Mito?

[paulmakin]

the giulietta has turned into a bit of a problem child - nothing "end of life" but i think its probably got, or building up to having, all the known giulietta problems. it was cheap, i did the belts recently and the MoT was pretty painless so some financial headroom to sort it all - everything is within the scope of the home tinkerer so still ecomically sensible to continue. Plus i quite like it despite everything.

i really want to take it off the road for a few weeks (which will turn into months as i;ll be overseas again soon) so looking at "runarounds" to tide me over.

suddenly decided that i like Mitos - never looked at them before so dont know why the new found interest.

i;ve read the other thread and narrowed the search down to a handful of candidates locally but i know nothing about these cars .however, im only looking at the 155bhp and cloverleaf models which arent discussed in the existing post.

any advice or thoughts from anyone ?

Edited by paulmakin on Friday 1st December 23:41

[BUG4LIFE]

I'm potentially interested in a Cloverleaf Mito too, so would be interested in people's thoughts/opinions?

[Rob 131 Sport]

We’ve had a 2012 1.3 JTDM Sprint for just under 9 years. Refer to previous threads for details. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Whilst the plan is for my daughter to use it, I did 600 faultless miles in it last week.

It’s just turned 95k. Regular annual rather than biannual servicing is the key plus we changed the gearbox oil and coolant at 50k.

[Darkslider]

Out of the two the Cloverleaf is the slightly more complex one requiring extra servicing of the adaptive dampers and Multiair unit and I've seen more engine failures on the Facebook group. They will presumably cost more to buy and hold their value better though, plus have some collectability status being the halo model eventually I'd have thought.

The 155 t-jet is the simpler more reliable engine and can be remapped to at or above Cloverleaf power levels if you're not fussed about having the top spec car.

[MikeM6]

We had a 2009 155 Veloce for about 100k miles and 8 years. It was overall a good little car to have, but a long list of not issues meant it had to go. We replaced it with a Giulietta...

I would buy another, but:

1. They are not comfortable. Seats are poor on a long run, so make sure you can sit in them.

2. They handle like go karts, but are bouncy and so the ride isn't plush.

3. Build quality is a step down from the Giulietta, but nothing seemed to break too badly inside.

4. Top mounts went very frequently, maybe related to the terrible road surfaces?

5. Headlights are not good, just about useable I would say.

6. Fuel economy was good thought and it felt really quick as it's quite a boosty little thing.

7. We had a recurring issue with the power steering failing mid turn. Only at low speeds and a restart would sort, but it was a strange intermittent issue that a new battery did not sort. Common issue I think.

8. Ours went due to subframe rot and just too many issues to bother fixing it at 120k miles. The exhaust shield rotted away quite early on too and there was body corrosion on the wing and the bonnet.

If the above does not phase you, you'll probably really enjoy it.

[Darkslider]

I'll add to that list that the 6 speed M32 gearbox is known for premature bearing wear, telltale sign is the gear stick rocking back and forth in 1st when you lift/depress the clutch. It's only £300 or so for a full rebuild on the car however so don't let it it put you off.

[MikeM6]

Darkslider said:

I'll add to that list that the 6 speed M32 gearbox is known for premature bearing wear, telltale sign is the gear stick rocking back and forth in 1st when you lift/depress the clutch. It's only £300 or so for a full rebuild on the car however so don't let it it put you off.

Ah of course, how could I forget that one!

Yes we had to do ours, we found a great place in Huddersfield that specialised in doing that job. I suspect many will have been done already, but if not or no evidence then at some point it will be needed.

I noticed it most in 4th gear when rolling on or off the accelerator, the gearstick would twitch back and forth.

[paulmakin]

Thanks all !

[paulmakin]

Just popping back to update after folks had posted up to help inform me.

did a bad thing - spent ages to-ing and fro-ing over a handful of Mitos and then bought a V6 Brera instead.

[JFReturns]

paulmakin said:

Just popping back to update after folks had posted up to help inform me.

did a bad thing - spent ages to-ing and fro-ing over a handful of Mitos and then bought a V6 Brera instead.

Whoops! Any pics?

[Speed 3]

Glad you dodged that bullet. The MiTo Cloverleaf I had was absolutely the most dogst worst car I've ever owned out of 30+. A third of it's life off the road with warranty problems including a new gearbox at 9k.

I'm not an Alfa basher but compared to the 156 I had a few years previous which was a delight, the MiTo was absolutely awful. I was actually happy when it was written off in a T-Bone.

[Rob 131 Sport]

Speed 3 said:

Glad you dodged that bullet. The MiTo Cloverleaf I had was absolutely the most dogst worst car I've ever owned out of 30+. A third of it's life off the road with warranty problems including a new gearbox at 9k.

I'm not an Alfa basher but compared to the 156 I had a few years previous which was a delight, the MiTo was absolutely awful. I was actually happy when it was written off in a T-Bone.

If I include the wife’s cars, we’ve had over 30. As an all rounder and considering reliability and running costs the Mito is probably the best car I’ve ever owned and as you can see from my car history that’s quite some accolade.