Fiat Brava 1.6

[Lissa]

Anyone owned one of these or know much about them?

good cars, most importantly make sure you get the purple master key.

[Lissa]

Pete's going to look at one tomorrow. Has a years MOT and 8 months tax, up for £500. Sounds a fairly good deal.

make sure u got that master key lissa, if you only get one key and you loose it it'll cost more than the car to get a new key cut becasue of changing everything else that goes with it. ive heard no bad reports on them cars.

[Lissa]

Yes, the master key and the code card we believe. We've read up about them a bit and it seems they are fairly reliable...............but they're Italian, so................lol.

I wouldn't touch a Fiat with a bargepole. My middle daughter has a Punto 1.2, the power steering has packed up. Apparently it's a common fault with the electronics that control the steering and means a £300 replacement steering column. She's had no end of problems with the car, and whenever she speaks to any experienced mechanic they tell her the same thing "It's a Fiat, they all do that".
She's fixing this problem then getting shot of it and buying a Japanese car. Personally, I woudn't buy any Italian built car. "If you can't afford German buy Japanese" was a bit of advice I was given once many years ago, and it's proved to me mostly worthwhile. I've always figured that a bad Japanese car is always going to be better than a good Italian one.

It appears that many fleet managers won't allow their staff to buy Fiats or Alfa Romeos because of the breakdowns they experience. If Pete does buy it, tell him not to slam the front seat back to quickly against the end stop - this triggers the fuel cut-off switch (a safety feature in a crash situations) and the car won't start until it has been manually reset. In Italian car circles this is seen as an endearing feature, to proper motorists it's a design flaw.

I have a cinqecento and a Doblo, and love them both, the cinqecento has a couple of odd quirks, well it is an old M reg, but I love them both, the Doblo is new and a dream to drive!
Had a few Fiats now, and all have been very reliable, they used to have a bad name, and I've not had any problems.

You do know what Fiat stands for?



Fix
It
Again
Tony

[Luckypants]

Fiat Brava / Bravo are a good car. both my kids have had one (1.4 SX and a diesel) The 1.4 has survived both my kids, provided 4 years of reliable motoring as a kayak vehicle despite Lowri doing her best to kill it. Purple Ronnie (as he is known) was sold on to another paddler / student who trashed it for 6 months before selling as a run around to a pensioner. It's still going with 150K on it. The diesel was suberb until some ******* ran into the back of it and wrote it off. (60+mpg)

The Brava has a remarkably smooth ride, decent brakes and is cheap to run.

Only niggles we had was with the nearside rear light cluster, where water can get in and cause some shorting. This is a known problem, apparently some gutter / drain hole blocks up with carp. Solved with silicon sealer.

Get windscreen cover on the insurance to, they can be bally expensive from AutoGlass etc, but local firm sorted one for £85 fitted.

[Viney]

You can get good cars, you can get bad cars, of all different makes. Like above a have had mates with Fiats, some good some bad. Its a god damn lottery i can tell ya.

Just do the usual checks to make sure everything works as it should, that the engine and Chassis numbers match the log book as well as the address. Look for signs of respray/accident damage, and rust on the inner wings and around the battery tray (If it has one) The usualy bounce test on the suspension (Should bounce once and settle). Look at the fornt tyres for uneven wear (Could be simple tracking issue, or knackered ball joints/Suspension), and just check the usual mechanical bits, Other than that, you should be fine