The 'is my APE normal' thread

[Nick80]

Hey all.

Had my Evo 8 months now and have done a little over 5000m, and thought I'd see if any of the bad bits (there's not many!) are common to other APE owners.

1. 'Normal' mode is awful! I try to keep it in normal mostly to try and be a bit more fuel efficient on the daily commute, but especially in the cold its sooo sluggish and slow, I try and pull out onto a busy roundabout and without a ton of revs it just bogs and takes ages to pick up (while other cars lunge towards me). Sometimes you need to over take quickly so you floor it and its really just slow and rubbish, feels like your having to thrash it to get some speed. Anyone else get this?

2. MPG - how did Fiat ever get enough to claim 47mpg combined? At 68mph in 6th, normal mode, the display says 42mpg, which is ok, but show it a slight incline and it drops like a stone. Tickle the acclerator around town with a few duel carriageway bits and the average mpg for the whole tank is around 29-35..

3. Climate control - sometimes you set it to 24 and it feels cold in the car, other times you set it to 19 and its still getting warmer inside.

4. When flooring it in Sport mode, sometimes you get a massive shove from all that lovely torque, other times at feels like the boost builds then tails off as you go through the rev range (more than you'd expect as I know it will a lessen as the revs rise) and the car is really not that fast, like there's some flat spots in the map.

Anyone elses thoughts gratefully received!

Nick

[John501]

1, Don't use it
2, Don't ever believe anyone's fuel figures
3, Get it checked
4 Get it checked

[Yordan]

Hi

Mr TMC is here to help just go to Commercial Area on site.

The best way is to compare it to an identical car. Check the meet and event section.

[londonrichie]

Fuel figure tests is driving as fuel efficient as possible. Literally no revs and ticking along... never going to get anywhere near that in the real world.

[sandys]

Had my Evo 8 months now and have done a little over 5000m, and thought I'd see if any of the bad bits (there's not many!) are common to other APE owners.

1. 'Normal' mode is awful! I try to keep it in normal mostly to try and be a bit more fuel efficient on the daily commute, but especially in the cold its sooo sluggish and slow, I try and pull out onto a busy roundabout and without a ton of revs it just bogs and takes ages to pick up (while other cars lunge towards me). Sometimes you need to over take quickly so you floor it and its really just slow and rubbish, feels like your having to thrash it to get some speed. Anyone else get this?

Love normal mode, its a more natural engine/throttle response, prior to SS it had a deadzone at the beginning where there was no turbo response, great for eco driving, not good for smooth progress if you got the throttle position wrong, the SS map has changed normal mode, unlike the 500 boys I use Normal all the time, I'm not ashamed to say it , does that make me less of a man  in the Evo its a lot like the 500s Sport mode just with a bit of deadzone at the front, new map has made it deadzone free and much easier to do smoother gearchanges, the power delivery is lovely and progressive, feels nice and strong, even smoother, more like a strong 3 litre than surging 1.4 turbo. Its nice and strong continually building in delivery to just over 6k but then it always has been, with sport mode its like the car shoots its load to early  

Having used Normal mode for near 12k bar trackdays (even  used it then to be honest) I'd say something might be up with your motor if its as bad as you make it sound. When I have used sport mode and switched back to normal the amount of throttle throw it needs makes the car feel dead when your foot is tuned to Sport mode which only gives you about 5mm of travel, you just have to get back in tune with it.

2. MPG - how did Fiat ever get enough to claim 47mpg combined? At 68mph in 6th, normal mode, the display says 42mpg, which is ok, but show it a slight incline and it drops like a stone. Tickle the acclerator around town with a few duel carriageway bits and the average mpg for the whole tank is around 29-35..

Yup hard to match the Fiat claims, anything over 70mph and it drops like a stone, its not bad though I'm running and average of 38mpg and have a lot of 40-44mpg tanks. Hard to make any claims on new map, but I am finding it hard to drive as efficiently with no deadzone.

Most of my fuel ups tracked http://www.fuelly.com/driver/sandys/punto-evo

Pretty sure start/stop helps some of this.

3. Climate control - sometimes you set it to 24 and it feels cold in the car, other times you set it to 19 and its still getting warmer inside.

Its not brilliant but seems to work fine for me.

4. When flooring it in Sport mode, sometimes you get a massive shove from all that lovely torque, other times at feels like the boost builds then tails off as you go through the rev range (more than you'd expect as I know it will a lessen as the revs rise) and the car is really not that fast, like there's some flat spots in the map.

