General Looking at a stilo

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General Looking at a stilo

wozza

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Basically what the thread says im 21 and i wanna treat myself so have been looking at a Stilo Abarth. Might cost me a bomb but im not bothered by that what the student loan is for petrol lol.

And insurance i dont have to worry about at all. thankfully which has made me look at all sorts of cars in this kinda range. MGZR 160 MGZS180 civic type r etc. But the stilo is winning me over. Plus my parents have had quite a few fiats uno a long time ago a tempra and a brava. then swapped to a nissan almera as was easier for my mum who has a disability and fiats alternatives werent as good for her. She actually wanted an abarth too lol.


but is there anyhting i should be aware of any common problems with them etc?

Just need some advice basically.
 
EDIT : thought you were buying a used one.
I'll leave my final sentence nevertheless :)

I love it !
 
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wozza said:
Basically what the thread says im 21 and i wanna treat myself so have been looking at a Stilo Abarth. Might cost me a bomb but im not bothered by that what the student loan is for petrol lol.

And insurance i dont have to worry about at all. thankfully which has made me look at all sorts of cars in this kinda range. MGZR 160 MGZS180 civic type r etc. But the stilo is winning me over. Plus my parents have had quite a few fiats uno a long time ago a tempra and a brava. then swapped to a nissan almera as was easier for my mum who has a disability and fiats alternatives werent as good for her. She actually wanted an abarth too lol.


but is there anyhting i should be aware of any common problems with them etc?

Just need some advice basically.
Just buy the Abarth and be ahead other pretenters :bang:
 
The MG/Rover car range is a load of rubbish, how old are those cars?!?. I've lost any little respect for Rover since the Pheonix take over, not that I had any before What have they done since then, made no new cars expect stick a rover badge on a cheap, rubbish, chinesse car and tart up the tat they have been flogging for years. The only thing that Rover has achieved is to make the lucky sods who bought it for £1 very rich.

The Civic is a little bland, the sort of thing that old people buy because they know it is safe, reliable but ultimately boring.

My car has been very reliable it is a 2002 model and I've basically had no problems with it, I think the Phase 2 models are even better but they took some of the kit out to save a bit of money. Reliability will not be a problem.

The Fiat Stilo is streets ahead of the MG range, buy it.
 
heh the civic type r is not bland. Its a little rocket. the problem is, it cant compare to stilo in ways of comfort and number of toys you get in Stilo.
And i find stilo much more attractive. civic's got in my opinion, too dispropotional doors (too long in comparison to the body ) and this slight "little van look" thing going on. and the whole car looks like its been stretched in length. seriously.
Stilo's got longer nose and much more nicely clipped ass :) . and so on. this is a fiat forum ,what do you expect :D
 
Johny said:
heh the civic type r is not bland. Its a little rocket. the problem is, it cant compare to stilo in ways of comfort and number of toys you get in Stilo.
And i find stilo much more attractive. civic's got in my opinion, too dispropotional doors (too long in comparison to the body ) and this slight "little van look" thing going on. and the whole car looks like its been stretched in length. seriously.
Stilo's got longer nose and much more nicely clipped ass :) . and so on. this is a fiat forum ,what do you expect :D
Can not agree more the type R is a fast motor but its ride is like a ironing board on wheels and it has not got the style like the Stilo 3 Door.
And lets face it its the new XR3 in a Honda body. :eek: :eek: (y)
 
thepottleflump said:
The MG/Rover car range is a load of rubbish, how old are those cars?!?. I've lost any little respect for Rover since the Pheonix take over, not that I had any before What have they done since then, made no new cars expect stick a rover badge on a cheap, rubbish, chinesse car and tart up the tat they have been flogging for years. The only thing that Rover has achieved is to make the lucky sods who bought it for £1 very rich.

The Civic is a little bland, the sort of thing that old people buy because they know it is safe, reliable but ultimately boring.

My car has been very reliable it is a 2002 model and I've basically had no problems with it, I think the Phase 2 models are even better but they took some of the kit out to save a bit of money. Reliability will not be a problem.

The Fiat Stilo is streets ahead of the MG range, buy it.

I'd have to disagree with you there mate, I've owned 2 MG's (ZR and ZTT 190) and both have been great cars, much better than the Audi I had between owning them. I've only had my Abarth 2 weeks and I love it but it handles no where near as well and isn't as quick, but it was cheap and toytastic so I'm more than happy with it.

There's no denying that the 75/ZT/V8 is a well designed car, granted BMW had a bit to do with it but after the situation BMW put Rover in (stripping it of the Mini Trademark and leaving it for dead) I think rebadging old Hondas and beefing them up a bit is a winning strategy. They're exploiting a cash cow and its selling a lot of cars for them, coupled with the cash injection they're getting from the Chinese its enabled them to come up with viable replacements, the replacement 45\ZS is meant to be fantastic. Test drive a ZT190, when that V6 hits 5K the noise is fantastic, it will make you smile.

