Fiat Auto UK has stated that they believe that the main problem with variators (the very early in-life failures) has been overcome and they are now receiving far fewer support requests for these units. For anyone that wishes to send in a claim for a goodwill contribution to the variator replacement, the procedure is as follows:

Fiat Auto UK will assess every case on an individual basis.

Fiat UK's offer of goodwill contribution will depend on age and mileage - they will use the same premise as for the Fiat Coupe owner's club, up to 5 years of age, under 100,000 miles, and full service history.

Owners should WRITE to Kam Uppal at Fiat Auto UK, Fiat House, 266 Bath Road , Slough, Berks, SL1 4HJ

They should enclose:

* Copy of V5 document
* Confirmation of current mileage
* Copy of service history
* Daytime contact number - for quick response!
* Details of preferred repairing Fiat (official) dealer - this does not include DTR.

If there is any occasion on which Fiat are unable to support a goodwill contribution, a decision and explanation will be given in writing, both to the club member and if required the barchetta owners club representative.

Note though that whilst Fiat have confirmed that goodwill contributions will range from 0% to 100% of variator replacement costs - they "clarified" that goodwill contribution payments normally only cover the cost of the part and not the labour. They did however admit that they had also covered labour costs in several cases e.g very early life failures.

Whilst they've hinted that a 3 owners, 60k miles, no service history type cars would be at the bottom end they're not willing to give further status versus % scenarios as they say the range of possibilities are too numerous and is why they will consider each claim individually.