As mentioned I rarely use it, its too aggressive, I have noticed an on an off nature to it, particularly if I change fuels.

[Patrick]

1, Don't use it
2, Don't ever believe anyone's fuel figures
3, Get it checked
4 Get it checked

Agree 100%.
1. Normal mode is just there to get the favourable tax, economy and emissions figures.  I only use it for crawling in traffic jams.
2. I am getting between 30 and 35 depending on driving circumstances.  Looking at Honest John's actual mpg figures, real life usage is poorer than manufacturer's figures in most vehicles except for VAG diesels.
3. My climate control works just fine.  In addition, it is stratified so that the area around feet and torso is kept warm while the area around the face is cooler and so you feel less sleepy (or you don't have to freeze in order to stay awake on a motorway run).
4. Are you using the same fuel all the time?

[mjaz101]

Having covered over 12k miles in the erm.... 6 months I've had my APE (oops) I've averaged 34mpg with mostly motorway commutes and long trips. Best I've got out of a long run cruising at 70 is about 41mpg.
However I have experimented with both Normal and Sport mode and found no difference in everyday driving mpg. Even since being SSd (after 1 month) the mpg hasn't really changed however if I use cheap supermarket fuel (normally run Vpower where poss) the mpg will drop away.
I did drop the car into Normal mode the other day and very quickly switched back. I don't drive particulary quickly however (honest) but am just a fan of the quicker throttle response :-)

[sandys]

Think that’s what it comes down to end of the day how you like your throttle response, Sport is impressive, the way it picks up, the immediacy of response and amount of torque on tap is incredible from a 1.4 I just don’t find it conducive to making clean progress particularly trying to feed the power in early out of a hairpin, its too full on, uncooth, big torque, loss of grip then you experience the TTC  which actually would work well if you could get consistent responses out of it, like you would from a mech LSD, but no sometimes you get that unatural pulled tighter feeling, sometimes you don’t you just start to push wide, too unpredictable to me after coming from an LSD adorned car I could rely on when I put the hammer down.

There is more linearity to Normal that I prefer, I don’t like its steering as much as Sport but it’s the lesser evil IMO.

[TMC-Motorsport]

Hey all.

Had my Evo 8 months now and have done a little over 5000m, and thought I'd see if any of the bad bits (there's not many!) are common to other APE owners.

1. 'Normal' mode is awful! I try to keep it in normal mostly to try and be a bit more fuel efficient on the daily commute, but especially in the cold its sooo sluggish and slow, I try and pull out onto a busy roundabout and without a ton of revs it just bogs and takes ages to pick up (while other cars lunge towards me). Sometimes you need to over take quickly so you floor it and its really just slow and rubbish, feels like your having to thrash it to get some speed. Anyone else get this?

2. MPG - how did Fiat ever get enough to claim 47mpg combined? At 68mph in 6th, normal mode, the display says 42mpg, which is ok, but show it a slight incline and it drops like a stone. Tickle the acclerator around town with a few duel carriageway bits and the average mpg for the whole tank is around 29-35..

3. Climate control - sometimes you set it to 24 and it feels cold in the car, other times you set it to 19 and its still getting warmer inside.

4. When flooring it in Sport mode, sometimes you get a massive shove from all that lovely torque, other times at feels like the boost builds then tails off as you go through the rev range (more than you'd expect as I know it will a lessen as the revs rise) and the car is really not that fast, like there's some flat spots in the map.

Anyone elses thoughts gratefully received!

Nick

Hi Nick,
1. Norm mode is truly awful and should not be on a 'performance car' you buy this for power not economy.

2. As John says never trust manufacturers claimed figures, I'm told they only have to drive a very short distance under very controlled circumstances to get their figures, my wife drives dare I say it a Prius, its supposed to do 74 mpg but real world its around 52 which is still very good. As I said in answer 1 Abarth is not a car you buy purely for economy, my Evo averages around 28 but its all town driving, all in all its no worse than my last car which was 3.0 diesel auto, the petrol is around 6p a litre cheaper so i'm better off no matter how I look at it.

3. Never had any issues with my climate, however I was getting a smell of fumes in the cabin which turned out to be a loose collar between the turbo and cat, I was a bit concerned because I didn't think fumes should be able to get from the engine bay into the cabin but they did, its fixed now so hopefully the headaches and sore throats will go away now 

4. The different power you experience in my opinion is the multi air system, my understanding of it is that the ECU adapts to how you want to drive so if you suddenly change from driving gently to fast driving you can get a different delivery of power if you accelerate then take your foot off and put it down again, on the second acceleration it feels much stronger, I think this is the multi air system allowing more air into the engine. Mine does this too, so did my last one, I take it as normal.