HOWEVER, I couldn't agree more with your views on the Civic, I know a lot of people who have bought a Type-R and a lot of them have gotten rid after a few months. Apart from the performance, its certainly bland.
 
I was going to say the 75/ZT was the exception since it is basically a BMW. What have MG Rover done since the take over; declined sales, massively, and introduced the truly awful cheap tacky Cityrover. I've only ever seen one on the roads and felt like consoling the old dear who was probably railroaded into buying it by an unscrupulous sales person as she was walking past the dealership; there can be no other way that anyone would buy one of those otherwise.

The rover 75 isn't a direct comparison to the Stilo since it is in a different size/class, considerably more expensive and you'd be somewhat unlikely to consider buying a 75 if you were look at the Stilo. The 75 won't look so good when Rover are still selling it in 10 years time. The 25/45 are a reasonable comparison, but isn't the Rover 45 something like 3 generations old now? Since introducing the 25 most other companies have been through at least 1 generation, rover managed a name change but forgot to change the car :eek:

At least BMW actually produce a good car with the mini, I'd rather see it in the hands of BMW than the current owners of Rover. As for the Civic always makes me think of a lump of Edam, inoffensive but not really that exciting, I'm sure its fast but...

On the handling front, I almost totaled the Stilo on the test drive going into a tight left hander, I'd just jumped out my somewhat better (handling) old car - should have seen the salesman's face :D Maybe I should lower the suspension but it doesn't matter much now since my daily journey involves a 110 mile round trip on motorways and A roads where the soft suspension, cruise control and automatic gearbox are more important; you'd have thought with all the toys Fiat could have been decent enough to include an autopilot function (y)
 
Would say yeah but i just dont like diesels lol. Its the noise they make more than anything that annoys me.

And the MGZR 160 is a pretty rapid motor. I had a little drive in my friends 25 (basically the same car) although the MG's got a different suspension setup but it felt pretty good then again im used to driving a 1.2 litre clio :/

Im still leaning towards the stilo myself. i do really like the way it looks more than the civic and well 2 of my friends have rovers. I want something different. And the abarth isnt exactly common which is also appealing. I went into the dealers asking for a test drive of one said they dont have one and that there really a bit too rare to know when they could have one to test drive so took my number and details etc will give me a call when there is one i can test drive. Or so they said....

I would love the stilo though lovely looking car but just gonna have to wait to see if i can get a test drive. I had a little mess in the xbox version as that was the only one they had in the showroom when i went in. and after just sitting in it for a couple minutes the car just felt right to me. Where as i sat in the MG and just thought meh nice i could drive it but didnt feel right the Stilo did. Cant explain it but sure ya know what i mean.
 
I can't believe you are even thinking about the Rover, they are at the bottom of the food chain, before even thinking about it you'd have to have written off the Focus (old or new), Astra (old or new), 307, C4, Stilo, Mazda3, Civic. The only reason for buying a Rover is they are cheap and have reasonable kit levels from what I hear.

If you are 21 I can see why they might not have an Abarth available for test drive, they probably thought you were having a laugh and only wasting their time. I dread to think what the insurance would be like for a 21 year old, what is the insurance group something like 15, almost as expensive as keep the thing full of fuel. I'd offer my one but you'd want a 3 door model.

I had a look at an Xbox Stilo when in a dealers and it looked really nice, you'd need to debadge it though.
 
Insurance isnt a problem at all. And Well when i went in asking the guy seemed to think id wanna go for the 1.4 im like no i want the Abarth after he realised i was being serious and had my dad with me he was rather nice and seemed to wanna do everything he possibly could for me.

But i do really wanna get a test drive of one first. Running costs are gonna be high but im really not bothered about how much it costs to put petrol in it. Will have more money then for a start and well my car is one of the only pleasures i have. Its pretty much going out once a week and the rest of my money goes to my car. Although left the current one completely stock as i was planning on changing it i just wanted to earn some no claims etc.

And i was looking at the MG not the rover although they are pretty much the same car there still quick cars though. 2.5 litre V6 isnt gonna be slow lol.

But yeah most of the cars i have been looking at are in that kinda range. I am looking at the astra turbo as well but i wanna wait till the 3 door sports hatch is introduced in april to see what there like. I went asking about an SRI the other day and there nice there just not as nice looking as the other cars. The just look a little old i suppose. And yeah im waiting for them getting a 3 door abarth to test drive. Coulda gotten a test drive in a 1.6 but its gonna be a lil different a 1.6 and a 2.4.

