General fuel economy

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General fuel economy

yeahdudeirawk

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Hey folks!

im new here so thought id introduce myself.

i currently have a punto 60sx its fun to drive but countless problems really do kill my love for the car.

anyways im hoping to get stilo soon, theres been rumours that the stilos fuel ecomony is really bad due to a small engine and heavy car.
(does anyone know the weight of a mk1 punto and weight of a stilo?)

basically i was hoping t0 get a 1.2 03 plate stilo, how much difference is the fuel economy compare to my punto60sx??

also the stilo i was looking at the radio unit looks like i need to rip off the whole console to fit a cd player in.
did anyone find any problems fitting in a cd player???

oh yeh one last thing whats the deal with this airbag problem everyones talking about? does it happen alot?

if anyone can get back to me thatl be greatly appreciated
 
Hi there.

I would go for the 1.4 if you can. It's cheaper on the tax and also delivers good fuel consuption. The 1.2 has 80bhp which on a heavy car puts a bit of strain on things. If you want to have fun in the 1.2 you would have to thrash it, which means your consuption would go right down. If you go for a 1.4 then you get 95bhp, which means you have a little bit more power to have fun with and also you don't have to push it as much. I would have gone for the 1.6, but then you loose the 6th gear and enter the higher tax. On the motorway the 6th gear is great because it takes the revs right down. If you want to have fun, then use 5th. Around town I get 36/38 mpg. On A roads I get around 44mpg. On the motorway I get 40mpg. All in all the Stilo is a great car. My wife has a punto and the difference between them is quite a bit in terms of comfort and speed. Hope this helps.

Good luck choosing.

Lightman

PS. No probs with airbag. Mine is 2006 1.4 Active Sport 8500 miles
 
Hey "dude" :p

I had a 1.2 on loan for a weekend once; roundtown it was ok, and fuel economy didn't seem that bad (I had a 1.2 Brava after that and the roundtown economy was superb!). Put it on a motorway, however, and it's worse than our 1.6!

1.4 would be an idea, but it was fitted to the new range; what sort of driving do you intend to do? The obvious economy answerwould be a JTD but the initial buying price will obviously be higher!

CD player; easy job :D. No worries there, minor issues yeah but they can be sorted quickly and easily.

Airbag issues; well it would seem random, forget what people say about old / new Stilo's. My Stilo is 03 (built mid-02), and has someone in the passenger seat everyday when it's used at uni, and the seat is always slid forward and back the whole way; never had an issue! Our 02 plate also has never had a problem.

Some people might say avoid the Stilo due to this or other problems; at most, we've only had minor niggles (yes they exist, if you are patient then you won't have a problem) - we've had 5 Stilo's (Mine, Mum's, my Bro has had 2 (he changes his car every month or two for fun!) and one we rejected due to previous accident damage); all 5 have been fine. Like I say, get round the minor niggles and they are a decent car.

Let us know what you decide, and sorry for the rant :)
 
listen thanks very much guys, its greatly appreciated!

i intend to do mixed driving, driving around town for work and using the motorway for uni and for seeing my girlfriend.

so let me get this straight, im best suited for the 1.4 then???


again thanks guys

i actually saw a stilo a few weeks ago for the first time it was an 04 plate 11,000miles sport model and it was only £5000 at arnold clark, and from then on fell in love with it, found another stilo it was metalic black but i think il leave that as its a 1.2.

you got a pic of your stilos??
 
thats a hot stilo!

like a really really hot stilo


listen about the 1.2 stilo do you think a 1.2 16v would be good?

i mean is there much difference towards the fuel ecomony??
 
The 1.2 would also give you cheaper insurance, I'm guessing? :) Have you tried getting some insurance quotes for the two sizes - might help with your decision?

80 bhp (59kW) is about sufficient for the lighter weight (1090kg) of the Stilo fitted with the small engine. By contrast, the Abarth version weighs 1265kg and has 170 bhp (125kW). That's 18.47kg/kW and 10.12kg/kW respectively. In comparison, your Mk1 Punto - with a weight of 860kg and engine power of 60 bhp (44kW) - has a power-weight ratio of 19.46kg/kW.

