Stilo is for Style and Value (Fiat Stilo)

Member Name: forzaf1

Product:	Fiat Stilo
Date:	21/08/02 (4857 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good price, alot of gizmos

Disadvantages: none

You may of seen the adverts where you either have the Italian football player getting an email from Heskey in the car while at the traffic lights or you get the 4 people in the car as they make a song with all the noises of the car. All of those are advertising the Fiat Stilo, the latest car from the Italian car manufacture.

First of all...lets set the record straight...the cars you see in both these adverts are top of the range cars or cars with the added opinions. Most of the things like email, sliding sunroof are all added opinion or available only on the top of the range.

I own the 1.6 Dynamic 3 door which extra side skirts, rear spoiler and 6 disc cd changer. It set me back 12,500 and included was 0% interest free over 3 years. Not many companies give that away on a new car. Pay back is about 219 a month.

The car is based on the Alfa Romeo 147 and the chassis is actually that car so you know your driving style. Included in this model is sports seats, air con, electric window/mirrors, traction control, onboard computer which gives your read outs like air tempertature/average speed/miles till empty fuel tank etc, 16inch alloys.

After about 5 months of driving it (it was launched in March). The other day the CD player has packed up and I can no longer get the radio to work. The downside to this could well be that it will take the car out of action for a couple of days as the stereo is built into the dash board like most cars...so it will be hard to get out. Tomorrow will be when its taken to the deal to have a look. But when you have a 3 year warranty included and a 10 year rust guarantee then I don't mind these problems. Best to have them now than later.

The models go from 1.2,1.6,1.8 and 2.5 Then you pick Dynamic or Active. Active being a lower spec car so you get hub caps, stand seats, no air con etc. There is about a £500 difference between Active and Dynamic. Prices start at 8995 and go upto about 16000 for t


he top of the range 'Abarth' edition.

As usual...all Fiats engine are great...and there is no problem when you want power. Some cars I have driven take a while to pass a LGV on the motorway but with the Fiats I have tried there is always power there.

Safety...well there are airbags in the side doors, in the roof and on the dash...so I would say it was pretty safe!

Alex

***UPDATE**

I visited my Fiat dealer on Wednesday the 21st October. After 1hour in the garage they came back saying they have no idea what the problem is (no cd, sound, scanning radio). They think it could be anything from updating the software to having to replace the whole unit. I have to go back on September the 17th so they can take another look and decide what to do next. 17th was the earliest they could get me in..which includes a hire car.

05/09/2002 - The Radio/CD Player/CD Changer has over night decided to work and now there are no problems at all with it. It plays fine like it was never broken in the first place. I will keep an eye on it and see if it develops again.

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