(G) Stilo 5 door JTD - 1st impressions (buying 2nd hand)

Like I suspect most people, I was quite taken by the Stilo adds of a few years back and decided this could well be my next car. The combination of performance and economy have always appealed to me and so I started looking for a fairly well specified 2nd user JTD and after about 5 months found the model I wanted What I was searching for was a 5 door Dynamic in metallic silver with a factory fitted skyport (you can see why it took five months!).

I had of course read various reviews of this model and whilst it received good reviews for interior space & design, it never seemed to get very good reviews for performance and handling So naturally enough, having found the car I wanted, the next step was a test drive. The first thing I noticed was that there was a noticeable amount of pitching & rolling at low speeds which made me wonder if some of the reviewers hadn’t been so far off the mark I thought, “if it’s like this around town then it’s not likely to be much fun if I start pushing it.”.

However, since I liked the car in every other respect, after a bit of haggling, I took the plunge and bought it on the spot. That was a month ago and what I’ve discovered since has stunned me.

I don’t know what magic Fiat engineers weaved into this car but when pushed it’s like a different machine. Gently feed the power and it just rockets out of corners. Drop a little speed and into the next, feed the power again and out it comes like a sling-shot. I swear if my sat-nav had an option for “choose very bendy route with few speed restrictions” then I’d choose it every time. Considering the style of the 5 door is notably more top heavy than the 3 door then if anyone wants to argue this motor handles poorly then all I can say is they must seriously be in need of some driving instruction!

Being the first diesel I’ve owned I wasn’t sure how I’d adopt to the change from petrol. I received some advice long the lines of “You’ll hardly ever need to change gear and you’ll need to allow time for the power to build when you want it”. Well! I suppose this might apply to some diesels out there but as far the JTD goes it’s about as wrong as it ever could be. It took a while for me to realise that you actually have to work the box more than an equivalent petrol engine motor in order to get it to fly. Drop into 4th and it’s exhilarating; Drop into 3rd and it feels like a Saturn 5 rocket has just wedged into your rear hatch! I’ve driven high performance cars before and there’s always that very slight delay on dropping down before the power really bites but on the JTD is feels instant. Overtaking in this way and you get the slightly unnerving feeling you’ve just been blasted out of a cannon! This could actually be potentially dangerous as, if you’re not careful, it’s possible to adopt the belief that you can overtake in crazily short lengths of tarmac. The car feels a lot faster than the on-paper figures would suggest and it has occurred to me that there’s a possibility that the previous owner has already had the engine remapped (which would explain a lot).

I’d originally considered having it remapped anyway but that’s now gone out the window. It’s amazingly economical as it is and even if more power could be gleaned from it then I honestly don’t think I could handle it!

Anyone else had a similar experience?

Interesting report. Have you checked to see if it has already been lowered. If not then you might benefit from this - a lot of performance minded Stilo owners go this route.

Nice to hear another happy diesel Fiat owner and fellow Poole resident.

Check out www.strutbracer.co.uk

I got mine from here and once fitted made a big difference on my Abarth, good price as well.

I would take it to the boys at Angel Tuning anyway. They will tell you if it's been re-mapped and won't charge you for that I'm sure if it turns out it has. I thought mine had been done; In fact, when Nigel tried it prior to the re-map he said it feels like it has been done already. When they connected it up he showed it was standard. After the re-map, well that's history but what a difference. Nothing to lose.

Are you a motoring journalist by any chance??? Nice report anyway, glad to hear from a happy stilo owner

Thanks for the tips guys

@bozzy, I'd be really intrigued to know how you found it after the remap? Mine's fantastic on the open road but if I'm honest I'm not so happy just driving it around town. It's kinda like it just wants to GO all the time and is not happy just tottering around at 30mph! I'm absolutely always changing gear - can't really work out if it's me or the car.

Should I expect this to change after a remap?

Now I ain't that technical when it comes to cars so forgive the plain english response. The increase in torque I believe allows me to be in third gear almost anywhere until I get to an open road where 40+ is legal.

Does this make sense. My 1.6 on the other hand did require constant flicking between gears. I still can't get over the improvement in every aspect.

Torque
Acceleration
Fun

Retro the original Stilo tv ad that hooked many of us here
www.absolutelyandy.com/tvadverts/index.htm scroll down to the 24th image

I think you've converted me but I'll need to take it very easy with my right foot if I do

@activematt
No, I'm no journalist but I reckon some of those bozzos should take a car for a proper drive, instead of a spin round the block, before writing their reports.

@Deckchair5
Thanks for finding that add again
But hey! Where's my 'Easy Go' button and electric windows in the rear Actually, I expect the wind-up version goes a bit faster

top stuff

You may be interested in reading this Road Test the AA did on the 5 door JTD in 2004:

http://www.theaa.com/allaboutcars/ca...&makeName=Fiat

I think they got the title wrong - I think they meant "Car Review for Sheep"

Apart from the comment about the lack of an alarm (which I agree with) it’s the same boring wish-wash most of these review sites churn out.