Insane deal or insane buyer?

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Wed 15 Oct 2003 21:40
Insane deal or insane buyer? - DavidHM
Just glanced at my local free paper and the front and back pages are an ad from the local multi franchise dealer.

The deal that grabbed my attention was a Stilo Abarth (2.4) five door for £10812, including leather and sat nav. I don't know anyone who'd be interested at the moment, but at that money, who cares about depreciation - you get all the performance and all the toys for the price of a bog standard Focus. List is over £18k, so it's a 40% saving (!)

Or is the Stilo really too horrible to contemplate even then?
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Wed 15 Oct 2003 22:48
Insane deal or insane buyer? - Vansboy
Sounds good to me!

& if it's Broom Yellow, with the fold up, glass sun-roof, it'll look hot too!!

Where abouts are you,is it 'new' or pre-registered?

VB
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Wed 15 Oct 2003 23:06
Insane deal or insane buyer? - J Bonington Jagworth
Sounds good to me, too! IIRC it comes with Selespeed gearbox as standard, with manual as an option. Expect to read horror stories of dodgy Italian electrics in a thread near you, but at least you'll have a warranty to fall back on while you're enjoying yourself...
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Thu 16 Oct 2003 16:45
Insane deal or insane buyer? - GrumpyOldGit
This is from the Top Gear web site, Duffers section. At least there's only 1 complaint there.
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I purchased a Fiat Stilo Abarth three-door under one year ago and I've had nothing but problems. To start things off, the door was chipped when received, the seats won't open correctly and the warning lights flashed whilst driving.

Since I've had my car I've done only 25,000 miles yet I'm on my third set of front tyres as they keep wearing down on the inside rims. Fiat is apparently well aware of the problem and I'm still waiting for the cost of replacing the tyres! My father-in-law has the JTD model and he's done only 8000 miles - his tires have gone the same away.

Trying to get anything out of Fiat customers services is a complete joke. I really don't think they have a department - just people to look at the email and laugh.

To top it all the sat-nav/CD player is now skipping tracks and won't play MP3 tunes. Since my last service the car is ticking over badly. I took the car to a dealer who said it was a faulty air sensor. It was replaced but the problem is still there.

Now they want to have my car for a day to try and resolve the problems. But I don't think they will - I have warning lights on my oil gauge and when I asked the engineers about them, they do not know what they mean. They say they have never seen an Abarth before, so they're not sure!
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Thu 16 Oct 2003 21:39
Insane deal or insane buyer? - DavidHM
Well I'm not looking for myself, but...

Top Gear magazine says in its back pages: "Fiat Stilo: Don't be fooled by: the Abarth. Sounds good, but isn't." And that's compared to the rest of the range.

Admittedly that's at £18k, near enough, not £11k, but the car still manages to combine the performance of a 2.0 Focus with the insurance premium and fuel consumption of a BMW 530i.
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