I purchased my 2014 Fiat 500L from Golling of Birmingham, MI in April of 2014, it had 300+ miles on it. I was really happy with my purchase until this April, 2016 the problem with the overheating twin clutch gear box began to happen to my new car! I was in a short drive through line at a dairy queen when I smelled oil burning and saw smoke coming from my hood...I couldn't believe it was my car, it was still new, had only 20,000+ miles on it. I took it to the Golling Auto Service Dept the next day to be told, that this vehicle's "twin clutch" has a "condition", it will overheat when sitting in idle and I need to put the car in neutral when at a stand still (mind you the car has an automatic gear swift). I about flipped when I heard this...Golling basically said there was nothing they could do. Within the next couple of months I was in afternoon traffic traveling into Detroit over into Canada, when I noticed the car was acting sluggish, I did as told, every time I came to a stop which was often I put the gear in neutral. I continued to do this for 20 minutes and when it came time to cross the Canadian border, the crossing was backed up for a mile, so again I crawled along for another hour, still putting the clutch in neutral, but when I went to finally crossed the into Canada the car would not go into gear...at all!!! I had the accelerator petal to the floor and nothing happened! The oil burning smell was horrific and smoke was coming from the hood. I was trying to merge into traffic, the car just wouldn't go. It finally spit into gear and I arrive at my destination. However, after leaving Canada the same experience happened because now I was in a long line waiting to go through the Detroit Tunnel; moving slowly putting the car in neutral the entire time...again it over headed and would not go into gear once I left the tunnel working my way onto Jefferson Ave, a very busy street. Realizing this is an extremely dangerous situation, I took my car back to Golling's Service Dept. in Bloomfield, MI and told my story to the GM, Manager of Service and again I was told there is nothing they can do. Outraged I called FIAT customer service directly, opened up a "case file" on my situation, I'm still waiting (four weeks now) to hear back from their "engineers" as to what can be done for the situation. I'm not going to give up...I've called back several times and will continue to until they fix the problem. This car was purchased new, it has only 23,000 miles on it and it's warranty for 50,000 miles. If I have to sue I will...but this is BS for FCA to sit back and do nothing!!! I asked the Fiat Customer Service Rep...what do I have to do ... get into an accident, hurt myself or someone else until they see this is a serious issue? What's interesting FIAT no longer is putting the Twin Clutch Gear Box in their Fiat's any longer...they know it's a problem but for us who purchased 2014 edition, they think we're just going to let them do nothing...not by a long shot!!! They have a Germain Girl on their backsides now!!!! Buyer Beware!!!!

I've got a Fiat 500L 2014 with automatic transmission and had an issue with smoke and burned clutch smell while in traffic. When we got our vehicle towed to the nearest Fiat dealer, they told us that everything is normal and we should learn to drive with the car. I thought it was a crappy answer to give so I called Fiat Canada customer service to report it. They told me that they are aware of this specific situation and the told it's normal since it's in my owner manual.

First stupid thing she said was that the explanation of this situation is on page 216 of the book. Our little book (the only book that came with the car) only have 119 pages. How was I supposed to know that issue if they don't give you the right book. Second, what is writing in the book is that it's normal to have your transmission overheating up in the traffic, just stalled on the side of the road and let it cool down and then go back driving. What a crappy answer but since it's in a book, it's normal!

What can I do?The lady at customer service told me that I should have know the issue since since we test drove the car. Well, yes I test drove the car but they only let us run the car for a few minutes and of course never been in traffic with it while test drove it.

Kind of a big issue for us since my wife is in traffic twice a day, 5 days a week. I guess my wife have to change job just because we bought a Fiat. I guess that what Fiat would tell me if I call them back.

Over the past couple of weeks I noticed that when I would accelerate the RPM's would jump but the car was sluggish to pick up speed. I wasn't sure what the issue was but I did not think it would be my clutch. the car is not quite a year & a half old. Only 23400 kms. I bought the car brand new. I took it to the dealer ship and they told me the cost would be just under 4000.00 to fix! and that it was not covered under warranty. Wow and a few other choice word ran through my head. When I took the car in it was sluggish but I would not be concerned to take it out onto the highway. It was just a little sluggish. When I picked up my car after saying no to the $4000.00 bill I tried to drive it back to my work. (aprox. two blocks away) I stopped and walked back into the dealership. I told them that the car now smelled of burning rubber. Apparently that is what a burning clutch smells like. I could also not get in up to 20k with out thinking I was going to end up stuck on the road.

The Dealers claim . . . we didn't do anything to your car but we had to run it hard to be sure it was the clutch. Unbelievable. They completely blew out the clutch and thought I would accept that as reasonable. They also claimed that it was my floor matt that cause the clutch to burn out. In what world are either of those reasonable deductions. The warranty on the fiat clutch runs out at 20k. However I am not the first to have this happen. Taking the web with a grain of caution there are several complaints about the clutch having issues in the fiat family.

