2012 Fiat 500 — reported problems
CarFaultIQ holds 537 evidence records for the 2012 Fiat 500, drawn from official sources and owner complaints.
What owners report: issue areas
Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 537 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.
- Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)202 (37.6%)Official recall records for this system: 6, covering model years 2012–2019.
- Electrical system63 (11.7%)
- Engine53 (9.9%)
- Air bags (restraint system)32 (6.0%)
- Fuel system23 (4.3%)
- Suspension21 (3.9%)
Other / uncategorized: 35 classifications (6.5%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.
These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.
What the records are about, by source
Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.
- Owner complaints (1,612 records, model years 2012–2018) are most frequently classified under: powertrain (transmission & drivetrain), electrical system and engine.
- Manufacturer communications (1,436 records, model years 2012–2019) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, equipment & accessories and powertrain (transmission & drivetrain).
"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records
Mileage reported when the issue occurred
- 292reports included a mileage
- 58,390average of those mileages
This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.
Evidence by model year
Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.
- 2012 537 records for 2012
- 2013 306 records for 2013
- 2014 276 records for 2014
- 2015 267 records for 2015
- 2016 187 records for 2016
- 2017 118 records for 2017
- 2018 100 records for 2018
- 2019 88 records for 2019
Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.
Reports mentioning outcomes
- 21mention a crash
- 4mention a fire
- 17mention an injury
These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.
Official records held
- Safety recalls NHTSA 4
- Manufacturer communications NHTSA 132
- Investigations NHTSA 1
- Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 6
- Owner complaints NHTSA 394
Where to go next
- Fiat 500 coverage hub Published problems, year windows and buyer guidance for this model.
- Evidence Explorer — the underlying records Read the individual recalls, investigations, manufacturer communications and complaints these counts come from.
- All model years of the Fiat 500 Compare how much evidence is held for each year before narrowing to one.
- Browse all vehicle coverage Every make and model CarFaultIQ has published coverage for.