Hi Guys,
Thinking about a Bravo T-Jet 120 Dynamic as a change from my Panda 100HP.
Does anyone know of a garage in the North West that will let me have a Bravo for more than the normal ~30 minutes to test drive? My nearest garage is 30 miles away. I don't want to make a £14,000 decision on 30 minutes driving in an area I don't know (so difficult to take on a variety of roads)
May also consider renting one for a weekend if I can find a rental company that has them..
Thanks,
Mathew.

Don't base a car purchase on a rental car! Without doubt it will have been abused... has it got a man's clutch? what's 2nd gear top out at? etc etc

Best plan is to call your dealer and tell them you want to test one for a day because it's too big a purchase to decide on in 30 mins. When we bought the Croma the dealer gave us the keys and told us to be back before they shut that day. We spent about an hour driving about which we thought was long enough to decide.

If they query why tell them you need to check if it fits on your drive, if the childrens car seats fit, if the pushchair fits in the boot, if your suitcases fit... etc.. if you don't have kids... well they won't know!

If you have a sat nav use that to get a good veriety of roads on your test drive. Main thing is to get the car to yourselves so you can enthuse or critisice the car without the salesman jumping in.

Its a big decision and the market is dead, so they should oblige you. You need to know if it is comfy for you, and what the road noise is like over that rough tarmac only you know. And all the rest, as Hellcat says.

I was in Renault Clio (new) the other evening and the noise at seventy over old tarmac was shocking; add in the miserable, low, hard seat and the agonising reach back for the seatbelts (two door) and I had a miserable ride. Exactly the same went for a Ford Fiesta (late model) last week.

But initially they felt like pleasant, quiet little cars. Wrong!

Fiats are not so bad you know.

Exactly, I want to be really sure. I thought the 100HP was ok on test drive, still think it is ok (but worse when driven outside 30 mins of test drive) 18-months later. However no one can tell you that it's quiet and comfy. The other half hates it! Have had a change of circumstances so now I want something that is bigger and way more comfortable (given I now do 20,000 miles a year due to moving house away from work) and more suited to a small family or putting suitcases in the boot, etc., etc.
I'll ring round a few more dealers and let you know how I get on

I hate to sound traitorous, but the Kia Ceed and its Hyundai twin are also excellent cars. Take a look.
And take your time. Cars are expensive and you need to be comfy. I have a Doblo and I am always delighted to slide back into it after being in more conventional cars. But I am not recommending it to you - I never recommend cars. Good hunting.

I also liked the ceed a lot (pro_ceed in my case). Still went for the Bravo though...

Dealership I bought my Bravo from was a combined Fiat/Kia dealer. Side by side the Bravo and Ceed were almost a generation apart.

The Ceed is like a Stilo, well the 3 door version anyway!

we have both cee'd 1.4 109hp and bravo 1.4T sport 150hp.. excellent cars both.

Hellcat said:

Dealership I bought my Bravo from was a combined Fiat/Kia dealer. Side by side the Bravo and Ceed were almost a generation apart.

The Ceed is like a Stilo, well the 3 door version anyway!

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Maybe, but I was talking about the 3-door Ceed (or the pro_ceed), which is way better looking than the Ceed IMHO...

But it isn't just looks, is it.

It's not, but if we are going to dig into this...

I drove the pro_ceed for about an hour and it was almost perfect. It was the 2.0 diesel and it felt like a rocket. The interior was not even close to old Kias. I must say the quality of some of the materials and built was better then the Bravo. At least the quality was consistent, unlike the Bravo where for example good quality dashboard goes with cheap door handle plastics. But I guess there must always be something to remind you it's Italian

ceed/pro_ceed is a very good car for me and it was the second car in my wishlist (and even first for some time). I went for the Bravo because of this "special feeling" I had when driving it and the fact that Bravos are rarer where I live. But still, the pro_ceed I drove was close to flawless IMO...

