Bravo Matthewr1990's T-Jet Bravo Dynamic

[Matthewr1990]

Re: My new Bravo

No more than any other car

Matthew I'd go for it though, thats a lot of car for a 3 yo example IMO, and I've always had a soft spot for the C30

I thought the same, and with only 12k miles as well. Fantastic value. When you consider things like the new Astra are £17,000 for a basic model.

 

[Matthewr1990]

Re: My new Bravo

Quick update on my car, still have it. I've decided to move house and money is a little tight at the moment. Apparantly the missus thinks a stable home is more important than a car... Pfft!

Had a brand new windscreen fitted yesterday, mine cracked after a stone chip attacked me on a duel carriage way. I'm also having issues with the paintwork now. The laquer is bubbling, cracking and peeling in certain areas. Only little bits but my god it's annoyed me, I appear to have a donk noise in my steering wheel also. I can recreate it brilliantly if I throw the steering wheel from left to right. As I switch direction there's a definite 'thunk' noise. Which is annoying because I reckon it may be the anti roll bar bushes which is no easy task on a bravo.

My breaks are still performing great but there is definitely warping to my passenger side disk. I can hear it wobbling after I've been braking hard. But hopefully they get through the next MOT. as I say they still work just make a noise if I start you use them too hard.

I'm starting to fall out of love with my Bravo, which I do not want. I still see it in the car park and think, yeh that's a great looking car. But these issues are building. And my love for it is diminishing by the day. If only Fiat made stronger cars. It disappoints you more when you realise in the year and few months you've had it you've put so much money into it. And it's probably worth £1,500 part exchange if I'm lucky. DAMN YOU DEPRECIATION!

I will be getting a new car. Now however I've just dropped £4,000 into a new house and I'm still paying for my old flat (long story). So hopefully this lasts me until that time comes, hey who knows. If I still have it for auto Italia I'll probably turn up for a catch up,

 

[JimbbobW1977]

Re: My new Bravo

I had a GP that I fell out of love with once (I know yours is a Bravo) . Cost over £2500 in repairs one year luckily I had warranty direct cover - they were very good.

Needles to say I got shot of it, and now have on the drive one of the most common sights on the road, a Focus MK3 2.0tdci 161bhp Titanium X. Amazing car and such good fun to drive with its snickety gear change and excellent handling.

 

[Matthewr1990]

Re: My new Bravo

I'm about done with this Bravo. Climate control has broken in so many ways. I get no fan from windshield or footwells. Only the dashboard vents work and to add insult the 2 on the passenger side (next to the airbag and the one pointing to passenger above the radio), only blow cold air. And I mean freezing air. I have neither the know how nor the time to fix this myself so it's going to have to be a fiat garage job. £90 they want just for diagnostics and the ever so sympathetic bloke on the phone did work me a free courtesy car. However he couldn't avoid telling me that I was either in for a short journey in a fiat 500 or a world of expensive pain

He reckons it will be the actuators (which I already know is the problem) however the extent of the damage or problem is unknown. He reckons if it is the flaps/actuators etc that are broken they may be able to fix them quickly and relatively cheaply. Which means I'll have the fiat 500 for maybe 2-3 hours max. OR it will need a whole knew climate control unit which sits right at the front of the car behind the dashboard which is a whole dashboard out job and a nice bill of over £1100 as the control unit is £800 and then fitting costs will be calculated hourly (he says 4-6 hours).

I do not need this right now. I'm sorry to say that if it comes back that I need a whole new unit I'm going to drive the thing into a brick f**king wall.

9th of February is the date in which it is booked for and that is the day we find out if this Bravo will live or die. I love this car but this could not of happened at a worse time. Just letting anyone that reads this know. The climate control unit is lovely to look at, what it does is fantastic. But whatever you do DO NOT BUY A BRAVO WITH CLIMATE CONTROL! My god it's made me mad! :bang:

 

[aurick86]

Re: My new Bravo

I'm about done with this Bravo. Climate control has broken in so many ways. I get no fan from windshield or footwells. Only the dashboard vents work and to add insult the 2 on the passenger side (next to the airbag and the one pointing to passenger above the radio), only blow cold air. ..........

He reckons it will be the actuators (which I already know is the problem) however the extent of the damage or problem is unknown. He reckons if it is the flaps/actuators etc that are broken they may be able to fix them quickly and relatively cheaply. Which means I'll have the fiat 500 for maybe 2-3 hours max. OR it will need a whole knew climate control unit which sits right at the front of the car behind the dashboard which is a whole dashboard out job and a nice bill of over £1100 as the control unit is £800 and then fitting costs will be calculated hourly (he says 4-6 hours).

