should (fingers crossed) be picking up my new tin top at the w/e

Fiat Stilo Abarth - 170Bhp



stilo

[Edited on 19/5/05 by DaveFJ]

How many hours until the rust sets in then?



Adam

Come on adam, give him a chance!!

where's Tony?

Ned

[Edited on 19/5/05 by ned]

Fiat noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sorry

All reviews and reports (did quite a bit of research) say that this car is different from other Fiats in that all the normal faults/rust etc are absent!

Plus - it's cheap because of Fiats poor reputation

>> Just heard I can't have it till Tuesday

[Edited on 19/5/05 by DaveFJ]

If it has the paddle gearshift, beware...

Guy at work has one and the gearbox is always giving problemsss

Fiats - good engines, Good Value!

According to people who know these things...

an induction kit and new exhaust rear end takes it up to 190 Bhp don't think the wife will let me play with it like that for a while though

quote:

---

Originally posted by Stuart Ainslie
If it has the paddle gearshift, beware...

Guy at work has one and the gearbox is always giving problemsss

---

nice choice...just that bit of individuality as they aren't that common....good value too...

FIX IT AGAIN TONY

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

RUST?????

ill have you know that i have had the two predecessors to the stilo. ie the tipo and now i drive a bravo and i can tell you they dont rust!!! I believe the tipo was one of the first cars of its type to come with a galvinised chassis.... so there. The 16v in the bravo is a great engine and gives a good spirited drive. i would say that the only problem fiats have are the elctricals. the tipo started to develope some funny electrical problems and the bravo has had an injector replaced but otherwise no complaints whatso ever.

Tipo is now my sisters, has 130K miles on the clock and going strong.....



PS the olds also drive a fiat ulysse which is exactly the same car as the citroen and peugeot mpvs just cheaper. (nice engine too)

[Edited on 19/5/05 by Findlay234]

Built by robots, wired by chimps . It's Italian, it's gotta have spaghetti problems. I had an Alfasud 1.5ti that used to flash its own headlights.

Worst car i ever owned....

Renault 19 1.7TXE

bloody awful and could always be relied on to let me down. guaranteed to break down at least once a month and would need to be bump started 3 mornings out of 4

was only 12 months old and the main dealers couldn't do anything more than say 'yes there is a fault' - couldn't fix it

new battery every 6 months and new gearbox after 40000 miles, new half shafts twice, new wheel bearings, sunroof broke in the open position, rad thermostat (one of 3!) went wrong so it overheated all the time, and still the dealer could do nothing!

Renaults are shite..... I like them fiats. especially the arbarths.. I know ppl that have nothing but fiats and have no troubles.. Bloody good cars for the money

expect to see it hurtling past / through Stowmarket in the near future

will try not to startle the Stowmartians

Damn good car fiats, cracking engines and very economical.Ive owned 5 and never been let down or had rust problems.
Cheers,
Bob

Finally (after a bit of messing about) had the Fiat delivered yesterday.

First problem - dunno how to drive tha damn thing !

this selespeed gearbox means learning a completely different way of driving and at the moment it's still quite confusing. I have driven automatics before but this is not an automatic... it is a manual gearbox with an automatic clutch which brings up the question - how do you do a hill start without a clutch pedal ?

It seems i have to trust the system to balance the clutch for me - it was quite unnerving when it started rolling back on me at the lights / roundabouts yesterday!

SO - anyone used to driving one of these (same gearbox as fitted to some Alfa's) got any tips for me ?

I have found it is much smoother in manual mode and if you lift off slightly when changing up it makes things better.

Suppose it is like anything - will get used to it soon. and it is bloody quick

[Edited on 27/5/05 by DaveFJ]

cool....never driven one and my alfa's got a normal gearbox...so I'm no help, but enjoy it....!

i drove an m3 with a similar box (smg)(at least, i assume its the same idea).

just select first (ISTR you need to hold the brake to select a gear), then deck it!!! the m3 held itself like an auto would, but wouldnt change gear til told. It also had an auto mode.

i used to lift when changing gear, though i dont believe you have to - once i didnt and it nearly winded me! was a mates though, so i had to be careful.

if first gear doesnt hold itself on a hill, id be a little annoyed. either balance the brake or complain to the dealer.

[Edited on 27/5/05 by JoelP]

Best thing about them though.......

The noise of the engine - sort of like a gurgle then a wail then a howl as it revs out.

Just don't break the cambelt :-)

John F - former owner of a 5 cylinder Fiat.

One weekend and 800 miles down

All I can say is ...

The exhaust note as you hit 4500 revs is incredible and now i have sorted out the gearbox thing 8 seconds 0-60 is not a problem

I find that lifting off just fractionaly as i change up seems to make it pretty smooth but agree if you just floor it and paddle shift up you are at risk of whiplash. The fully automatic mode is awful for just this reason but then I have only been using that in traffic jams anyway.

Even managed to get the nice lady in the dash to give me correct directions to some really obscure cornish villages.

Overall - bloody pleased - now it just needs to prove it is reliable