Dear All,

Hi, let me introduce myself quickly, my name is Andrew but my friends call me Teg. Further details on my website.

My second car, was a brand new Fiat Punto HLX 1.9 JTD 5 door in silver. This is now coming to the end of the three year Fiat AutoFiance (in June) and I have my heart set on a Stilo Abarth with all the toys.

I know have the option to buy second hand and save some money, but just want to have that fresh new car smell! I have a few questions, as I have had different responses from the various people I speak to.

I have read across this forum that upgrading the audio is a chore and not for the faint hearted. Therefore, the only option I was considering doing was adding an amp to the Stilo to just lift the factory fitted stereo to something more respectable. (I don't need much else, I'll be listening to pure pop and electronic tracks from the 1980s!) Is this worth considering?

With the mark I model, there were bucket loads of problems, particularly with the Selespeed gearbox. Have these all be sorted now with the mark II model? As there is so much electrics on the vehicle, that these have a tendency to fail, has theen been resolved also?

I'm 23 years old, and this is my first attempt to purchase a nice sports car and I've chosen the Stilo before the Honda Civic Type-R for various reasons. The main one being gut instinct. I sat down in the Abarth, and within a second felt comfortable, driving it around for the afternoon a test drive, the car felt right, this car felt "me". Does that make sense to anybody or am I talking rubbish?

Anyways, I look forward to hearing your thoughts and then also letting you all know how it goes with me planning this dream of all buys!

Teg

Hi Teg, and welcome to the forum.
I think the stereo/speakers in the Abarth are quite sufficient for myself as I like to be able to hear the exhaust note so I don't tend to have it on too loud.
There's an option to have a 300w sub fitted when you buy the car so in my opinion that would easily be enough for your needs.

As for the Mark1 problems, I have only had my car for 3 months so can't yet comment on reliabilty in my own experience, but I have heard that a lot of people with the latter models have a lot less problems.

When you say "the car felt right, this car felt me" .. I know exactly what your saying. I love my Abarth and I really would not want to be driving anything different.. Its just so Me

Click on my Sig below if you want to see some Abarths including mine..

What colour are you thinking of Teg ?

hello teg and welcome to the forum. i bought a new abarth selespeed about 8 months ago and have had no problems. this is my second stilo the first bieng a 1.6 dynamic. from what i have heard on this forum fiat have cured most of the electrical gremlins with the stilo2. as for the sound system, the abarths system is pretty good as standard, all i did was add a multichanger. in my opinion the abarth selespeed is the best value car on the market, my local dealer sold me one with metallic paint for £13000. you just get so much car for the money. i would not class it as a sports car, more of a fastish hatch, but what it does have because of the 2.4 5cyl engine is loads of grunt. it will pull at any speed in any gear. sit on the motorway at 100 and put your foot down and it goes. the voice activated phone/satnav/cd changer is great, and the selespeed box is loads of fun. go and buy one now you will not be dissapointed. just make sure it is a 3 door.(sorry stu).

Thanks for your prompt reply KoArAnG.

Thanks also for all your advice.
You see, I'm a quiet shy and reserved person in real life. I want my car to make a statement, to be my extrovert side. (Does that make sense?)

Originally I was looking at Murano Blue, but having seen some nice Stilos (not Abarth) in Black, that is quite tempting. My Punto JTD is silver but I think the colour has become just too common, so not sure if it is still the infashion for cars.

I know what you mean, I sat in Abarth back in April 2003 (it was owned by a employee of the dealership I purchased by Punto from) and revved the engine. Wooo Hooo! Sweet. I also have spent several months (nearly a year) reading many of the posts on the Stilo section of this Forum. I love the idea of decided to buy a car that is not a hothatch, but a street cruiser. So, coming back to what I said above about my car being an extension of myself, I want to be subtle but noticeable when on the road. Are you with me?

