Great car to look at & drive, but I had lots of problems (Fiat Bravo 115 16v HLX 3dr)

Member Name: janeh

Product:	Fiat Bravo 115 16v HLX 3dr
Date:	12/04/01 (418 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice looking car, good drive and spec

Disadvantages: Lots of problems, always breaking down

I bought my Fiat Bravo in Feb 2000, it was an ex-demo and only had 2,000 miles on the clock. It was in Margarita Orange, which sounds awful, but was a very stunning colour, that certainly turned heads.

At first I was really happy with the car as it handled well and with the 1.8 engine was quite fast and nippy. It also had it’s fair share of gadgets, such as climate control, electric windows, 10 CD auto-changer etc. However, in the May it all started to go wrong.

The first time anything happened was as I was about to leave work in my lunch break and the car wouldn’t start, I had to call the AA, who decided it was “something or other” and corrected it and all was well. Three days later the same thing happened, this time at 12.30am after a friends wedding reception. We were stuck in the middle of a hotel car park, in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. Again the AA came out, got the car started and off I went again. A week later, the same thing happened – this time the AA couldn’t get it going again as no fuel was getting through to the engine. It was towed to the Fiat garage who had it for three days and apparently fixed it.

But, a week later, guess what, well this happened a further four times, each time it went back to Fiat and each time something else was fixed. The last time it happened was Christmas Eve, so I was without a car until after New Year. So far since this repair has kept the car going but I lost total faith in the car so decided to replace it.

It was a shame because I loved the look of the car and it drove well, all be it a little bumpy, but I drive 80 miles a day so needed a reliable car. The only good thing to have come out of this is my dealings with the AA – they were brilliant. Always turning up quickly and either getting me started or towing me to a garage and providing me with another car for two days.

I suppose I could just have been unlucky to ha
ve a bad car and hopefully my problems are not the norm for Fiat. I will not, however, be buying another Fiat.

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