All in all I am really happy with mine, its comfortable, relaible, reasonable on fuel given the performance, great looking and easy to drive with all the comforts you really need, I certainly would consider another one in the future if they bring out a new body shape.

Cheers
Daron

[sandys]

Ooh I’m such a contrarian what with this and stop/start reckon Normal drives fine maybe i'll take one of the Bristol lot out in it later, if I can make it will all my taxi'ing.

[3k5k]

I love stop/start

kEVO

[KaiK]

I pretty agree with all the above posts. 

1, Forget Normal, only to be used when weather is poor or when feel like "driving like Miss Daisy", Sport all the time please 
2, I've averaged 33mpg in my 8 months with best of 40mpg and lowest of 25mpg (town driving)
3, My climate works fine, just takes a little longer to get to temp when it's cold
4, My Sport mode is very consistent, always giving a good lump of torque when the turbo is on song
 
I hate stop/start!!! 

I am extremely happy with my Evo after 8 months and almost 6k miles even after a door lock replaced as well as my mirror replaced. 

[Nick80]

Cool thanks for all the replies!

So it sounds like:
1. Normal mode is poo (exluding SS versions) so thats ok (well nothing out of the ordinary that is)
2. Mpg is same as other APEs
3. Climate control - could do with looking at maybe, I find I'm always tweaking it a half degree or more to get comfortable, I was hoping it would be a set and forget system but I almost wish I had normal dials so I could get in, quickly turn fan and temp to max to blast the car until it clears the screen when misted up, then back both off. Its annoying that the 'quick demist' button does nothing until the climate control system gets some engine heat presumably to help the engine temp build quicker, so I have to overide it by prodding the fan button several times.
4. Darons point about driving style is interesting, will have to go for a drive and test the theory. Will mention it when it gets its 9000 mile service around April. I find it hard to know how to get the best performance. I used to have an Uno Turbo which clearly made you aware of how much throttle and revs would give you quickest acceleration, but with the APE you floor it and get some amount of acceleration, then mid way through rev range you lift off a bit and it seems to pick up even quicker. Dunno, its all subjective really as you can't quantify exactly how fast fast is..!

I think the idea of a ride in someone elses is very good. Will have to check out the first Essex meet after xmas.

[TMC-Motorsport]

Having covered over 12k miles in the erm.... 6 months I've had my APE (oops) I've averaged 34mpg with mostly motorway commutes and long trips. Best I've got out of a long run cruising at 70 is about 41mpg.
However I have experimented with both Normal and Sport mode and found no difference in everyday driving mpg. Even since being SSd (after 1 month) the mpg hasn't really changed however if I use cheap supermarket fuel (normally run Vpower where poss) the mpg will drop away.
I did drop the car into Normal mode the other day and very quickly switched back. I don't drive particulary quickly however (honest) but am just a fan of the quicker throttle response :-)

12k in 6 months, wow mine just turned 7k yesterday and its a year old in March ....

[Patrick]

Cool thanks for all the replies!

So it sounds like:
1. Normal mode is poo (exluding SS versions) so thats ok (well nothing out of the ordinary that is)
2. Mpg is same as other APEs
3. Climate control - could do with looking at maybe, I find I'm always tweaking it a half degree or more to get comfortable, I was hoping it would be a set and forget system but I almost wish I had normal dials so I could get in, quickly turn fan and temp to max to blast the car until it clears the screen when misted up, then back both off. Its annoying that the 'quick demist' button does nothing until the climate control system gets some engine heat presumably to help the engine temp build quicker, so I have to overide it by prodding the fan button several times.
4. Darons point about driving style is interesting, will have to go for a drive and test the theory. Will mention it when it gets its 9000 mile service around April. I find it hard to know how to get the best performance. I used to have an Uno Turbo which clearly made you aware of how much throttle and revs would give you quickest acceleration, but with the APE you floor it and get some amount of acceleration, then mid way through rev range you lift off a bit and it seems to pick up even quicker. Dunno, its all subjective really as you can't quantify exactly how fast fast is..!

I think the idea of a ride in someone elses is very good. Will have to check out the first Essex meet after xmas.