Im totally with you there Teg

Black is a really top choice, looks amazing on the Abarth, and your right, silver is a very popular colour at the moment.

i would not go for black teg. i got mine in metallic black and it is by far the best colour when it is clean. however when it gets dirty it looks like a pile of crap. it is very very hard to keep looking good. this is definately the last black car i buy. i think koarang has the best colour.

Murano blue is a good choice too, one of the 1st stilos i saw was in that colour and it totally blew me away and it wasn't even an abarth.
Do you intend to get leather interior and/or sunroof Teg ?

Yeah, going all the way. Full leather interior and the Sky window. Never owned a car with a sunroof

Well was only recently considering black. Black is quite a sexy colour for a car. My friends say I should get broom yellow, but I've always liked the few Stilo's in the Murano Blue I have seen around. Blue has always been my favourite colour.

My Stilo will be cleaned religiously. By myself, I would like to add. Washed and hoovered every weekend. Although I am even considering shelling out and having it full valet every month, once I get it. I work on a farm (before you jump the boat on this one) the barns have been converted into offices, so the final 2 miles to the office is countryroads, so my car will get caked in all sorts of muck. :bang:

Even thought i havent got an abarth, ive got the 1.8! My stilo is in the murano blue and i have to say it was 1 of the thing that made me buy my stilo (and i havent seen another round my area in this colour yet; seen a few punto's tho!) and also the leather interior; which just looks stunning, ive got full cream! But you get two tone now; which looks really nice! I havent got any pictures posted yet! But some of the ova chaps on ere have got this colour and a few pic's on the site! The stilo is a lovely drive; dont know about the selespeed as i never driven 1; ive obviously got manual and its a real smooth drive!

Some people seem to love the Selespeed, some people hate it. My wife is scared of it! I personally love it. No it's not perfect but I can't see me going back to a standard manual again. I like the sounds of the ford and VW versions with dual clutch which is supposed to make changes much smoother than single clutch versions like the selespeed. Nothings gone wrong with it yet, when it does I'll probably hate the thing and sell the car.

As for the colour. I wouldn't buy another black or dark coloured car (my one is dark metallic blue - not sure what it is called), having also owned a black car before, unless you keep them well cleaned and polished they look awful. My fav colour for a car is Red so would suggest that . Love Alfa Red and I had a really nice Saxo VTR in flat red once they stopped selling it in that shade and everyone else bought the horrid light metallic blue. Ford makes horrible Red cars, often very orangey red, not deep and virbrant, just light and bright....horrid.

If I was to buy the Fiat again it would either be the JTD with lots of toys or an Alfa GT JTD I know not really a Fiat but nice....unfort. they weren't around at the time.

Thank you guys for all your responses. I am so glad I have found this forum, my own little Fiat family.

It just gives me more to look forward to. Those lazy summer afternoons, driving around in my Abarth

I have went for a test drive in October, but on the advice of the salesman will go for another longer test drive at the end of April, early May (just to confirm everything in my mind, if not in my wallet!)

Not sure what else to ask really? Is it worth keeping the SatNav SOS option after the first year. I would find it quite useful, when you just drive to somewhere you don't know and want to book tickets and a cinema or a table at a restaurant

I also saw the Abarth at the NEC Motorshow Live at the end of May last year and had some Scotsman tell me all about the car. Not much I didn't know but he admitted the mult-colour display on the dash had been removed purely on the basis of cost!

I remember when I first purchased by Punto and was discussing the Abarth with my friend, Dave (who happens to work for Fiat!). He just said these words that inspired me...

"Andrew, the Abarth is a completely different animal..."

The multi colour display he refers to is the small square display in between the rev counter and speedo, its about 2 1/2 x 2" in size.

The selespeed still has the 7 " colour sat nav screen in the middle console.. I was unsure about this before i got my car so i had to confirm it.

Not too sure if this was what you were refering too, but just in case I thought i had better let you know as the 7" display was a major reason i brought the selespeed.