My questions to the transmission tech's and service manager of the world is this. My car engage about at the halfway point of releasing the clutch. I have about a 1/2" of give to the pedal before I could feel it engaging. neither of those are signs of a failing clutch are they? It the floor matt was the cause of keeping the clutch from engaging would I have not noticed that it was harder to change gears? Finally if the floor matt was the problem could it possible cause the clutch to blow in 21/2 months? I bought the matt in September. If anyone has some advice for me I would love to hear it. I am not a new manual driver. I have driven a manual transmission for the past 35 years.

Not only did it smell and awful but it smoked! Not just a little. Smoke was even coming out of engine under the car around the back. The dealership still has it but they are saying "that's normal" what?!

Update from Aug 19, 2015: the dealership keeps saying "this is normal, you can't sit in a line without putting in neutral". Hogwash! I wasn't even sitting, I had just pulled up to the window and there was NO wait! the dealership still has mine strangely. I have a loaner. no repairs have been made to my knowledge. I'm not sure why they are keeping. My brother went up today to drive it himself to see if he could get it to replicate. Also, it rolls back on me on inclines and i don't mean mountains, I live in the flat lands. I give it gas to the floor even and down it goes! The first time I almost rolled into someone cause it took me off guard so! This car is a joke! I never want to put my son nor I in it again. This is our only vehicle, I can't have something crazy like this. I was NOT told EVER that this car would act like this. Had I, no way would I have bought. Fiat needs to bite the bullet and buy all these back that are doing this before someone gets hurt or worse. They assured me that even with all that smoke there was no danger of fire, really? How can they be certain? There was a ton of smoke and heat. I couldn't touch the hood for the first 25 minutes. Then I had to use a rag. I can't believe I"m even having to take time to fool with this. Nor anyone else should. FIAT is OFF my list for sure! And I will shout that to the mountain tops. They say that if I"m on the interstate and it happens I have to stop or it will just shut down. WHAT?! Is this a 1929 Hudson?????

We have a Fiat 500L 6 speed manual transmission. From day one we've been having problems with our clutch. It first started when we put our car in reverse. There was a terrible burning smell and awful grinding/screeching sound. Things have gotten progressively worse - now this noise happens all the time, in reverse, any gear, up hill, flat streets, in traffic, etc. etc. Things are so bad that when we put on the heater or a/c in the car, that's all we smell - is this burning smell!!! How safe or healthy is that?

We've been to a few different Fiat dealerships to find out what the problem is. Funny thing is none of the mechanics "have ever heard of this problem". When they've test driven the car with us in it, they tell us the noise is nothing but normal. What about the smell that's over powering?? However, when doing research on the net, seems that many people with this car have this problem and they're all being told the same thing - "never heard of this before - nothing's wrong".

I was told today by head office that when I sit in traffic to "not inch forward" as that may be the cause.....really? She couldn't give me an excuse for when not sitting in traffic yet we still have same issues - she tried to bypass that one with all sorts of other irrelevant information. We're very frustrated with Fiat Canada and all the dealerships we've dealt with. If you're in the market for one, DON'T BUY ONE - EVER!! Our next step is finding a lawyer to get this straightened up. The way things are being handled is so wrong and so terribly unprofessional.

My 2014 Fiat 500L with automatic transmission and with 9393 miles on it had a burning, smoking, rotten food, electrical, clutch smelling incident while in a fast food drive thru at 11:00pm. I was in a line of about 6 or 7 cars in a drive thru line. It took about 10 minutes to have the problem. The problem smell was nauseating and I thought the car was going to flame up based on the amount of smoke coming up from under the hood. The staff in the restaurant also experienced the smoke and smells. I got the car to an open parking lot away from other vehicles and structures. The following day I had the car towed to the dealership. After 3 business day the car was ready for pick up. No parts were replaced. They did a multipoint inspection. Under Job # 1 ELECTRICAL it reads, and I quote with the misspellings:

"C/S THAT THE CAR HAD A SMELL OF ROTTEN FOOD. AND WAS SMOKING FROM UNDER THE HOOD. SMELLED ELECTICAL TOO. CHK & ADVS CHECK FOR SMELL. IT SMELLS LIKE CLUTCH THE CUMSTOMER MOST LIKLY WAS IN STOP AND GO TRAFFIC AND THAT WILL CUASE SMKE SMELL. WHEN IN STOP AND GO PUT TRANS INTO NEUTAL AND IT WILL NOT DO THIS. LOOKED FOR CASES AND BULLETI N'S NONE FOUND."

I need help and it reads like I'm not alone. My wife and I have no confidence in the car. Will it leave us stranded somewhere? HELP