The top speed quoted for the 1.2 is 172/170 km/h (3dr/5dr), which is obviously 'enough'. The economy (in L/100km) is quoted as:

.................................1.2 (3-dr)......| 1.6 (3-dr)| 1.8 (3-dr)| 2.4 (3-dr)
Urban..........................| 7.9 |..........| 10.1 |........| 11.3 |......| 13.5
Extra-Urban (see below).| 5.3 |..........| 5.7 |..........| 6.1 |.......| 7.6
Combined.....................| 6.3 |..........| 7.3 |..........| 8.0 |.......| 9.7

(sorry about the 'table' being a mess - the forum strips out consecutive spaces!)

You can clearly see that on the urban cycle, the three larger-engined models use almost twice the amount of fuel that they do on the extra-urban cycle. Therefore if your car is going to spend most of its time at low speeds, the 1.2 is the clear economy winner.

However you can also see that, exactly as rroope said, the 1.6 carries only a slight extra fuel use for the extra-urban cycle over the 1.2, meaning that its larger engine is working less hard than the 1.2 on the motorway, and it is going to be more pleasant to drive in these conditions than the 1.2.

Finally you can see the huge penalty that us Abarth owners pay when driving around town (not only twice the extra-urban but also nearly twice the 1.2 under the same conditions!), but at least we win some back if the driving includes extra-urban conditions (FIAT defines extra-urban as "frequent accelerating in all gears, simulating extraurban use of the vehicle; the speed varies between 0 and 120km/h)") And, our engines sound better :D

All cars are a compromise between economy (not just fuel, also servicing and insurance etc.) and performance - otherwise, all our cars would have engines as large as possible... Within the Stilo range, there is a good choice of compromises... I tend to be an all-or-nothing person, so if I hadn't bought my Abarth, I'd have chosen a 1.2 :) Except, the 1.2 is not sold in New Zealand (neither is the 1.8), so it would be a choice between halfway (1.6) or all-the-way (2.4)!

Also, sorry for all the km/h and L/100km figures... 1 mile = 1.609 km, or 1 kilometre = 0.62 miles. 4.54 litres = 1 imperial gallon. I think, though, that it is the comparison which matters here. Hope this helps?

Cheers,
-Alex
 
Last edited:
yeahdudeirawk said:
thats a hot stilo!

like a really really hot stilo


listen about the 1.2 stilo do you think a 1.2 16v would be good?

i mean is there much difference towards the fuel ecomony??
Lot of the guys on here really rate the 1.2 for good fuel economy. (y)

Depends a lot on how you drive it of course ;)
 
I've driven only 2 Stilo's (hire cars), the 1.6 and the 1.2. My brother hired a 1.4 as well. My Punto had the same engine as yours (FIRE 1242cc 8v 60bhp). I used to average 50mpg which is slightly above Fiat's combined cycle. In the 307 I currently drive, I also slightly better the combined economy - since I commute 20 miles, not high speed, but not much stopping.

The 1.6 was sweet IMHO. It went well and drove nicely. Fuel economy was OK for the performance. I found the 1.2 a bit gutless on the motorway, but fine around town. I was dissapointed with the economy, seeing as it did some longer journeys on motorways. If you only ever drove round town it would be the right choice, otherwise it's not. My brother really liked the 1.4 (he doesn't have a car, and isn't that keen on them, so it's a big thumbs up!) That's why I'd reckon it's worth going for the 1.4, if you're sticking with petrol. The combination of economy and performance to give an all-round sensible choice.
 
rroope said:
People, say hello to my new bestfriend :D


hahaha! :D

Thanks for everyone that has replied, i think im going to go for the 1.2 as i just saw it going for £3988 in arnold clark with 33,000 miles. what do you guys think???

with a bit of luck il soon be driving a stilo :D

oh i had a little check with the insurance and the difference between a 1.4 and 1.2 wasnt really that much, but again thanks, il keep you updated.
 
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