RE: Fiat Stilo 2.4 Abarth | Shed of the Week

RE: Fiat Stilo 2.4 Abarth | Shed of the Week

Author
Discussion

dinkel

26,942 posts

258 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
It might be lovely but I will choose a 2 litre 147 every day of the week.

Why? Drive one wink

AC43

11,486 posts

208 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
Sensibleboy said:
Wind reflectors and tinted lights. A great way to ruin even the very best of cars.
And the Brakedust Black wheels.

Jeez.....

greenarrow

3,592 posts

117 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
dinkel said:
It might be lovely but I will choose a 2 litre 147 every day of the week.

Why? Drive one wink
Might take you up on that as I'm currently in the cheap car market - do they drive well?

Howard-

4,952 posts

202 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
Jesus Christ. Really?

Look at the state of it!

Look at it!

Gez79

217 posts

183 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
My first car was a 1997 Fiat Bravo HLX, it was a good car for the money and I have to disagree with the article, the styling was much better than the boring competition especially in 3dr format.

Not sure how related the 5 cylinder engines between the Bravo and Stilo were as the former was a 2.0 and the latter a 2.4?

Never liked the Stilo though as it was so ugly, ironic as I seem to remember Stilo meaning Style in Italian?

Power isn't bad, golf V5 was 150bhp at the time, later upgraded to 170bhp, so on the money really.

This is also a bit of a chavvy example for my liking.

NGK210

2,926 posts

145 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
Has Shed ever featured a car that has so little merit?
And was the Bravo really “head-scratchingly ordinary”? IIRC, Car mag’s initial review of the Bravo rated it higher than the Golf and overall top of the class.

cerb4.5lee

30,585 posts

180 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
Sensibleboy said:
Wind reflectors and tinted lights. A great way to ruin even the very best of cars.
I did smile when I read Wind deflectors and I never even knew that they were a thing. I was at Trax(car show) last year when I first noticed a car with them...then after that almost every car I looked at had them!

It became a bit of a joke with my mates because I personally think that they look garbage(I'm not down with the kids though), but I'm guessing that they must be classed as cool in the car world at the moment because so many cars had them.

Edited by cerb4.5lee on Friday 15th November 12:34

rastapasta

1,863 posts

138 months

Friday 15th November 2019
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Had a Punto HGT as a first car, ended up selling it to a mate who sold it on. Asked him only last week what became of it and it was scrapped soon after he sold it on. Shame really as it was an excellent car in alot of ways. Mechanically these things are excellent.

blearyeyedboy

6,291 posts

179 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
Being fair to last week's shed (of which I was very critical), it's hard to recommend a car with a decent engine but which surrounds that engine with mediocrity.

I hated the base-version Stilo I hired once. I drive it one way to Sheffield and still remember my girlfriend's dad laughing when I turned up in "thar bloody pink Fiat"- yes, it was bright pink. The gear lever cap came off on the M5, so I have it back to the man at the check in desk when I arrived.

And yet, I feel sorry for this badly treated car. I'd be tempted to buy something like this and de-Barry it. A similar story of an old Strada refurb was inspiring.

But then, I'm off work under a duvet. I must be fevery and ill of I'm considering saving a Stilo... frown

(And even in my fevery state, the price would need to be in 3 figures for me to consider it! There are more worthy cars to save.)

That said, it's far more interesting than last week's shed.

rob.e

2,861 posts

278 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
Always liked the mirrors on these, don't ask me why..

j44esd

1,233 posts

223 months

Friday 15th November 2019
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As a standard car, a quirky 5-cyl, a sweet gear change and some Italian brio for not a lot of cash, it seems ok...but with its less than tasteful modifications, it's not for me...

Also, Roadstone are part of Nexen, not Michelin.

Johnners

34 posts

258 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
@Cambs_Stuart Yes they all had a refrigerated glovebox.

My ex had a boggo one of these. It handled terribly and he airbag sensor would come on all the time (although this was largely because she used to let her brolly rill under the seat and it would knock the wiring)

Fancy the Abarth one though!

Usget

5,426 posts

211 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
Shed said:
looking around our 2005 specimen, it's a struggle to see any obvious benefits.
FTFY.

A car unpopular when new, even more unpopular now, which has been covered in Loctite and driven through Halfords.

No ta.

SRT77

677 posts

218 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
They really were not that bad. I had both of these from new. The Schumacher was the Prodrive version with Bilsteins, nice stainless exhaust and OZ wheels. Handling was pretty good if I remember.
The blue one was a 1.6. All ok apart from the dreadful throttle response. On idle, you could floor the throttle and bring your foot right up again before the engine thought about responding.




Edited by SRT77 on Friday 15th November 13:46

BFleming

3,606 posts

143 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
cerb4.5lee said:
I did smile when I read Wind deflectors and I never even knew that they were a thing. I was at Trax(car show) last year when I first noticed a car with them...then after that almost every car I looked at had them!
The Ritmo (Strada) Abarth 130TC had wind deflectors as standard. Huge things that weren't UV resistant and went cloudy before they went in the bin. You still see the odd 130TC, but you rarely see one with the deflectors.

cerb4.5lee

30,585 posts

180 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
BFleming said:
The Ritmo (Strada) Abarth 130TC had wind deflectors as standard. Huge things that weren't UV resistant and went cloudy before they went in the bin. You still see the odd 130TC, but you rarely see one with the deflectors.
Cheers for that and I never even knew that any car manufacturer fitted them as standard to cars. I did have a wind deflector on the roof just in front of the sunroof on my Sierra xr4x4 years ago, but I'd never noticed them on the windows of any car until last year.

I presume the idea of them is to have your window down a little bit and it removes the buffeting then.


J2daG1990

1,181 posts

126 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
I can remember when I was back at school about 10 years ago my mate's mum had a nice red Schumacher Edition one of these.

Never seen one on the roads since...

monzaxjr

549 posts

146 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
I went out with an Italian lass once who had one of these. Like the car if you wound her motor up she made a joyful noise. She also gave me a dose of galloping knobrot. I liked the car more than her.

BFleming

3,606 posts

143 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
cerb4.5lee said:
Cheers for that and I never even knew that any car manufacturer fitted them as standard to cars. I did have a wind deflector on the roof just in front of the sunroof on my Sierra xr4x4 years ago, but I'd never noticed them on the windows of any car until last year.

I presume the idea of them is to have your window down a little bit and it removes the buffeting then.
Some markets like them more than others. Japan for example - a large quantity of JDM imports seem to have them. Allegedly it's about ventilation without the noise. I have no experience though.
Get that debit card out, Christmas is coming... https://e-heko.com/en_GB/index

cerb4.5lee

30,585 posts

180 months

Friday 15th November 2019
quotequote all
BFleming said:
Get that debit card out, Christmas is coming... https://e-heko.com/en_GB/index
hehe

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