Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

the 1.1 saxo is really slow and yes the 1.2 stilo would quite easily beat it as my 1.2 8v punto which is also slower than the stilo used to beat those quite easily even with my mate thrashing the nuts off of his.

Yes stilo boy is biast towards the 1.2 stilo but they are not that bad of cars. Theyre nothing compared to the abarth and even though the 1.2 gets better fuel economey, you would expect it not to be as good in the abarth its near enough twice the engine size as the 1.2! If i was in the situation of buying another stilo id get a jtd easy by far the best engine for the car.

BTW have you driven a 1.2 litre stilo? most of the reviews ive read on the stilo say all of its engine are underpowered so i wouldnt pay too much attenion to them either.

I think what you need to get into your head as well is the 1.2 stilo wasnt built by fiat to be a high performance car. it was built to compete with the 1.4 pug 307 and fungus 1.4 which it competes against well. Its cheap to run, insure and a cheaper car to purchase if you dont want a high performance or cant afford a car that will be too high on the insurance theyre an ace choice.

thepottleflump said:

With 170bhp in the Abarth is still isn't that fast so I can imagine it being an absolute tortoise. Don't get a 1.2 in a Stilo, as all the reviews say, it is underpowered.

Click to expand...

An absolute tortoise, eh?! I think not. Or were you referring to the 1.2, lol.

I have driven the 1.2 and 2.4 versions, 1.9JTD plus a modded 1.6 - have you?

Bob in disguise said:

the 1.1 saxo is really slow and yes the 1.2 stilo would quite easily beat it as my 1.2 8v punto which is also slower than the stilo used to beat those quite easily even with my mate thrashing the nuts off of his.

Click to expand...

Sorry not into racing Saxos and Puntos. Thats what boy racers do and I laugh at them.

Bob in disguise said:

Yes stilo boy is biast towards the 1.2 stilo but they are not that bad of cars. Theyre nothing compared to the abarth and even though the 1.2 gets better fuel economey, you would expect it not to be as good in the abarth its near enough twice the engine size as the 1.2! If i was in the situation of buying another stilo id get a jtd easy by far the best engine for the car.

Click to expand...

I'm sure they are not bad, I wasn't desputing that the car wasn't that bad but that the engine is too weak for the car. Six gears probably helps but it can't be that great if Fiat have dropped it for the 1.4. I was carrying on the comparision with the 1.2 vs Abarth that Stilo Boy started when he was quoting car weights. Absoluetly the JTD - that said a mate recently had one as a company car (Red, JTD active) and said it was utterly the worst car ever and had now gone over to a Civic. I really hope the 1.2 gets better fuel econonmy than the arbarth.

Bob in disguise said:

BTW have you driven a 1.2 litre stilo? most of the reviews ive read on the stilo say all of its engine are underpowered so i wouldnt pay too much attenion to them either.

Click to expand...

Why not? reviews are a pretty useful place to start. I would say an Alfa 147 1.6 was underpowered from my experience and would recommend the 2.0. See where I'm going?

Bob in disguise said:

I think what you need to get into your head as well is the 1.2 stilo wasnt built by fiat to be a high performance car. it was built to compete with the 1.4 pug 307 and fungus 1.4 which it competes against well. Its cheap to run, insure and a cheaper car to purchase if you dont want a high performance or cant afford a car that will be too high on the insurance theyre an ace choice.

Click to expand...

I don't think I need to "get into your head"; clearly it isn't going to be high performance. The thing you forgot to mention is don't sell the damn thing quickly after buying it, what with the battleship depreciation.

I think the Stilo is a great car, in a not another ford focus kind of way, but the 1.2 is not the one to buy; that is my advice. Buy a JTD and you might get some resell value.

1.2 Stilo is typically as quick as many manufacturers 1.4 motors. Plus point, 1.4 Focus, Golf etc all weigh more than the 1.2 Stilo.

On an interesting aside, check out this weeks autoexpress, Petrol vs Diesel price comparison. They use a range of cars.

Most interesting was the case of the 1.2 Corsa (very similar price to the Stilo 1.2, aside), and the Corsa 1.7dti thing. Only about £400 in difference in the second hand market, but it would still take 15,000 miles to recoup the difference.

Think on that, Buy a pre-registered Stilo 1.2 (or 1.4 now), for about £7.5k, you just don't see pre-registered 1.9JTD models, so your looking at list price, so say £13k. Thats gonna take a loooooong time to recoup the difference between price. Saying its more economic just doesn't cut it, because for at least 5 years its not! Yeah its more powerful, but that's it in my book, i won't even mention engine refinement etc.

Each to their own, but saying the JTD is better than any other model because its more economic just doesn't cut it. The 1.2 pence per mile cost probably makes it the most economic car if you only plan on keeping it for a few years.

Other than that, go buy a Abarth if you can afford it, have a great time, bankrupt yourself but enjoy it!

You can get pre registered Stilo JTDs for around 9800..... I was on the verge of buying one

I have said it before and will say it again, the 1.2 has to rev highly compared to larger engines and revving highly isn't good for a car. The 1.2 16v engine I can't imagine seeing high miles as easily as the other cars.

