Very Nice Indeed (Fiat Stilo)

Member Name: JohnThePoof

Product:	Fiat Stilo
Date:	01/10/03 (2253 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap at the moment, Nice smooth drive, Secure

Disadvantages: small wing mirrors

I recently stubled across the reviews of the Stilo after placing my order for one at the dealership. Imagine my thoughts as I read quite a few reviews that criticised the car!

Anyway, I decided to proceed with my order for a 1.2 Active Aircon 5 door model, which would take about 6 weeks for delivery from order. In reality, I think I had timed my order luckily, as it was at the dealership and on the road inside 3 weeks. Nice result!

Firstly, I have to say (regarding the negative reviews) that Fiat, like all other car manufacturers, ship an enormous number of cars from the factory and onto the roads. If you look at things realistically, the number of complaints in comparison to the number of cars out there is positively tiny. Things go wrong with simple things like toasters and TV's, so do you really expect that cars are always problem free?

Anyway. Car delivered, I was immediately impressed with the sleek styling. Nicely set out lights placement front and rear, the side rubbing strips are not intrusive on the design and the body coloured bits such as mirrows, bumpers etc all fitted well with the design of the car. It also looked slightly taller than I remembered from my initial viewing, which was nice.

Inside, everything is well thought out, from the gorgeously smooth 6 speed gearbox to the thoughtful use of the upper glovebox compartment being refrigerated (when the aircon is on). The seats, which are adjustable for height (useful for those of us with short bodies!) rate amongst the most comfortable seats I have experienced in a car of this range and I was impressed by the number of airbags - 6 in total, including side airbags which are a good safety addition.

One things which I have found irritating is the lever for adjusting the seat position (to slide the seat forward and backwards): The lever sticks out just a little too much, which takes a little bit of getting used to. As you remove your foot from the
clutch, it is difficult to avoid kicking the lever due to how far it sticks out from under the drivers seat. A small niggle that only takes a couple of days to get used to.

The trip computer is quite good, providing lots of information from fuel consumption, range to empty tank (always useful for those of us who seem to drive permanently in the red zone!), radio information and a whole host of other functions such as a speed warning! Not too sure about the use of bright orange for the dashboard display though....

For a 1.2 engine, it is VERY nippy once you get out of first gear. Once you get into 4th, 5th and 6th, the engine is once again very smooth and efficient. On more than one occasion, I have found myself at 90 without realising, due to the lack of noise and the very smooth and comfortable acceleration. I have to say that I'm surprised.

Visibility is good, although the wing mirrors could have done with being slightly larger. They appear to be quite small and there is some restriction on visibility from them. Other than that, all round visibility is good.

If I was to compare this car to my last (a Vauxhall Astra 1.6), I would say that this car is a DEFINITE improvement. It appears to me to be much more 'punchy' than the old car, even with the smaller engine. Fuel economy seems excellent too.

I have been back to the dealership on only one occasion - As standard, the car ships from Italy with the 'indicator flash' on remote locking/unlocking turned off. i.e when you lock and unlock the doors, the indicators do not flash to let you know that the doors have really locked etc... This is a simple matter for the dealership to rectify though (just 10 minutes and a cup of coffee later).

On the whole, especially given the good deals around at the moment, I would have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending this car. For once, Fiat seem to have got it right.

Summary: