Can anyone who has thier Bravo comment on whether a full sized 17" rim with a 225/45R17 tyre would fit in the wheel or is it not deep enough? I suspect it wouldn't be deep enough as the wheel / tyre combo would be nearly 9" wide and so would need a wheel well of the same depth.

Only reason I ask is I've now got my new alloys - the rather delightful 17" 10 spoke fiat accessory ones, so the standard 2 tone 17" rims that my sport will come with will be surplus to requirement.

Deciding what to do with them at the mo. Use one as a spare? Put winter tyres on them? Flog 'em to offset the cost of the new alloys? (which were a bargain, £215 delivered, brand new in boxes, sold by a fiat dealer on ebay, a tiny bit cheaper than the £651.42 from local dealer!)

Flicking through the manual I recently downloaded, there is a comment that the cars fitted with 15" & 16" rims can be fitted with a full sized spare(pg 222).

A new spacesaver wheel from Fiat costs £162.78, but a 15" steel rim only costs £66.69. Bung a cheapo 195/65R15 tyre onto it (about £40) and you've got yourself a spare. Add a cheap jack (bottle jack maybe) and a wheel brace from your local discount tool shop - should come in at around £120, rather than the £220 for the spacesaver and all the bits & bobs from Fiat.

Assuming this doesn't require changing the boot floor mat, surely this would be a cost effective option to sourcing a spare for those of us stuck with the fix & go...

richstrat said:

Flicking through the manual I recently downloaded, there is a comment that the cars fitted with 15" & 16" rims can be fitted with a full sized spare(pg 222).

A new spacesaver wheel from Fiat costs £162.78, but a 15" steel rim only costs £66.69. Bung a cheapo 195/65R15 tyre onto it (about £40) and you've got yourself a spare. Add a cheap jack (bottle jack maybe) and a wheel brace from your local discount tool shop - should come in at around £120, rather than the £220 for the spacesaver and all the bits & bobs from Fiat.

Assuming this doesn't require changing the boot floor mat, surely this would be a cost effective option to sourcing a spare for those of us stuck with the fix & go...

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Yes may end up doing that myself as i don't think the news i am waiting for from Italy over this situation is going to be favourable, why an earth they ever thought of that fix and go on a car tyre is beyond belief, its ok on a bycicle perhaps but thats all i think its best for, i know its not just fiat that have done this but you might have thought they would have really looked into this and realised that this fix and go stuff isn't any good on a tyre with a split or if the wheel became damaged.
If the answer is yes that the sports should come with a spare now, then i think fiat should offer to those of us that got the Bravo Sport last year a spare as an upgrade, mind you that would be expecting a lot i suppose.

Ok here is the official reply from fiat

Thats more than fair.

Specs change, part and parcel of car development. It'd be ludicrous to expect FIAT to retrofit a spec change to previous cars, except where the original causes problems/faults.

There was an issue with Alfa's and spacesavers. It was to do with the VDC. Any cars with VDC were "stopped" fro using the spacesaver spare. (By way of recorded delivery from Alfa UK). Now the Sport is the only Bravo which has VDC afaik, (Not sure if active sport has it?), which would make sense. Although if Fiat are now saying the spare is ok maybe its a bit larger OD than when the spacesaver was not available?
PS When I enquired about a spacesaver kit (for the Alfa last year) the price was close to that £160 but that included everything, ie wheel, tyre, wrench, jack and plastic mounting thingy!

Rich said:

Thats more than fair.

Specs change, part and parcel of car development. It'd be ludicrous to expect FIAT to retrofit a spec change to previous cars, except where the original causes problems/faults.

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Within just a short space of time where they decided to include the spacesaver wheel as standard, in my opinion they could of offered some sort of discount at least, there must have been some reason for them now to decide its better to issue a spare rather than fix and go, i think it must be a safety issue in which case they should recall that stuff and offer at discount at the very least the spare wheel, I'm afraid Even at £160 that is out of my range at the moment.

Don't know if it helps, but there is a guy in Maidstone (activematt) offering a set of 15" stilo steelies with tyres (I think he describes them as just legal) for £40. I don't know if the offset would work with a Bravo, but it strikes me that there may be 4 cheap spares going there if folk wanted to club together!

