesting more regular oil changes.

 

[BarryT]

I was talking to one of my managers this week who runs a fleet of twenty parts vans. He was saying how import the maintenance schedule is, if they miss a service it shortens the life of the engine. He was suggesting more regular oil changes.

Looking into it this seems to be true. We serviced after 1 year and 6k miles as the service schedule says it needs to be done annually. My transporter only needed a service after 2 years and 25k miles! Our transits at work are around 20k miles. Wouldn't buy fiat again.

 

[BarryT]

I had a Burstner from new in 2009 on a Ford Transit chassis. I had no problems with the Transit part but I had lots of niggles with the motor home. When I bought the Burstner I thought I was getting a high quality piece of German engineering, the reality was that it was fairly cheaply made. Three years ago I bought a Concorde motor home from Pete, that is on another level in terms of build quality and whilst there have been a few maintenance issues it is holding up really well considering it is now nine years old.

Exactly, i think the Bursters look quite nice but i am mega disappointed with the quality. Once all this is sorted we will be selling it and all look into the concorde ones.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Barry]

I was talking to one of my managers this week who runs a fleet of twenty parts vans. He was saying how import the maintenance schedule is, if they miss a service it shortens the life of the engine. He was suggesting more regular oil changes.

Ours would always be maintained to manufacturers standards. However, 40k km between services is crazy. Add to that the poor quality diesel we get this side of the Irish Sea.

 

[Mycroft]

What's a Motorhome?

What are they?

Is that some sort of road snail?

Are they those garden-sheds on the back of transits?

I see them occasionally on the road, posh sheds they are!

Never seen one in-situ though.

I've posh friends and none of us has one!

GLWTS

 

[Ken]

Add to that the poor quality diesel we get this side of the Irish Sea.

But as least it is cheap, I have just put 95 litres into my RR of Irish diesel, hope it survives

 

[Ken]

What's a Motorhome?

What are they?

Is that some sort of road snail?

Are they those garden-sheds on the back of transits?

I see them occasionally on the road, posh sheds they are!

Never seen one in-situ though.

I've posh friends and none of us has one!

GLWTS

Essential kit for the well equipped racing driver

 

[Mycroft]

All joking aside.

I saw one of these in Pompey yesterday, it was huge!

6 wheeler thing it was a village hall on wheels...

2 miles per gallon?

 

[Ken]

All joking aside.

I saw one of these in Pompey yesterday, it was huge!

6 wheeler thing it was a village hall on wheels...

2 miles per gallon?

The really big ones are not usually driven by the owners as you will need a HGV to drive them, if you can afford circa £400k for the really nice ones I doubt you will worry too much about the fuel consumption but I would guess it will be closer to 10 mpg.

Mine is 9 meters, I would not want much bigger as they become difficult to drive and manoeuvre. Race weekends can involve lots of hanging about so great to have your own place with all your kit to hand.

 

[Mycroft]

Like yachts, descibed by the metre... cool.

 

[Barry]

My folks always had motorhomes and and as a result I thought they were the epitome of uncool. About 3 months ago I bought one and even though it is old and slow I love it...... Which is worrying!!

In my defence I really only use it for race weekends which restores some cool points. As Ken says, they are a very worthwhile race accessory.

 

[Moc]

I've got a 2012 Swift Kontiki, got 6000 miles on it and turbo sensor went 1 month after warranty ran out, Complete turbo replacement as you say £2k ! Fiat were really good though replaced without any quibble.

The motorhome bit of it is a PITA had a complete new ECU and now fighting with having to replace boiler again out warranty yet another £2k.

It's a great thing to have but I'm coming to the conclusion is too much agro, but as said essential motorsport kit, I'm thinking of throwing the towel in on this one and just buying a cheap T5 camper.

 

[Snapper]

Visited my bro in Canada and was smitten by these things....

https://www.gorv.ca/all-rvs-edmonton/all-all/all-all-1-all.php?gclid=CKLLts6qwMcCFWjmwgodcVIASg

quadruple slide-out A/C, 3 plasma TVs two baths, open fireplace...unbelievable for £50k...oh...plus another £50k for a (pickup) truck to pull it.....oh and don't take it to Devon or Cornwalll....