Very interesting, and very fair to say that you bought a Fiat on emotional grounds. I think this is quite common. I know I allowed emotion to colour logic when I bought mine

I found the Kia to have a seating position which suited me absolutely perfectly, and very good rear room too, but I was not in the market for such a car. If I were...?

i thought about a ceed for 5 minutes... that was all.

Big Black Stilo said:

i thought about a ceed for 5 minutes... that was all.

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5 minutes !?!? What took you so long?? lol

My dealer also a Fiat/Kia dealership and he also tried to fob me off with a ceed before I even looked at a Bravo (They really must be on massive extra commission for Kia's over Fiat) Took me all of 20 seconds of looking around the car saying "Nope, nope, nope!". Sorry to any ceed fans but it still has cheap written all over it inside especially, I drive a 2 year old Mitsubishi at present and quality wise not even in the same league. Wheras the Bravo steals the heart if it is the car for you.

To quote Jeremy Clarkson's review of the Bravo in the Sunday Times when it was launched :-

"There are many issues in a Bravo that you just won’t find in a Volkswagen. So we’re back to square one. To buy this car you must decide that what you really want is something that’s not quite as good as a Golf.

Except for a couple of things. The way it feels and the way it looks. If these are important to you, try one. You might like it. I did"

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I think that's what seperates those who do decide on a Bravo.

cidereye said:

Sorry to any ceed fans but it still has cheap written all over it inside especially

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It's quite the opposite actually...Some of the plastics in the pro_ceed I've driven are better than the ones on Bravo, the rest inside is about the same in terms of quality.

No matter if you like it or not, the Ceed has nothing to do with old Kias and this is something everybody agrees with, including your favorite Jeremy Clarkson:

Forget Kia of old and embrace Kia of the next century. Millimetric precision abounds on the Ceed- even if nearly everything (including the materials) are just tracing-paper perfect clones of the Toyota Corolla. Feels so well put together that the seven-year warranty won't get troubled much.

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I think you, as most people, became victim of your own preconception about Korean cars, and you didn't really give it a chance. But, believe me, you are totally wrong about this one.

I find it funny that some people talk about cheap plastics in the bravo.

I find the interior of my bravo of better quality than most high end german cars, at least the whole dash is not all made of one chunk of textured plastic.

The kia proceed is really nice, but it doesn't have the italian design touch.

The only piece of plastic I don't like on the Bravo is the sports replacement for the central armrest - and it will be replaced when the funds allow.

The rest are all pretty good, with a good ratio of fabric, soft plastics and hard plastics. In fact, hard plastics at the bottoms of the doors is a good idea as it prevents staining from mud etc.

Tad-bravo said:

I find it funny that some people talk about cheap plastics in the bravo.

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I understand this is your car and it cannot be less then flawless, but of course, it isn't. I'm just trying to be a little objective here. Have you ever looked at the plastics of your door handle or the same thing under the hand brake? That's more or less all cheap plastics I have noticed up to know and I am completely fine with it, but the point is, that there are some cheap plastics...

Tad-bravo said:

I find the interior of my bravo of better quality than most high end german cars, at least the whole dash is not all made of one chunk of textured plastic.

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I will assume this is a joke, unless it is the Golf that you call a "high-end German car". Are you sure you can make any difference between "I like/dislike this interior" and "This is cheap plastics/this is high-quality plastics"?

Tad-bravo said:

The kia proceed is really nice, but it doesn't have the italian design touch.

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True, that's why I went for the Bravo

Audi A4 S4 3.0 TDI

The interior consists of black leather, black plastic and silver plastic/aluminium.

Costs £32,000 - that count as high enough?

Which door handle are you looking at? The inside one that counts as a little pocket for mints? At least they've put little rubber grips in so you have a nice feeling bit to grab.

"High-end" is not simply "more expensive" to me. I understand "high-end" as "high class", which in the case of Audi is at least A6. But that may not be what Tad had in mind...

But in any case, I am pretty sure the S4 interior is made of high quality materials, probably better than Bravo's, regardless of whether you actually like the interior or not...