Edit: more info - the stilo wheels are 6.5J x 15 , but I have 2 differing offsets, one gives 43, the other 37, the bravo's are 6J x 15 ET 31.5, both taking 195/65 R15. Manual states on pg 222 that a full sized spare can be specified for 15 & 16" rims (the 16" rims are 7J x 16 ET 31), so it would seem the stilo wheels will fit in the well, but I'm afraid I don't understand enough about offset to know if the 5.5 / 11.5 mm difference is significant or not... Both Stilo & Bravo wheels are 4 x 98 PCD

I have spoken to Fiats marketing department to confirm this and have been advised that the Sport and Active sport do not come with a space saver spare wheel. Nor are there any plans to:bang:

May I ask who is telling you the opposit exactly. I will then pass this on to Fiat to confirm or not!

PROV said:

There was an issue with Alfa's and spacesavers. It was to do with the VDC. Any cars with VDC were "stopped" fro using the spacesaver spare. (By way of recorded delivery from Alfa UK). Now the Sport is the only Bravo which has VDC afaik, (Not sure if active sport has it?), which would make sense. Although if Fiat are now saying the spare is ok maybe its a bit larger OD than when the spacesaver was not available?
PS When I enquired about a spacesaver kit (for the Alfa last year) the price was close to that £160 but that included everything, ie wheel, tyre, wrench, jack and plastic mounting thingy!

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Not sure if roliing diameter is the issue...

I've just worked out the rolling diameters of the wheels + tyres

Spacesaver - 190.3 cm
15" wheels - 199.2 cm
16" wheels - 198.2 cm
17" wheels - 199.2 cm
18" wheels - 200.1 cm

Yes there is a difference between the spacesaver and the other wheels, but the sport (17") and those on the 15" rims (active etc) have exactly the same rolling diameter

Gave fiat a call where i bought the Bravo from and told them about the e-mail i got from fiat through an e-mail, they went to find out a bit more on this so they told me they would phone back, they have done so and said yes that is correct you can have the wheel & bits it will only cost £259.25 roughly, I feel quite angry over this matter to be honest, why have i now got to pay out this sort of money that is now standard, i know things get updated on cars as time goes by, but as i said before in such a short space of time i think it is an insult to now have to pay this amount for something which if you buy a new Bravo sport is free !!:bang:
I know some will look at this and think why am i making such a big deal out of this, but i am just voicing my own opinion.

Irritating though it is, I believe the price went up £500 per model not long ago didnt it?

Lol are my posts invisable.

You dont get a spare on a sport or active sport. End of

I got one with my T-Jet Sport

captain chaos said:

Lol are my posts invisable.

You don't get a spare on a sport or active sport. End of

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I was sent an e-mail from fiat as posted earlier on here by me, you do now get the Spare wheel as standard on all models of the Bravo, if you bought the car last year you have to buy it with all the bits associated with it though which is what i have been getting rattled about, my Fiat maindealers can order the parts as well now but i am not paying over £259 for the bits.

captain chaos said:

Lol are my posts invisable.

You dont get a spare on a sport or active sport. End of

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As AndyH got one with his Bravo sport that he picked up 2 weeks ago, it would seem to bear out Bluebravo's message from the Bravo product manager, rather than your message from 'Scott Hardie', presumably on a fiat helpdesk and potentially not fully in the know - possibly even just reading from the brochure, as the info re the active / dynamic is in the brochure...

I'll let you know if mine comes with a spacesaver when I collect it in a few weeks...

PROV said:

Irritating though it is, I believe the price went up £500 per model not long ago didnt it?

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Yes it did. Also, after the increase, the Bravo got it's 5yr warranty. I'd be far more concerned about that than the spare wheel, again following on bluebravo's line, I hope they offer us discounted extended warranties at the end of year 3.

The 5yr warranty is only a short term offer, until the end of March maybe??

Also only available on on the 3 year 0%

5 year warranty and 0% finance available until 31st March. You can use both deals on the same purchase so there's no better time to buy a Bravo, especially if you want peace of mind for 5 years. I sound like an advert! Fiat should be advertising that on TV, not just as a 1-off advert in motoring magazines. It's a cracking deal that could save as much as £2000 in interest payments and maybe £1000 in repairs if you're very unlucky.

I can't see dealers or Fiat offering a discounted warranty to owners who purchased before the current 5-year offer. Dealers make good money from doing repairs and once you've bought your car why should Fiat offer you a deal that could cost them money? Offers like 5 years/0% are to entice "new customers only" (like that bank advert!) so once they have your money they have no reason to give money away afterwards. It's the same as the spare wheel issue.

Quite often it's the first customers of a new product that lose out when it comes to getting a good deal. I know it sucks because you're doing the company a big favour by becoming an early customer. Take the iphone. Since the launch they've reduced the price and increased its memory.