I love the Abarth, but one reason I bought the selespeed in preference to the manual was purely down to the extra toys. They are not the fastest to 0-60, as everyone is keen to post, but it has so much more to offer.

As for the SOS option, forget it - I got the Connect+ in the Ulysse, and have used it twice - for starters, speaking to someone whose English is not their first language causes problems [except for Danielle, I think she was South African ]. Most, if not all, of the Ulysse bods won't be renewing either. It sounds like an ideal concierge service, but I have had no real need for it - all depends how often you will actually use it.

I still find it hard to swallow that the MFD has gone from later models, and this is something I would sorely miss.

As for the colour my friend, i know it's not very discreet, but i really sugest the yellow. When i bought my Stilo i wasn't too sure if the yellow would work for me but now i've had it for about 5 months i couldnt be more delighted; it looks fantasic(an it would look even better in an Abarth with the plastic strips painted in yellow too), if you scratch it you can harly see the scratches and more importantly, it never look dirty(where i live all the roads are dirt roads and all the other cars look filthy but the yellow stilo allways looks fine no matter how dirty it is!!!!)

So if u don't think it's too "hey look at me" i really sugest u get it!!

Have fun deciding!!

Stilo Multijet 140bhp said:

So if u don't think it's too "hey look at me" i really sugest u get it!!

Have fun deciding!!

Click to expand...

The broom yellow is just too in your face. The company car park is small and I don't want to draw attention to myself or the vehicle. Thanks for your honesty though. Yellow, just doesn't work for me.

It's routed to my childhood and the Back To The Future trilogy. "Hey McFly are you chicken / yellow?"

HI,

I must agree with the comments on Black as a colour. I purchased a Black Abarth 2 years ago. It is a pain to keep clean. Looks a million dollars when clean BUT... The other problem with black is that any small grit under the sponge when washing it tends to leave small "whitish" scratches. These polish out but mean still more work.

I when back to the local dealer on Saturday and traded my Abarth on a new one, which I will pick up next Saturday. This time I have gone for "Pole Blue". This is pretty bright but not quite as "in your face" as the yellow. With the 2 tone leather interior it looks great. Can't wait for next week.

After looking at all the alternatives I could find nothing I wished to drive more than another Abarth. They are a great car.

How much did you pay & how much you get on trade in if you don't me asking? I'm interested in refreshing my car now.

The current price of the 3 door Abarth selespeed in New Zealand is $46000 (about 16,000 pound UK). The only 3 door selespeed model available in NZ is fully optioned. Leather, alarm, 215X45X17 tyres, Sat/Nav+ etc.

The trade price was less than I wanted and we spent "some long time" discussing this with the dealer. The end reult was a trade of around $23,000 (about 8,000 pound).

Still Fiat's depreciate and if you really, really want to drive another Abarth you have to be realistic on the cost of ownership

teg said:

The broom yellow is just too in your face. The company car park is small and I don't want to draw attention to myself or the vehicle. Thanks for your honesty though. Yellow, just doesn't work for me.

It's routed to my childhood and the Back To The Future trilogy. "Hey McFly are you chicken / yellow?"

Click to expand...

Before you right off the yellow, take a look at one in the flesh - I'm very conservative (and a lot older), and wasn't sure wether I'd done the right thing when I ordered mine.

Now I've got the car though, I love it to bits and glad I chose it.

Paul

Hi Teg...welcome to the forum. I am still smitten with my 04 Abarth the only mechanical problem I've had is with tyre wear, but that's now sorted.

Don't dismiss silver...mine is silver it's called techno grey, while I agree with everyone silver is a common colour, but the Stilo is such a rare sight on the roads I think even one in Silver still stands out. Plus it so, so easy to clean and polish. You can see pics of my car by clicking the link to KoArAng's site on any of his posts. (my car is 'jaspers' car)

Look forward to sharing your excitement with you when you get your Abarth.