AutoUtility currently tracks 13 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2017 Fiat 500. Electrical System issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 4 complaints (30.8% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 2 filings cite a crash, 1 reports one or more injuries.

Key Problem Findings
  • • Total NHTSA Complaints: 13 reports
  • • #1 Reported Problem Area: Electrical System (4 reports • 30.8% of submitted complaints)
  • • Secondary Problem Areas: Body & Structure (3), Powertrain & Transmission (3)
  • • Crash-Citing Complaints: 2 filings
  • • Fire-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 1 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
13
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
2
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
1
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2017 Fiat 500

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 30.8% of complaints

Electrical System

4 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#2 Problem Area 23.1% of complaints

Body & Structure

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report 🩹 1 injury report entry
#3 Problem Area 23.1% of complaints

Powertrain & Transmission

3 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ NHTSA Recall Context

NHTSA records list 1 official safety recall campaign for this model year involving the same broad component area:

*Component overlap means an official recall exists for the same broad vehicle system. It does not establish that an individual owner complaint was caused by, covered by, or resolved through that recall.
⚠️ 1 crash report
#4 Problem Area 15.4% of complaints

Brakes & Traction Control

2 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#5 Problem Area 7.7% of complaints

Air Bags & Restraints

1 owner complaint submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2017 Fiat 500

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Brakes & Traction Control NHTSA ODI ID: #11572652
Filed: 02/18/2024

"Just before coming to a stop the brakes grab and jerk the car. The brakes work normally otherwise."

Incident Date: 02/18/2024 • Raw NHTSA Component: SERVICE BRAKES
Body & Structure NHTSA ODI ID: #11562997
Filed: 01/02/2024

"The contact owns a 2017 Fiat 500. The contact stated that the driver's side and passenger's side door handles fractured and detached from the inner side of the handle. The contact called the local dealer, but the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The vehicle was taken to an independent..."

Incident Date: 12/26/2023 • Raw NHTSA Component: STRUCTURE
Powertrain & Transmission NHTSA ODI ID: #11562042
Filed: 12/27/2023

"After a sudden stop (no impact), the car would no longer go into or come out of gear while running. When the car is not running it will still shift normally. The repair shop initially thought it was the slave cylinder but the problem persisted. They then changed the clutch and are now recommending..."

Incident Date: 10/10/2023 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN
Air Bags & Restraints NHTSA ODI ID: #11478045
Filed: 08/07/2022

"THE LIGHT THAT INFORMS OF AN AIR BAG PROBLEM GOES ON. THE DEALER SHIP REPAIRS AND A WEEK LATER THE LIGHT GOES ON AGAIN. BACK TO DEALERSHIP,FIXES PROBLEM? LIGHT GOES ON IN A DAY. THIS THURSDAY 8/11/22 WILL BE THE 4TH ATTEMPT TO SOLVE THE AIR BAG ISSUE."

Incident Date: 08/07/2022 • Raw NHTSA Component: AIR BAGS
Brakes & Traction Control NHTSA ODI ID: #11474371
Filed: 07/17/2022

"The PCM system does not work at all and brakes seem off—either they stop too hard or drag when pressing in them"

Incident Date: 05/23/2022 • Raw NHTSA Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Fiat 500

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2019)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Fiat 500 92 4 4 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Fiat 500 14 3 4 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Fiat 500 Current Page 13 2 2 Current
2018 Fiat 500 5 0 2 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Fiat 500 0 0 2 View 2019 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2017 Fiat 500

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 10 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Electrical System NHTSA category: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 2 0 0 0 0
Powertrain NHTSA category: POWER TRAIN 2 1 0 0 0
Structure & Body NHTSA category: STRUCTURE 2 0 0 0 0
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
STEERING,STRUCTURE,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 1 0 1 0
Visibility / Glass NHTSA category: VISIBILITY 1 0 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (13). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.

Official NHTSA Defect Investigations (1)

1 CLOSED

Formal safety defect inquiries and engineering analyses opened by the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI)

Official Federal Inquiries: NHTSA opens a defect investigation when safety screening or consumer defect trends indicate a potential unreasonable safety risk. An open investigation is a formal inquiry and does not by itself confirm a defect or result in a mandatory recall.
CLOSED Engineering Analysis (EA) ODI Action #EA19001
Opened: 2019-04-19 • Closed: 2024-09-19

Electrical overstress

Affected Component: AIR BAGS: AIR BAG/RESTRAINT CONTROL MODULE

The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened this investigation to determine if the failure of airbags to deploy during severe crashes, in certain vehicles, was the result of a safety related defect.  During the investigation a complex failure was studied that can result in non-deployment of subject vehicle air bags and other restraint system devices in severe crash events. The subject vehicles may be equipped with an airbag control unit (AC...

✓ Resulted in Safety Recall Campaign: 20V024 Official NHTSA File →

Related Official Reports for 2017 Fiat 500

Cross-reference safety recalls, crash test safety ratings, and EPA fuel economy for this model year

Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.