Fiat Stilo what is the catch

[chippy17]

Am looking for something to replace my wife's ageing Golf and apart from the obvious I was thinking about one of these and came across this:

www.pistonheads.com/sales/121322.htm

looks too good to be true compared to other Stilo's, fishy or not?!

Also apart from the fact that they may or may not be up to VW/Audi stanards are they reliable etc? Thanks

Edited by chippy17 on Tuesday 9th January 10:17

[Wacky Racer]

Can't comment on whether they are reliable or not, but I like 'em. True they depreciate heavily, but as always, this works in your favour if you are buying second hand.....

Parts prices should not be too bad either......

[xyyman]

Do an HPI check and see if anythings amiss. See if its had a string of previous owners that may indicate its a Friday afternoon car. Make sure its got a properly documented service history and you should be fine subject to the usual inspection and test of course. Nice cars.

Phil

[thebigmack]

I kept my Stilo for ALL of 2 months.

2nd hand for about £4500.00. The 2nd day I had it, some of the interior trim came adrift, screwed it all back on but every couple of days it would just fall off. The radio would never pick up stations in London.There were random knocking coming from the rear that I had looked at but was never found.
In the end I had had enough and got rid of it.

These are only my experience's though.

[CarlT]

chippy17 said:

Am looking for something to replace my wife's ageing Golf and apart from the obvious I was thinking about one of these and came across this:

www.pistonheads.com/sales/121322.htm

looks too good to be true compared to other Stilo's, fishy or not?!

Also apart from the fact that they may or may not be up to VW/Audi stanards are they reliable etc? Thanks

Edited by chippy17 on Tuesday 9th January 10:17

The gearbox is shocking - really shocking (made me feel ill!). Everything falls off, they breakdown, they are very uneconomical, and no one wants them come PX time.
Personally, I would not touch one with a barge pole. You would be better off with a high mileage MkIV Golf.

[MOTORWISE]

CarlT said:

chippy17 said:

Am looking for something to replace my wife's ageing Golf and apart from the obvious I was thinking about one of these and came across this:

www.pistonheads.com/sales/121322.htm

looks too good to be true compared to other Stilo's, fishy or not?!

Also apart from the fact that they may or may not be up to VW/Audi stanards are they reliable etc? Thanks

Edited by chippy17 on Tuesday 9th January 10:17

The gearbox is shocking - really shocking (made me feel ill!). Everything falls off, they breakdown, they are very uneconomical, and no one wants them come PX time.
Personally, I would not touch one with a barge pole. You would be better off with a high mileage MkIV Golf.

totally agree the selespeed is the harshest 'box I've ever come across for a car they were trying to put forward as a flags ship (they've relaunched the croma now for that) it's very poor

[chippy17]

thanks for the advice, oh dear not good. Sounds like my old Tipo 16v, which I loved and hated in equal measure and it cost me 'grale money to run! Well I shall avoid, shame though.

[abarthchris]

chippy17 said:

thanks for the advice, oh dear not good. Sounds like my old Tipo 16v, which I loved and hated in equal measure and it cost me 'grale money to run! Well I shall avoid, shame though.

Alright mate,

Ill give you some better advice than the one-sided views that you've gotten so far!

Firstly the gearbox... you'll either love it or hate it. Its an automated manual so it can be quite good on the downchange in manual mode. However it is slow (imo) on the upchange, and some of them can be prone to faults. Like the other poster said, check if it has had a string of owners to see if its a problem car.

it is a 5dr, which are higher and longer than the 3dr and are cheaper, and with the mileage i think the price is quite low, but it does make me think it has problems...

You get a lot of nice toys on the abarth selespeed which dont tend to go wrong. You can get intermittents faults with the airbags and other random warning lights on the dash but more often than not these can be cured relatively easily.

The early cars were prone to a lot of faults (this one is an early car) most of which were rectified on the later post 02/03 models. These were mostly electrical, like the airbags, coilpacks etc.

The 2.4 lump is a nice engine, very torquey if not particularly quick in standard guise esp. with the s/speed. However it is thirsty, most average around the 25mpg mark but can see 32ish on m/way runs.

If you want more info on these check on fiatforum.com, theres a wealth of info on there.

If you want a cheap car with lots of toys and a bit more character than a golf then go for it, but if you want a reliable runaround, buy a civic et al.

I personally love mine and havent had too many problems with it. i love it more now its been remapped!