Wouldnt like a focus too common and hate the new shape dont particularly like the old focus. 307 is fugly, mazda 3 isnt that nice, civic i said i was looking at but again not as nice as the abarth. new astra im having a look at but again its just not all that great looking there nice but i will have to see what the sports hatch is like when it comes out in april.

And manual abarth is group 14 selespeed is group 15.
 
Why is insurance not a problem, you not planning on getting any, someone else paying for it or you'll be a named drive or know a mate you can produce an insurance certificate in the event of any accident?

Fuel cost isn't as bad as all that.

MG/Rover all the same. There is more to a car than going fast young man ;) if you want to go fast I'd recommend jumping on a motorbike, that is what real acceleration is all about :D

I preferred the old Astra myself, don't like the new one much. So many cars so little time hey. The Stilo in 3 door guise is a nice looking car, esp in Abarth spec, take a look at the Selespeed too if you get a chance, lots more toys.

Don't pay much attention to insurance groups these days. 14 isn't too bad.
 
Whats all this dissing of MG Rover? For the memebers that made positive comments, good on you guys :)
If people are moaning about the age of them, what about the Alfa 147 and alfa 156 ? based on the tipo, which is an older platform then the Rover R8 used on the R25/ZR and honda Domani platform used by the 45/ZS. People here may think of the 45 as a dull old car, but its still a class leader for comfort and smoothness of driving while the ZS is set to be at the sharp end of the performance handling (but its a bit harsh over bad surface)

The 75 well, it inhearited the rear Z axel from bmw it was in the end developed by Rover themselfs and the new V8, its mostly MG-R inhouse design for its new rear drive suspension setup. www.austin-rover.co.uk can show you the development history of each of these types.

For future development, the RD/X 60 is all set for next year as the 45/ZS replacement. which will be followed by the 25/ZR's replacement. After that will be a 75/ZT replacement.

I have to add the perceaved need to have a new model every 5 years is in what is causing the car manufacturers back bones to be snapped. the financial burden of changing to new platforms and cars over this time due to perceaved dated tech.
This hasnt helped fiat auto, to an extent it couldnt develop a Croma replacement until the GM deal to use the epsilon platform.

In the end, the best thing to do is, try all the cars on your list, then decide what one you like best. Take whatever info of the stilo you can from here and of the others, from their own owners forums and make your own decision.

In my case here, it was X reg Rover 45 impression S at £7000 or an 02 plate Stilo Dynamic at £7000, Stilo won out due to value for money and toys.

was the same with the brava, same price for the 45 again but on Y plate at the time or £4000 on the brava.
Ive had a rover in the past and i'd easly have an MG in the future, for now the Fiat's won out and ive no complaints.
 
At the end of the day a constant development program ensures that a consumer gets a better product. Would we all like to driving around in Metros? Compare a Metro to a modern supermini or look at modern cars compared to a couple of generations ago, improved safety, better quality, improved ergonomics, better value. If I'm going to shell out a large chunk of money I expect to get a good product and flogging old cars like Rover shows a complete lack of respect for the customer.

I couldn't care less what platform a car is based on really, I also seem to remember you cussing the alfa GTV because it was based on the old Tipo platform, still didn't / doesn't stop it from being a cracking car; a rare classic. Unfortunately I don't think the same can be said for any rover.

As an owner of a a couple of Rovers in the past I have nothing good to say about them, clearly your opinion and experience is better. My intention is to make this guy aware of the fact that there are many, probably considerably better alternatives. I would say the same for the Stilo, better cars are available.
 
That's why I said its for him to work out and decide what he likes best really.

Wasn't me about the Alfa GTV, I don't know anything about that car to be honest. I'd have one, its quite a striking design.

What's that about the metro/100? :)
Rover killed that off in 98 as it was perceived as unsafe, 2 star Euro Ncap rating. I wouldn't have one myself, nor the City Rover, Overpriced and underspec that car. Especially when there is a Kia Picanto or Fiat Panda about.

Do you think rover wants to keep selling the 45 as long as they have? I don't. The collapse of TWR during the original development work has dictated the slow leadtime that has been involved on RD/X60. But there it is, almost with us and being released, not some honda platform but their own designed one.

When it comes to the platform, this is what I think is the issue over the 45, just because it hasn't been reskinned doesn't mean its been unrefined under the skin.
Unfortunately I suspect that rover would be heavily slated for using the platform on another car with a total different design, for which Fiat has been doing successfully with over the years.

I'll be honest and say I never had the best of it while owning a rover, but my issues are down to the dealer that kept buggering things up.
I understand you want to give an overall awareness of owner experience and you've had some rotten times with rovers.
All I wished to do was to mention some misconceptions over age of the car.
I agree there is better alternatives, as is with the Stilo. Some believe the focus better, others don't and so on. It is an individual preference in the end.
 
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