That's fine if you don't mind that of course.

thepottleflump said:

Why not? reviews are a pretty useful place to start. I would say an Alfa 147 1.6 was underpowered from my experience and would recommend the 2.0. See where I'm going?

Click to expand...

Well why did you buy a stilo then cause in my experience ive only ever seen one good review for it If we all listened to the reviews we'd all driving ford fungus's and golfs.

Also being that i bought the car when i was 17 i did get quote from the insurance on the 1.2, 1.6 and JTD both the 1.6 and JTD were £400 more to insure and more expensive to buy in the first place, so for someone my age id say theyre just right and i consider my self very lucky to have one. People did say to me for the money of the stilo i could have had a VTR or 106 gti, but i had my heart set on a stilo mainly cause it has looks to die for and is not too common. I know theyre under powered as are all the rival cars with the 1.4s in (including the 1.4 stilo) but your making them out to be such terrible things, when they arent all that bad for what they are.

BTW what JTD did your mate have the 80bhp or 115bhp?

Why did I buy one, because I needed a more practical car than the Alfa GTV I had at the time and based on my bros recommendations decided to buy the Fiat Stilo. The reviews I've seen haven't been all that bad, true the cars handling leaves a lot to be desired but the quality inside is very good. It was the equipment levels that utlimately sold me the car.

I know what you mean about being not very common - it is nice owning a car which is less common. I bought an original VTR in 1997 before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon then they became common as muck so it was nice owning an original. It was a great buy. Bought it for £10890 in 1997 traded in 3.5 years later for £7k - wouldn't get that on the Fiat!

I would happily swap my Stilo for the new Golf GTi £20k+ seems a little steep for a VW though.

No idea about the JTD, I would guess the 80bhp since it was a company vehicle. Didn't pay much attention since he was cussing Fiat Stilos in general. The Civic he's got is ok but Honda always makes me think of an old mans car for some reason - probably the safe, reliable, grey image they have. Wouldn't say no to an S2000 though.

I'm sure the 1.2 is actually a very good car and very good for a 17 year old. I was driving Metro 1.0L when I was 17 and that was pretty good at the time. How much do you pay on your insurance?

Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

i got my stilo's for £646, i remember because they still thought i had a provisional licsense and were quite happy to carry on charging me the extra money on it if i hadnt of said i passed!

That's not too bad. I must say bob I do like the look of your car and the best colour too!

Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

i was quite pleased about that. My mate with the 1.1 saxo is paying a stupid amount on that after an accident. Damn insurance, i wish i lived in the USA could have a mustang as my first car! lol

Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

Bob, you went through your dad's company, that's not exactly what the stilo (1.2 or not) would cost to insure. 2.5 x that maybe.

Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

nope my punto was done through my dads company

For some reason the stilo is cheaper to insure than my old punto as well

Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

I said 2.5 x, as in 2.5 x 600 @ around 1500 which I expect it would be as a 17 year old insuring a stilo comprehensively.

Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

the day i bought the stilo there was a months insurance left on the punto so they swapped that and actually had to give me £20 back. Then when i did the stilos i was 18.

Even when i quoted my puntos on my own though it wasnt £1600 and that was with a provisional licsense.

Anyway back to topic lol

Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

Crikey this thread has exploded a bit recently? Do you lot not go to church or something ?

I've been passenger in my mates 1.2 Stilo (before he part ex'ed it for a JTD Multiwagon) and to be honest I thought it was fast enough. My brief is to get as new a car as possible that comes into the lower tax and insurance brackets, gets as many MPG as possible, and comes with a good chunk of warranty. The car needs to be big enough to use for my business with the seats folded down (I'm an artist selling mostly medium sized canvases), but also needs to be roomy enough with the seats up to use for my wife and two kids.

Outright speed or power not a concern. I'm also not really after older cars that are out of warranty. At the moment I just want piece of mind - you know something I can run without thinking too hard about it.

Cheers for all your input so far guys.

Dongle said:

At the moment I just want piece of mind

Click to expand...

You sure you want a Fiat

thepottleflump said:

You sure you want a Fiat

Click to expand...

Yeah I know....it's a price thing though, you can't get many cars this new and this size this cheap.

Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

i know i should be supporting fiat, but if you want piece of mind with realiabilty and good prices buy a skoda. Dunno whether you can get your head round the badge but for the price your getting basically a VW that in my opinion do look as good, especially compared to the new golf :yuck:

But there is nothing wrong with fiats anyway a lot of people out there are only put off by fiat because of all the old stories about the old ones, which have been solved in the newer cars The choice is yours.....

Re: (Drunk?) Neighbour wrote off my parked VW - need a new car.....need Stilo 1.2 advice!

Bob in disguise said:

i know i should be supporting fiat, but if you want piece of mind with realiabilty and good prices buy a skoda. Dunno whether you can get your head round the badge but for the price your getting basically a VW that in my opinion do look as good, especially compared to the new golf :yuck:

But there is nothing wrong with fiats anyway a lot of people out there are only put off by fiat because of all the old stories about the old ones, which have been solved in the newer cars The choice is yours.....

Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that because the Skoda Octavia estate is also on my list of cars to consider. You're right though, you're being a traitor to the Fiat cause!!!!