Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and looking for a bit of advice. As a previous long time Fiat owner (two Punto's and a Bravo from 97-09) I've had nothing but great experiences with all my Fiats. Only problem I ever had was a dodgy internal light switch on the Bravo, but after 12 years of trouble free motoring I think that's pretty good!

In 2009 I swapped to an A4 which has been great fun for the last three years, but I'm about to move and need a car that can happily manage a 110 mile commute everyday and won't bankrupt me. It will mostly be motorway miles into and out of London and after a lot of cogitating and past experience I'm thinking a Stilo JTD may well be the answer to my problem.

Fuel consumption looks great and as the Stilo is basically a poshed up Bravo I feel like I know what I'm getting into. I really fancy the 3dr Dynamic, and what I really want to know is would an 05ish plate do me ok? I want something that needs minimal maintenance and will happily do 25k for the next year or two. I'm also on a budget and was wondering if sub £2000 for said car might not be too much to ask for. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, my other options are probably a really old Golf or something French, but I'd prefer to go the Fiat route.

Cheers,

Monkey

I'm not sure I'm qualified yet to give n opinion, but this is what I think.

Go for it.

Why? Well, I'm new to Fiat, in the past I have had Japanese, mainly Mazda, which were almost totally reliable for such old cars. Buying a Fiat for me was a bit of a risk, but I needed a more economical car, cheaper to run but still looked the part and had gadgets. After a lot of research, the Fiat really did fit the bill. I even tried to avoid it, by focussing on Golf, Astray and Focus, but I always came back to the Stilo-looks great and is one of the cheapest to run. Golfs have a breast REPUTATION, that doesn't make them all great! The problem I found was that I needed an 02 plate onwards to afford to RUN it, but these were way more expensive.

I got my Stilo JTD Sporting along with working air con, sky roof, claw alloys and great condition for £1900 including two new front tyres, 12 months tax and only minor issues to resolve, and is an 05 plate, now on 98k miles and running brilliant. I just don't think you can match the Stilo in that price range. Of course, when choosing one, as with any car, choose with care, and be prepared to sort things like the egr, maf etc for that sort of money.

Best of luck!

Think you need to be buying on condition and mileage with Fsh.

Might be a idea to up your budget maybe and get a later one, There seems to be some very nice 3 doors about and yes looked after there is no reason why it cant do 25k a year.

The Stilo is a generally reliable car and the later one you can buy the better but having said that they can be looked after on a shoe string if need be.
Was thinking about one myself either a 120 or 150 multi jet but 3 dogs wont fit in the boot. Think I would get the later multi jet engine if I could as there were some minor facelift and interior revisions as well.

Good luck hunting.

The jtd is spot on for what you want. Budget on doing a set of front wishbone and drop links in the first year. Then blank off egr and you will be fine. 100k seems about ave miles now and my 03 drives like New on those miles

My JTD does 27 miles each way on the A14 and cross country. I get upto 55 mpg and so far after 6 years, it's never failed to start. I'm on 100k miles. The front suspension is the weak link. So far 3 sets of drop links, both wishbones and a set of springs. The good news is that these items are not particularly expensive. Insurance isn't bad and RFL is good as the emmissions are low at below 149 particles /kg or however they measure it.

You have to keep it regularly serviced though. They can take a bit of abuse but being Italian, they will bite back, for example, make sure the waterpump and all the pulleys are done during the cambelt change.

Thanks to everyone for the replies. After a week of thinking about it and looking at everything coming up on autotrader and ebay, I think I'm definitely going to give the Stilo a try if I can find one within my budget. I've got a few weeks still before I need the car, so a bit of time to scour the classifieds!

I've seen a few cars up for grabs that the adverts mention have warning lights on. I've heard odd warning lights and other electronic glitches can be very common on the Stilo, the airbag light being on seems to crop up a lot. Are these cars to avoid, or is the odd electrical gremlin par for the course?

Monkeynut, if you put your town or area where you live you might find someone willing to take you out in their Stilo jtd so you can see what they are like. Will give you an example of what to look for.

Airbags normally are the connectors under the seat. Easy fix more often or not.

How about getting a fault code reading cable for (if) you have a laptop and any you go looking at you could plug in and see what faults are/if any are listed.

You would almost certainly need it at some point owning a Stilo so you would be prepared.

yeah I saw a few when I was looking. Apart from it being an MOT fail, its a fairly easy fix, so long as its the connector under the passenger seat, possibly more common on three doors due to the seat folding and sliding forward-catching the connector. I think I got lucky, because the rear seats in mine dont look sat in, and the front seat doesnt look like its changed position much in its life!

Other thing I noticed was glow plug warning-pretty much means new glow plugs but im not sure of cost, so id factor that into any bargaining.

as far as I can see so far, the Stilo has lots of electronics, so more to go wrong! a major issue appears to be the Battery. I got some minor oddities at first, but a high quality new battery solved that-again, factor this in when looking for a car. ALSO, keys, most cars i looked at had only one key, some didnt have a fob, neither did the one i bought. These are EXPENSIVE. I sorted a fob out cheap enough, but the actual key will cost you proabbly at least £190 ish in total - £120 for key, £40 for code pack if you havent got it, and £20 for the programming plus vat probably.:bang:

Thanks again for the tips. Luckily my brother in law works for a good independent garage and usually does all my servicing, so I'm sure most of the common faults are things he'd be able to put right.

The odd niggle that can be sorted is not too much of a problem as long as the car is reliable. It'll be doing 550 miles a week for at least the first few months, so really, not getting stuck on the side of the M11 waiting for the AA is my major concern. I'm encouraged that most complaints I've read on various reviews seem to be about interesting warning lights rather than breakdowns!

I know what you mean about keys, had to get one last year for my audi and I seem to remember it was the wrong side of £200, which was a nice surprise.

well, when i did my research into the Stilo, i didnt find much of any reported issues regarding breakdowns. Sure, any car will get common break down problems if you dont look after the car, but it seems to me that generally, the Stilo is pretty robust and reliable, for me, only time will tell but so far, i flippin love my Stilo.