I do not need this right now. I'm sorry to say that if it comes back that I need a whole new unit I'm going to drive the thing into a brick f**king wall.

9th of February is the date in which it is booked for and that is the day we find out if this Bravo will live or die. I love this car but this could not of happened at a worse time. Just letting anyone that reads this know. The climate control unit is lovely to look at, what it does is fantastic. But whatever you do DO NOT BUY A BRAVO WITH CLIMATE CONTROL! My god it's made me mad! :bang:

The problem you have is probably the connector bits between the actuators and the flaps are broken.
It's a well documented problem with the Bravo.
The parts are cheap - like 15€... but the labor that will cost, because it would be a dash out job to replace the bits.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Re: My new Bravo

What happened to buying the Volvo Matthewr1990

 

[Matthewr1990]

Re: My new Bravo

What happened to buying the Volvo @Matthewr1990

I moved house pal, and with my wedding around the corner. a new car has been pushed back. unfortunately

 

[Matthewr1990]

Re: My new Bravo

So this morning I'm heading to Fiat to get my car fixed. On the way there they phone me to say my courtesy car hasn't arrived and they will need to reschedule me for 2 weeks time. My answer was simple.
"I'm half way there it's rush hour. I've dragged my 2 year old out of a nap, the missus is in the car for the insurance check. I have no heating and im not turning around. Find me a car for when I get there" I put the phone down.

Turned up and they had miraculously found me a car would you believe it haha.

Well whilst im waiting to hear how bad my car is, I'm driving around in a literally brand new red, Fiat 500 pop, 1.2 start/stop 3door manual. It's done 701 miles to be exact.

In the 6 mile journey home I have made my mind up that this is not a car for me. It's seats too high, pedals too small, uncomfortable driving position. Horrible steering that under steers dare you use any speed around a corner. Which you have to as the 69 horses under the bonnet appear to be on holiday and have been replaced by 4 ponies and a sheep dog. Gear stick is terrible, no arm rest although this maybe the model, as it also lacks any blue and me, media input or steering wheel controls. I'm not sure how much this car is brand new but presume it is in the £9,000 mark, which I think is reasonable but would probably of liked a few more basics, air con and a simple aux input would be better than no media I out at all

This however is a perfect car for a first time driver, properly of the female sex, though that's not for me to decide, I just can't wait to have my car back and I've only done 6 miles.

(On a side note, start/stop works well once I figured out how to turn it on, however it's not as responsive as I'd of thought)



EDIT: quick session on the fiat site revealed this very model is £10,450. In my opinion that is overly expensive and I would not feel good had i spent that sort of money on this car

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Re: My new Bravo

So this morning I'm heading to Fiat to get my car fixed. On the way there they phone me to say my courtesy car hasn't arrived and they will need to reschedule me for 2 weeks time. My answer was simple.
"I'm half way there it's rush hour. I've dragged my 2 year old out of a nap, the missus is in the car for the insurance check. I have no heating and im not turning around. Find me a car for when I get there" I put the phone down.

Turned up and they had miraculously found me a car would you believe it haha.

Well whilst im waiting to hear how bad my car is, I'm driving around in a literally brand new red, Fiat 500 pop, 1.2 start/stop 3door manual. It's done 701 miles to be exact.

In the 6 mile journey home I have made my mind up that this is not a car for me. It's seats too high, pedals too small, uncomfortable driving position. Horrible steering that under steers dare you use any speed around a corner. Which you have to as the 69 horses under the bonnet appear to be on holiday and have been replaced by 4 ponies and a sheep dog. Gear stick is terrible, no arm rest although this maybe the model, as it also lacks any blue and me, media input or steering wheel controls. I'm not sure how much this car is brand new but presume it is in the £9,000 mark, which I think is reasonable but would probably of liked a few more basics, air con and a simple aux input would be better than no media I out at all

This however is a perfect car for a first time driver, properly of the female sex, though that's not for me to decide, I just can't wait to have my car back and I've only done 6 miles.

(On a side note, start/stop works well once I figured out how to turn it on, however it's not as responsive as I'd of thought)



EDIT: quick session on the fiat site revealed this very model is £10,450. In my opinion that is overly expensive and I would not feel good had i spent that sort of money on this car

Its a pop, same spec as the one I had for 7 weeks in 2013 when my Dualgoic box packed up on my Bravo.

