Also why not put it idk, under the damn spoiler or something? It's not like the mirror is the only place not next to the ground.
Think about the bigger picture. You've got 500s, 500 Abarths, 500Cs, 500C Abarths all rolling down the line at the same time. Not to mention all the other special editions. Some car may have spoilers, some cars may have other spoilers, some cars may not have any spoilers. Instead of making it complicated and having it be in location A on some cars, in location B on others, in location C on the cabrios, etc, just commonize it for the entire range. Furthermore, you want the sensor somwhere where you already have a wire harness going to it so you're not paying an assembly guy to lay down more wire harnesses. And then you got the rest of the family, the 500X and the 500L - while those look like they have different mirror housings, I'm willing to bet you have internal brackety that's common. And boom, just like that one engineer designed a part thats used on dozens of variants across a handful of models, and believe it or not, that cost saving is passed onto you, the customer.
Ok i guess that is a fair point, but here's a flipped one: if your last 5 CELs have been ridiculous nothingness problems how fast are you going to take it in when it really IS the engine?
Honestly, your car's got demons that need exorcized. I've owned my Mustang for just shy of 7 years and have not had a single CEL in that time (knock on wood). The Fiesta is also coming up to a year and a half without a CEL.
Or just get a Bluetooth OBD dongle, pair it to your phone, and find an app that will give you an instant notification when you get an issue. Downside there is that you then can't pair the phone to the infotainment system at the same time.
"Service [system]" would suffice I think, and likely give a general idea of urgency.
Your car already has that. Looking at the owners manual for 2017 Fiat 500s, you got the following red telltales:
- Air Bag Warning Light
- Electric Power Steering Fail Warning
- Brake Warning Light
- Battery Charge Warning Light
- Electronic Throttle Control (ETC) Warning Light
- Oil Pressure Warning Light
- Engine Temperature Warning Light
- Transmission Fault Warning Light
And the following yellow telltales:
- Tire Pressure Monitoring Indicator Light
- Electronic Stability Control (ESC) Activation/Malfunction Indicator Light
- Engine Check/Malfunction Indicator Light (MIL) - solid or flashing to indicate severity
- Anti-Lock Brake (ABS) Indicator Light
- Generic Warning Indicator Light
- Exterior Bulb Failure Indicator Light
- Stop Light Failure Indicator Light
Thats a pretty extensive list of system specific warnings.
Oh bonus points: the car did NOT give me a check engine light immediately when the intercooler was causing it to go into limp mode. It took it happening like 3x.
Well that a whole separate problem that wouldn't be addressed by adding an error read out to the vehicle. That sounds like shit engineering.
The fact you can find them for cheaper then the dealership price doesn't mean it isn't a terrible design that makes you have to throw out the entire assembly of a completely functional car part, presumably so they can charge that much for it, over a sensor that from what I can tell isn't even misreading anything.
You can always find a 500 in a junk yard, take the mirror apart, pull the sensor or bracket or whatever it is that is broken on yours, pay for just that one small bit, take your mirror apart, and mend it. But keep in mind, often for aesthetic purpose parts are made to snap together in a way that makes them impossible to take apart without breaking or damaging, so that may be the reason why you need to buy a whole new mirror.