[Freaky Lady]

Hi I have just joined and have been reading about your Stilo's I had a 1.2 5 door (3 years old) for 6 weeks and ended up throwing the keys back to the Dealership and made a fuss (as us Ladies do!!) but was able to pick out anothercar of moy choise (the dealership sellers other makes but not interested wanted a Stilo for about 4 years or so) and then saw a nice 5 door Stilo only 18 months old different colour and fell in love with it and she runs like a dream very reliable and economical and very responsive (my patner is anti Fiat) but nagged him into buying this for me and he love it and everyone that I see say what a lovely car it is.

[abarthchris]

Freaky Lady said:

Hi I have just joined and have been reading about your Stilo's I had a 1.2 5 door (3 years old) for 6 weeks and ended up throwing the keys back to the Dealership and made a fuss (as us Ladies do!!) but was able to pick out anothercar of moy choise (the dealership sellers other makes but not interested wanted a Stilo for about 4 years or so) and then saw a nice 5 door Stilo only 18 months old different colour and fell in love with it and she runs like a dream very reliable and economical and very responsive (my patner is anti Fiat) but nagged him into buying this for me and he love it and everyone that I see say what a lovely car it is.

most are good, but the odd one is a complete dog! glad you enjoying your stilo..

[Freaky Lady]

Hi I agree the first one I had as you say was a complete dog!!! but have had my one for over 9 months now and as good as gold and am well happy one thing I would like to ask a friend of mine has a 1.2 3 dr and complains of the steering being to light how do you find yours please/ Anyone??

[abarthchris]

Freaky Lady said:

Hi I agree the first one I had as you say was a complete dog!!! but have had my one for over 9 months now and as good as gold and am well happy one thing I would like to ask a friend of mine has a 1.2 3 dr and complains of the steering being to light how do you find yours please/ Anyone??

I find it just right on mine with 205/55/16 tyres. There is the city button which makes the steering very light below 30mph, above this it switches off automatically. Have they got this pressed? if they do there will be the word CITY on the dashboard...

[Freaky Lady]

I too have city and find my fine but when out of town I switch it off but my friend with the 1.2 3 dr NEVER has his on but will get him to check his tyres and sizes too. Thanks

[pentoman]

I belive they can go to 200bhp with an intake and remap? Sounds quite a good gain.. almost too good?

MY colleague here has one, 02 plate I think. It's called the comedy clown car because it's always going wrong, but I think that's a bit unfair. The electric seat broke but because a 20p got into the cogs. The wipers didn't work at all for a while. The change paddle broke off and a new one is about £80 I think. His independent garage (the one he bought it from) have been rubbish at fixing it too which is partly to blame.

Shame because it's different to all the boring Focuses, Mk4 Golfs etc.

Russell

[abarthchris]

pentoman said:

I belive they can go to 200bhp with an intake and remap? Sounds quite a good gain.. almost too good?

MY colleague here has one, 02 plate I think. It's called the comedy clown car because it's always going wrong, but I think that's a bit unfair. The electric seat broke but because a 20p got into the cogs. The wipers didn't work at all for a while. The change paddle broke off and a new one is about £80 I think. His independent garage (the one he bought it from) have been rubbish at fixing it too which is partly to blame.

Shame because it's different to all the boring Focuses, Mk4 Golfs etc.

Russell

Yep, 200+ is easily acheivable providing you go to GSR engineering for the work. Pete's (GSR) development work on the induction kit is excellent, and gave nearly 20bhp! all for around £400.

mine is currently at 204.9 but that as it was remapped. it should make a couple more now. ill find out on the 4th feb when i have it rolling roaded again.

Its always the pre '03 cars that have the most troubles. the build quality on the early ones was shite

[chippy17]

Sorry have not replied, have been away at the Autosport Show, thanks for the flip side views, I just fancied something other than a Golf etc and do have a soft spot for Fiats. You can just as easily buy a 'Friday afternoon car' from any manufacturer, I remember my mother buying a Golf Mk2 Gti new and by the time she sold it it had had 4 complete dashboards as they kept literally falling off!

But much to mull and I am in no hurry and the Stilo just seems like a lot of car for the money.

[chippy17]

ooohhh and I have just gone back to revisit said car and it has been sold

[abarthchris]

chippy17 said:

ooohhh and I have just gone back to revisit said car and it has been sold

like i said mate, check out www.fiatforum.com and stilosport.com. There's plenty of advice on there and theres always one or two up for sale...

[chippy17]

abarthchris said:

chippy17 said:

ooohhh and I have just gone back to revisit said car and it has been sold

like i said mate, check out www.fiatforum.com and stilosport.com. There's plenty of advice on there and theres always one or two up for sale...

thanks Chris will do