I'm wondering if this one is suffering from the hill start issues linked below though as it'll be a euro 6 compliant model, as the one I had was very nippy for the 1.2 in comparison to the 1.2 mk3 Panda, and held the road very well, so not sure if yours has ditch finder tyres on possibly? I was often going around large roundabouts at about 30/40mph if clear in mine :devil:

https://www.fiatforum.com/500/33982...sponse-hill-start-issues-watchdog-report.html

I do agree that its over priced and poorly equipped though, but they do still sell for some stupid reason. Try 3k miles is 7 weeks in a heat wave without AC, windows were down 24/7!

 

[Matthewr1990]

Re: My new Bravo

Suppose it's the equivalent of an Actuve model in the older name series (Punto, bravo) although I'm positive the active model bravo has air con.

Anyway. I have my car back. Fiat phoned me at about half 2 today to say I need a whole climate control box, at a whopping... Wait for it... £1,600. Yes you heard me. ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED ENGLISH POUNDS STERLING!

I'm gutted. I've contacted second city motors in Birmingham. Italian car specialists. And even they can't really help me (and that's unisual as they are genuinely brilliant). But they've quoted me £1,230 WITHOUT VAT. So that's £1,470 I believe roughly. And that doesn't have a courtesy car involved. I'm genuinely lost at to what I wanna do here, either way I'm forking out money I don't have whether I fix it or cut my losses and part exchange it.

Help me guys what do I do. I'll post a picture of their diagnostic report in about half an hour.

 

[Matthewr1990]

Re: My new Bravo

Here we go, oh and Fiat also charged me £90 for the honour of telling me I need to pay £1,600. How nice. They did wash and vacuum my car though, so I basically had a really bloody expensive car wash! :bang:

click to see it larger

 

[gadge]

Re: My new Bravo

Jesus! is there anyway you can fix this yourself like remove the dash and buy a second hand unit? I realise it's not a 5 minute job but it must be cheaper than 1600 quid

 

[1.8Stilo]

Re: My new Bravo

Ekk! Almost the value of the car at trade in. What can you get if you put the two together? Or maybe pay a indie to strip it out buy a new unit off fiat to fit? Should save a fair bit in labour?

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Re: My new Bravo

Yep £90 an hour / diagnostic charge sounds right.

In a mk3 panda to change the climate control unit with ripping the dash out took me 14 hours all on summer before last, and that was with me knowing roughly what I was doing having stripped a mk3 panda previously.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Re: My new Bravo

Not sure if they'd test climate in you part ex, but can confirm we buy any car just check the engine turns on and no warning lights on the dash and that's it, so worth considering, I used them to get rid of my bravo with the classic M32 gearbox Noise occurred and they were none the wiser. Also they didn't pick up that the sunroof was buggared :devil:

 

[deebo007]

Re: My new Bravo

Sounds like a DIY fix is needed, or a part-ex to cut your losses.

 

[Matthewr1990]

Re: My new Bravo

DIY job is out of the question, don't have the tools, space, capability or confidence to attempt such a thing, I've found a back street garage willing to do it for £1,200 but I just don't trust them. I'm really lost at what to do. I hate this car with every passing day.

 

[BravoCity]

Re: My new Bravo

DIY job is out of the question, don't have the tools, space, capability or confidence to attempt such a thing, I've found a back street garage willing to do it for £1,200 but I just don't trust them. I'm really lost at what to do. I hate this car with every passing day.

£1200 is still expensive... What if you dont fix it ? Can you still drive the car do you have any error on your dashboard.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Re: My new Bravo

I hate this car with every passing day.

Sell it, its what I had to do with my Bravo, its the first and only car I've ever had hate for, which is a shame as it was a cracking motor before all its issues, and I do miss it to a degree

 

[Matthewr1990]

Re: My new Bravo

£1200 is still expensive... What if you dont fix it ? Can you still drive the car do you have any error on your dashboard.

Oh the car runs fine. I just have no heating and it's pretty cold, have to drive with windows open because of mist. And could really do with the heater for cold nights, I do a night shift and car tends to be froze when I finish work and have to spend half hour de-icing and de-misting the car, then I drive home with windows open. Not ideal

Sell it, its what I had to do with my Bravo, its the first and only car I've ever had hate for, which is a shame as it was a cracking motor before all its issues, and I do miss it to a degree

I completely understand where you are coming from, I loved this car. I swore it was the best car I've ever had, until this,