Dongle
New member
Hi all,
My neighbour has just smashed into my parked 1991 VW Jetta, caving in the entire drivers side, and as the car only cost £300 I think it's going to be written off.
Because of this, and the fact that I run my own business I'm thinking of buying a new car. Unfortunately due to the fact that my bank mis-sold me useless payment protection on a loan that didn't cover the work I was doing a few years ago, I find myself with a default which means that I can't get mainstream finance. Usually I'm offered 30-50% APR and the worst choice of cars in the yard. Luckily I have a friend at Reg Vardy Sunderland, who assures me that while the finance will still be silly, I'll have my choice of car and won't be railroaded into buying crap....like so many people with bad credit are. I've scraped together £3000, and can afford to finance £3000 giving a total budget of £6000. I need a medium sized car that can be used for my business and for my family.
Being as they seem to be such good value, a 1-2 year old 5 door Stilo 1.2 active is something I'm giving serious consideration. The only thing that sticks in my mind is that Fiats are supposed to be unreliable. I've had a look on the BBC Top Gear website and they rate the Stilo next to bottom on their survey (ouch). Also I used to own a Tempra which overheated, only braked on one wheel, only opened certain doors on the central locking when it felt like it, and randomly stopped working completely for a while. Strangely enough though, my mother owned a £200 15 year old Tipo for a year and it was the best car she ever had.
I need to get to the bottom of whether all these problems are what I would call serious, or just trivial stuff. Being as I've driven nothing but 10-15 year old cars for the last 5 years, I'm really not too concerned about the odd spontanious bulb warning light, failing window, or piece of trim falling off in my hand. What I am concerned about is engine sensors, which I've heard can give problems, and safety devices such as ABS failing. While I don't mind the car spending time at the garage under warranty, I also don't want it there most of the time for replacement engines, gearboxes and such.
Some questions:-
1) What are the most common faults with the Stilo 1.2?
2) Are there any serious (ie life threatening) common faults such as ABS failure?
3) Are the dealers (in my case Vardy) likely to weasel out of warranty repairs?
4) Is the dealer servicing pricy?
Any help and guidance would be much appreicated.
My neighbour has just smashed into my parked 1991 VW Jetta, caving in the entire drivers side, and as the car only cost £300 I think it's going to be written off.
Because of this, and the fact that I run my own business I'm thinking of buying a new car. Unfortunately due to the fact that my bank mis-sold me useless payment protection on a loan that didn't cover the work I was doing a few years ago, I find myself with a default which means that I can't get mainstream finance. Usually I'm offered 30-50% APR and the worst choice of cars in the yard. Luckily I have a friend at Reg Vardy Sunderland, who assures me that while the finance will still be silly, I'll have my choice of car and won't be railroaded into buying crap....like so many people with bad credit are. I've scraped together £3000, and can afford to finance £3000 giving a total budget of £6000. I need a medium sized car that can be used for my business and for my family.
Being as they seem to be such good value, a 1-2 year old 5 door Stilo 1.2 active is something I'm giving serious consideration. The only thing that sticks in my mind is that Fiats are supposed to be unreliable. I've had a look on the BBC Top Gear website and they rate the Stilo next to bottom on their survey (ouch). Also I used to own a Tempra which overheated, only braked on one wheel, only opened certain doors on the central locking when it felt like it, and randomly stopped working completely for a while. Strangely enough though, my mother owned a £200 15 year old Tipo for a year and it was the best car she ever had.
I need to get to the bottom of whether all these problems are what I would call serious, or just trivial stuff. Being as I've driven nothing but 10-15 year old cars for the last 5 years, I'm really not too concerned about the odd spontanious bulb warning light, failing window, or piece of trim falling off in my hand. What I am concerned about is engine sensors, which I've heard can give problems, and safety devices such as ABS failing. While I don't mind the car spending time at the garage under warranty, I also don't want it there most of the time for replacement engines, gearboxes and such.
Some questions:-
1) What are the most common faults with the Stilo 1.2?
2) Are there any serious (ie life threatening) common faults such as ABS failure?
3) Are the dealers (in my case Vardy) likely to weasel out of warranty repairs?
4) Is the dealer servicing pricy?
Any help and guidance would be much appreicated.
