General Stilo 3 door wanted

[mbarratt2]

Many years ago (17 to be precise - where did the time go?!) I owned a 1.2 Active Stilo as my 2nd ever car. Even now, I look back fondly on the car and convince myself it was my favourite (even if, objectively speaking, it wasn’t as good as the cars I’ve had subsequently.

Anyway, I am toying with the idea of buying another Stilo as a weekend(ish) car to largely keep tucked in the garage.

I know I’ve taken leave of my senses, but what are peoples thoughts on the practicality of keeping a Stilo on the road these days in terms of parts availability etc? It strikes me as being of that awkward generation of cars that are just too complicated to work on yourself.

Anyway, if anyone is selling a 3 door Stilo in nice condition then please do drop me a message. Ideally I’d probably go for an Abarth (in Murano blue) or Schumacher, but recognise I’m probably being a bit fussy given the limited numbers about.

Thanks

Matt

 

[Ralf S.]

Good choice, I must say.

My old beast (JTD) has run up to 216,000 miles so I've had a few things break and wear out.

For the most part, spares are not a problem. If you wear things out, they tend to be easily available - especially anything that was shared with the later Bravo or even 500. You might struggle with interior/trim parts since you'll probably have no joy at the dealers, even if you fancied buying a brand new OE part.. so then you'll be faced with looking for second-hand/breakers etc.

The electrics aren't as grim as legend suggests.. although the Stilo was Fiat's first go at a CANBUS architecture, and could understandably be a bit flakey. I've had clocks troubles (stepper motors and/or soldering required) but any issues can be fixed by @yellowstilo on here, or any ECU repair place.

I've also had problems with my Body Control Module.. in my case the high beams was sending a request to the BCM but the BCM was knacked and couldn't comply. Again, you need an electronics repair place, or very good eyesight, a steady hand and a pin-tipped soldering iron to fix it. In my case, I swapped the BCM for another, but had someone who knows what they're doing transplant all the chips, since the immobiliser code is in one of the chips in there, so you can't just swap the BCM alone.

The headlamp dipping motors is the only other electrical doodah that has caused me grief.. since they appeared as a new MOT test item one year and caught me out... but they're the same as a lot of VWs etc. (Bosch) so I found plenty.

Otherwise, check everything works. Avoid the 1.6 since it has more ECU issues due to the latter's location.. and I would say stay with a manual gearbox, since I've seen some Selespeed components being no longer available... although if it's a weekend car and you don't need it every day, that does give you scope to go hunting for parts/services to fix whatever is broken, so you might be able to support it.

A low mileage example that's been looked after is obviously the best bet... but then also keep an eye on fleabay for random items, trims and mirrors etc. that come up and "collect" any spares that catch your attention when you see them, since you may need them sooner or later and for the most part, they're not making any more of them.

Service items are no problem though and if nothing breaks, the stuff that wears out is plentiful still, and moderately cheap.


Ralf S.