Mito with a 0.9 engine
Discussion
I was looking these for a first car too for my daughter.
I also looked at the 1.4 petrol and thought the insurance would be silly high.
Wrong. It was £50 a year more. (with a black box)
So, we now have a 10 plate Mito 1.4 135hp with leather on the drive and she loves it.
Faults:
Check the front springs and top hat bearings, they will be either broken (springs) or the bearings completely rusted and knackered if they haven't been changed. Twanging when turning is the sign.
I changed the tyres and brakes for peace of mind, daughter etc
Smelly air con (oily) means the o ring has gone hard on the oil air separator, they're a pound to replace plus a bit of labour.
I changed the cam cover gasket as well to be safe but probably didn't need it.
Check you have an undertray, mine didn't and imported one from Poland I think, £60 odd.
Cheap and cheerful car, daughter said she's going to 'keep this car forever' the other day...
Car sounds fab, none of her mates have one (Polos/Corsas etc) and they all love it. Plus it has leather, did I say?
DNA switch is novel, stereo, while not Bose, sounds bloody good, think it was a mid range setup.
40.1 mpg and all black, so rather smart looking when she can be bothered to wash it!
I also looked at the 1.4 petrol and thought the insurance would be silly high.
Wrong. It was £50 a year more. (with a black box)
So, we now have a 10 plate Mito 1.4 135hp with leather on the drive and she loves it.
Faults:
Check the front springs and top hat bearings, they will be either broken (springs) or the bearings completely rusted and knackered if they haven't been changed. Twanging when turning is the sign.
I changed the tyres and brakes for peace of mind, daughter etc
Smelly air con (oily) means the o ring has gone hard on the oil air separator, they're a pound to replace plus a bit of labour.
I changed the cam cover gasket as well to be safe but probably didn't need it.
Check you have an undertray, mine didn't and imported one from Poland I think, £60 odd.
Cheap and cheerful car, daughter said she's going to 'keep this car forever' the other day...
Car sounds fab, none of her mates have one (Polos/Corsas etc) and they all love it. Plus it has leather, did I say?
DNA switch is novel, stereo, while not Bose, sounds bloody good, think it was a mid range setup.
40.1 mpg and all black, so rather smart looking when she can be bothered to wash it!
Edited by Oilchange on Sunday 20th January 22:27
The same-engined Fiat 500 weighs 200 kilo less, which makes all the difference in performance/driving experience with this engine.
So on that note, my thoughts are: Go with a bigger engine in the the MiTo (which is a nice car with a 1.4) or go 500 TwinAir.
P.s. The 500 even has a fun, distinct sound to it: https://youtu.be/gMyh0j0twBY?t=49
P.p.s Clarkson has quite a strong view on the TwinAir MiTo: https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson...
So on that note, my thoughts are: Go with a bigger engine in the the MiTo (which is a nice car with a 1.4) or go 500 TwinAir.
P.s. The 500 even has a fun, distinct sound to it: https://youtu.be/gMyh0j0twBY?t=49
P.p.s Clarkson has quite a strong view on the TwinAir MiTo: https://www.driving.co.uk/car-reviews/the-clarkson...
Edited by Nerdherder on Monday 21st January 10:50
Her In'doors has had 2, an early 90hp twin air and a later 109?HP cloverleaf line twinair. The later higher HP engine made quite a bit of difference to the poke available. Both engines sounded great. The only things that went wrong was having the driver side mirror knocked forward whilst parked which broke a small part in the mount requiring a new mirror (not too pricey from alfa), and the interior door pull handle trim coming away from the door panel which is probably a feature of the heavy doors and their location at the front of the door near the hinge not being ideal.
The heavy doors did give the missus a shoulder injury whilst opening the door in high winds holding the above door pull resulted in her shoulder being yarked (resulting in a rotator cuff injury , which took a few months of specific physio to heal). Better (quirky) looks than any of the class competitors especially on teledial wheels.
PS one feature of these and the similarly rear brake equipped Fiats is a tendancy for the rear brake pads to stick. This appears to be a design feature as there is no where for crud to go and the pad guide/Clip ends up causing the pads to stick sometimes to the point where the rear brakes bind on. A strip and clean is all that seems to be available as the fix until the next time it happens. They usually start squealing during winter and can cause pads /disks to wear out rapidly if not attended to.
The heavy doors did give the missus a shoulder injury whilst opening the door in high winds holding the above door pull resulted in her shoulder being yarked (resulting in a rotator cuff injury , which took a few months of specific physio to heal). Better (quirky) looks than any of the class competitors especially on teledial wheels.
PS one feature of these and the similarly rear brake equipped Fiats is a tendancy for the rear brake pads to stick. This appears to be a design feature as there is no where for crud to go and the pad guide/Clip ends up causing the pads to stick sometimes to the point where the rear brakes bind on. A strip and clean is all that seems to be available as the fix until the next time it happens. They usually start squealing during winter and can cause pads /disks to wear out rapidly if not attended to.
Edited by fredd1e on Monday 21st January 13:42
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