Can they really be that bad, especially the JTD's? Only I noticed how cheap a 3-door JTD Dynamic was today passing the local dealers - £5,000 - 03-reg. It looked really nice, so what is wrong with them, really?
(I mean a Focus TDCi of similar vintage would cost £7,000+)
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Its a Fiat,not as good as a Focus,not liked much,therefore the market says it has to be cheap.
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Watched a 5 door 53 plate petrol - 20 odd k, make £2400 at Tewksbury last Friday.
Good value for an ordinary car.
& I think the 3 door dynamic?? in Broom yellow looks pretty smart.
But then again I liked Bravo in the same configuration!!
VB
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Demand and supply. In the Uk's crazily snobbish car market, FIAT suffer since the brand has no status at all. Doesn't mean that they are bad cars though. There's something satisfying about buying the underdog.
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Demand and supply. In the Uk's crazily snobbish car market, FIAT suffer since the brand has no status at all. Doesn't mean that they are bad cars though. There's something satisfying about buying the underdog.
What he said. Got my mum a cracking Punto 1.2 8v, 51 plate (reg'd Jan 2002) with 40k miles and full mot and tax disc, only a small mark on the bumper ... for £1670!
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Seconded, in spades. Status-lust is the enemy of reason, and reason's better than status any day: it carries its own (provided it isn't taken to foolish and irrational extremes).
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Seconded, in spades. Status-lust is the enemy of reason, and reason's better than status any day: it carries its own (provided it isn't taken to foolish and irrational extremes).
'status lust' for a Ford Focus ... puh-leaze...!
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i looked at the dash of one today and it was frightening...more electric gizmos than the tardis,and seing in all my years i have never had an electric problem on a fiat (nose goes bigger)they seem a very good car to buy...(nose goes even bigger)
If fiat keep to basic cars like the panda then they can be very very good and let the germans/japanese do the complicated stuff.
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Brand new Punto Grande today seen in Oldham being tended to for over an hour by the AA. Would I buy a Fiat - unless its a Panda - no!
--
Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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>>Punto Grande
Well, yes, but I saw a brand new Merc E-class being carted off on a trailer in Sainsburys on Monday. I can happen to the best of them
But somehow seems to happen to FIATs more :-)
Lee -- There\'s no place like 127.0.0.1
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Your cheap JTD on the forecourt could have been the 75bhp version, which doesn´t have a huge amount of poke.
I had a 115bhp for a weekend and was pretty underwhelmed - it didn´t have a lot of power either.
But the 3 door is a lovely looker IMHO.
The estate version has some nice touches.
It´s a bit of a mishmash inside too - top of the dash is a very nice BMW-style plastic, get a bit lower down - round the handbrake for example - and it´s horrid 70s brittle stuff. And that was the salesman who pointed it out....
But as a private buyer I think you would have to cross your fingers and hope you got a good one. Lots of electrical glitches reported on owners forums.
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After driving many many Stilo's over the last few years my cooments on it are thus:
This car is so near but so far from it's direct rivals. A compromised driving position with poor seats, overlight and lack of feel steering even without it's electrical assistance, poor quality interior plastics (having said that the new Focus is not much better) and a poor wobbely ride confine it to the also rans.
Shame really. They tried so hard.
Would I? No
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Are Stilo's that bad? Well a family member has a leak from the gearbox area (dont know full details yet) on their 4-year-old 19,000-mile 2.5 abarth auto!!!
Cost to repair is est. at £800, although bearing in mind the customer service and quality of mechanics at fiat(!) i would not be surprised at all if it exceeds four figures.
Yes all cars give problems but for an autobox to give problems so early, surely this is appalling design or manufacturing or both. Btw this is the top of the range probably cost near £20k when they brought it new.
There cheap because it cots a bomb to maintain. Some cars have undeservedly a bad reputation, I think this cars is deserved going by all the car surveys, it?s ALWAYS near the bottom
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Don´t know if your friend has the Selespeed flappy-paddle gearbox, but owners report loads of trouble with this transmission. Alas.
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Don´t know if your friend has the Selespeed flappy-paddle gearbox, but owners report loads of trouble with this transmission. Alas.
Yup, I worked with someone who has/had, the dealer was completly incapable of fixing paddle probs he ended up dumping it on dealers forecourt with a big sign on it saying this car is carp!
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In the German ADAC breakdown statistics report someone mentioned here recently, the Stilo came last (17th) in its class. Hmmmm....
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It was lucky to get last place....
