Fiat Freemont Forum

Hallo alle Freemonter... Ich bin ein Freemont Anwärter aus der Tschechischen Republik und weil kein Forum im Tschechisch existiert, ich folge dieses Forum nach. Ich kann Deutch lesen aber es ist schwierig für mich Deutch zu schreiben, es ist doch viel Jahre lang wenn ich Deutch in der Schule gelernt habe (verzeihen sie die Fehler, bitte). Also entschuldigen Sie bitte, wenn ich English benutze, ich hoffe meistens von ihnen werden verstehen mich (and I hope that it is not against the rules of this Forum).

So, I await the delivery of our new family car - Freemont Urban, black, 140ps. We have ordered a stock car (a week ago), produced in December 2011, I hope we did not make a mistake. The car should be ready for us in about two weeks. Until now we used Ford Focus combi (and old Skoda Forman before) as our family car but our Focus is getting rather old and we often need more than five people to come with us. So we hope we have made a step forward.

Thanks for all the reports about your experience with your cars, it helped us in decisioning. While some topics that I read were a little bit alarming (like that about rust at new cars), it seems that most of you are satisified. I wish you all safe and pleasant trips with your Freemonts and hope soon to join you.

Hello kuratko...welcome to the Forum...
I know you make a big step forward...

just to pick up an old slogan from Fiat for the "Stilo": Forward Thinking
Welcome here in our Forum.No problem at all if you want to write in english!
If you have any questions, don´t hesitate to ask.In most cases you get a qualified answer´

Zitat von »Diesel-Fan«

In most cases you get a qualified answer´

That depends on the type of question setting, we can help in all life were...

Welcome at freemont forum.

i'm sure it was the right decission!

Welcome and have a lot of fun here

Willkommen auch von mir! Der Freemont ist auf jeden Fall eine gute Wahl. Grüße ins Nachbarland.

Willkommen hier im Forum

Grüsse aus Luxemburg , Claude

Hi Kuratko,

welcome aboard. Were are you located in Czech Republic? I am often in Czech Republic, near Hradec Králové.

Best regards

BGMW

Thanks for nice invitation to everyone.

@BGMW
I am from Olomouc (central Moravia).

Hello everyone,
yesterday I got a call from my dealer that our car has arrived. As it is a stock car, it took just two weeks. Today I visited the dealer to make the paperwork and we agreed to takeover the car on Friday. I had the opportunity to quickly look at the car (Urban 140 ps, black). Looks awesome but I noticed one thing: it comes with the small display while I got the large one in my order. I suppose it has been produced shortly before they switched to the larger display for Urban. The dealer agrees that this is a mistake in their ordering system. However, as the exchange of the radio is not possible (so I was told after the dealer checked with Fiat) I was given two possibilities: a) to accept the smaller display, perhaps after some price reduction (I am supposed to make the first bid), b) to refuse the stock car and order a new one with delivery in about 5 months from now (also at a higher price compared to the stock price, the same configuration would cost about 1650 euro more). The stock car has been produced in December 2011, the new car would be almost one year younger. What would you choose? Thanks for your opinions... In particular: (1) Are there any other differences between the functionality of the 4,3" and 8,4" radios besides losing the DVD player in 4,3"? (2) Have the errors (as discussed earlier in this forum) occurring in the 4,3" radio been fixed with updates? (3) What is your experience with the usability of the 4,3" display, especially while driving? (4) Are there substantial differences between the cars produced in December 2011 and in the autumn of 2012? Thanks for your input, for me it is a hard choice.

For I am very new either, I can't answer all your questions, but:
Imho the newer one has got better brakes (and therefore you have got to use 17" tires at least).
I'd go for the new car. As long as your old car is working, you are not in a hurry by any means, are you?

Hi kuratko,
some info on the 4,3" radio:
(1) The 8.4" radio has general voice recognition beyond mobile phone control (calling etc.) of the 4.3", it comes with a DVD player and potentially with a rearview camera and navigation (depending on what you order), all of which cannot be ordered for the 4,3" radio (at least with Fiat).
(2) Some errors have been fixed, some others not. We are still waiting for Fiat/Chrysler to publish an update.
(3) The 4,3" display is far from being unusable - in fact I like it, but I have to admit that I don't use the radio at all, so I don't care about any bugs the radio might still have. ;-)
(4) As Rince already mentioned, Fiat upgraded the braking system in early 2012.
Hope that helps.

Hy kuratko,

the 4.3" Radio ist not so bad as it seems to be after reading all threads about it. This could also be Your chance to save some extra money. The dealer has the car now in his shop, so he has to sell it. Play the game and tell him You are not happy, because this is not the car You wanted. Also You can talk with the dealer about the bugs in the radio. Tell him also, You can not wait another 6 months and You are thinking about to buy a car somewhere else. Then sit down and wait what´s going on. For sure, they will make You an offer with a better price. This is, what I would do in this case.

I had to decide today so I did as Toy4ever advised and got some money back for the smaller display. So I should still receive the car on Friday.

Concerning the brakes: From respective threads in this forum I understand that Freemonts 2011 have problem with over-wear of brakepads, possibly due to the fact that brakes might be under-sized or insufficinetly dimensioned for the weight of the car which shows as vibration when braking at speeds between 70-110 kph. Many of you have probably underwent exchange of the brakes under warranty. Does that mean that only brakepads have been changed and the cause remains threating next problem after another 15-20.000 km?

I received new pads and disks and did not have another problem since (7.000 km and counting...).