(T) Few Q's about Bravo's

I'm considering a Bravo Dynamic (1.9 150bhp diesel) as my next company car, got a few Q's about the car which hopefully some of you can amswer...

1. Someone has mentioned an option to upgrade the stereo with a subwoofer - yet I can't find any mention of this on the Fiat website or in the Bravo brochure. Does the sub come as part of the MP3 stereo upgrade (which I'm gonna go for as I have loads of mp3 discs), or does it not exist at all and I'm misinformed?

2. What's the sound quality like from the stereo (standard or uprgaded)? Have got used to an excellent Sony setup in the Focus which copes admirably with drum and bass!

3. This "Blue&Me" thing sounds superb. Does it work as well as it claims - reading out texts etc? And does the voice control require me to mess about training the car and/or my phone to recognise my voice?

4. How quickly does the 1.9 diesel warm up after starting on a cold morning? Focus has an electrically-heated front screen which is utterly brilliant on a cold morning - no p*ssing about scraping ice, just melts it off in half a minute! Sadly no such option on the Bravo

5. How does the boot space compare to a Focus - I often have to carry lots of bulky test kit round at work so need a decent size boot! Focus is *just* big enough, anything smaller my prove awkward.

Cheers!
Jonny

1 : yes there is a sub in the hifi kit along with an amp that powers all the speakers in the car for better sound.

2 : the sound is lame in the normal setup and OK with the hifi upgrade, not close to an aftermarket setup with a real sub though.
certainly better than your standard focus speakers anyway.

3 : the voice control works ok as long as you don't sound like a cartoon character. it doesn't require any voice training.

4 : if you go for the automatic AC then you have a button to clear the windshield, the car chooses the best and fastest way to do it automatically.

5 : how about you go for a test drive.

6 : Oh yes, it definitely looks much better than a focus

1. Someone has mentioned an option to upgrade the stereo with a subwoofer - yet I can't find any mention of this on the Fiat website or in the Bravo brochure. Does the sub come as part of the MP3 stereo upgrade (which I'm gonna go for as I have loads of mp3 discs), or does it not exist at all and I'm misinformed?

Rip your mp3 discs to memory sticks or portable HDD. Then use the

5. How does the boot space compare to a Focus - I often have to carry lots of bulky test kit round at work so need a decent size boot! Focus is *just* big enough, anything smaller my prove awkward.

Think it's bigger than a focus. 48hr test drive perhaps?

Excellent, thanks for your replies chaps!

I actually took one out for a brief test drive today - only 30 mins but enough to get a bit of a feel for it.

Car was same spec I'm considering (150 MJet Dynamic) and first impressions were pretty good. Interior is a nice place to be, plenty of gadgets and toys, stereo (standard one) sounded fairly decent, certainly as good as the Sony setup in the Focus, but I'll still spec the mp3 one for what it'll cost me - about 2 quid a month! The engine pulls nicely (in fact its deceptive, didn't realise just how well it went 'till I got back in the Focus which felt a bit gutless in comparison), the boot space looks decent, and it's a better drive than an Astra or 307/8 if not quite so sharp as the Focus.

Only snags are that the engine runs into the rev limiter far sooner than I expect (that's mainly 'cos I'm used to a fairly revvy little petrol with variable cam timing), the throttle is a bit "all or nothing", and the steering feels a bit too light - the guy demonstrated the "city" button and I thought the steering had broken!

On the whole though I'm pretty impressed with the Bravo - just need GE Fleet to get their collective finger out of their a*se now and sort out my extended test drive

there's actually a bravo model in the UK which stereo doesn't support MP3's??

I thought all current fiats with a cd player are MP3 compatible.

MP3 CD he means - not the blue & me USB port.

Warning: Pressing the 'City' button causes you to grow breasts, moan a lot and lose the ability to reverse park.

Focus boot is 20 lts bigger than bravo but thats the only thing going for it