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It's about time someone stood up for the Stilo. I've done 100,000 miles in mine with no major or minor problems. The MPG would be good if I could slow down a bit, it's comfortable and has a good level of equipment It's a three door 115 JTD which looks pretty good when compared to the bland offerings on the market at the moment.
Having said that, because the dealers are appalling and it has completely failed to retain it's value I won't be buying another, which is a shame 'cause it really is a decent little car.
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Well, that sums it up quite neatly.
Unfortunately for Fiat, and the Stilo in particular, that sector of the market is unbelievably competitive and to have a chance the maker needs to bring in the product at the cutting edge of what´s available - which the Stilo ain´t.
Case in point, the Smart 4 door, albeit in the supermini sector. All the might of MB behind it, hi-tech supermini, funky design, and it´s canned after what, 2 1/2 years in production?
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My sister in law has just been made redundant and will be losing her Renault Megane Scenic (1.5d I think) (which she won't miss one jot - hated the thing!), but she has just bought a Stilo as a replacement, so she will find out how reliable they are. She has always owned Fiats - four Puntos previously, they always seem to cause her problems, but still she goes back to the brand! She bought it from a car supermarket I wouldn't consider going near due to very bad press so I know it won't have a been a bargain, but each to their own.
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Well it's 27 days since I posted that message and the sister in law's Stilo has developed a serious fault with the steering - it failed and would only turn right, she managed to get home using right turns only.
The car is an 02 reg and she bought it from a supermarket, lets see how robust the free two year warranty is now!
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I do not think that this will be the first 3+year old car to break down.
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But does the initial low price (exceptionally so) not go some way to evening out the cost of such repairs?
But then you can get Nissan Almeras at a similar cost and I dare say they're much the same in terms of chassis, interior space, engine performance and equipment, and a bit more reliable to boot...
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Thats a fleeting statement now Renault run the roost.
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I thought the Almera was one of the last of the Nissan designs to be granted minimal (if any) Renault involvement?
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it failed and would only turn right, she managed to get home using right turns only.
Sounds pretty irresponsible to me - I'd hate to have been a pedestrian in her way that she needed to turn left to avoid. Also, how did she turn after making an initial right turn - surely she should have gone round in circles if it wouldn't turn left.
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I think he means it wouldn't turn left from the straight-ahead position. Therefore the driver had two choices - straight forward or right.
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Correct Xileno - it wouldn't turn from straight ahead to the left, turning right then back to straight ahead was possible.
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>Therefore the driver had two choices
The driver also had the choice to stop and call for recovery.
Driving the vehicle in that condition would not have endeared her to Plod or the magistrates, particularly after an accident.
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I simply can't believe that anyone would drive with a car in that condition. You must be exaggerating surely?
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None of us (including me) have the full facts of why she drove the vehicle. All I do know is she lives alone during the week, she has a five year old son who needs ferrying back and forth to school and she has just lost her job. Sometimes the pressures of life lead us to make decisions which in hindsight probably aren't the wisest.
It's these pressures which led her to buying a four year old Fiat from a dodgy car supermarket in the first place.
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She has my sympathy - losing your job is no fun, I lost mine in March and am only going to start earning again next week. It's a hard time.
But. Beyond escaping immediate threat of death or serious injury, I can't think how someone could justify the threat to others of using a car in such a condition, *especially* with a kid on board. I've dialled 999 once before to stop a friend driving a car in what sounds like a similar condition. Having seen a gf's relative killed by a car, I'm not very tolerant of driving unroadworthy vehicles.
Saying that, I hope she manages to get it sorted and manages to get another job soon.
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Correct Xileno - it wouldn't turn from straight ahead to the left, turning right then back to straight ahead was possible.
No left hand bends/curves en route?
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How many of you in the years past, drove your car when the power steering belt or motor had failed.
I'm not talking about since the pansy brigade has come on the scene over the last few years, I'm talking of 20/30years ago.
When if you had to get home or to a garage, you'd drive it there, not pussy foot about 'I have got the strength or I might break my finger nails'.
That's the trouble today, we are all pansy's driving, its too wet, its too cold, its too sunny, its too foggy. With all the Air Con, Power anti lock brakes, Anti glare screens, Rear fog lamps, High level stop lights and Fog/driving lamps. It's all too easy today to drive a Car and be lazy.
The Stilo today are alot better today, than when they were first launched.
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ford dealers (a few now) are doing brand new ka's (must be reg before end of august - eg. 06 plate)
£3995 if you take out finance.
beauty is - you can pay of the finance after 6 months in a lump sum
car will only cost £4280
quite a few for dealers are offering it.
get your local one to price match.
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