Stilo V's new Astra

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Stilo V's new Astra

Roger1949 said:
re all the argument over Stilo v Astra. I'm afraid that like it or not, Samico is correct in what he says (he's a bright kid) The facts are, Fiat should stick to doing what they do best i.e. make good cheap small cars and leave the performance side of things to their brother, Alfa Romeo. the Stilo is a horrible car to drive, the steering is dead (city mode? whats that all about??) and has no feed back at all. The acceleration is poor except on the diesels and they suffer dreadfully with turbo lag. The top of the range 'Abarth' is a joke and denigrates the once famous name. The materials used in the Stilos construction are cheap, the ride noise is appalling but, the radio is an improvement to that on other Fiats in so much as you can actually turn it on and off without the use of tweezers.
So I presume you have had the Stilo on long term test, in all guises - 3 door, 5 door, MW?

Have you actually driven a 20V 2.4 petrol? You actually tried the 1.9JTD? The Abarth has great spec, is loved by all its owners, and is without doubt 'not common!'. I have had comments about the interior of my Stilo, saying how well built it is - this came from a guy driving a Vauxhall Coupe 2.2.

And the ride noise in mine, whatever that is, is over-ridden by my 190bhp engine, burbling away - sounds pretty damn sweet to me :)
 
You could say something like "Ahhh he's Irish" but I won't, leave that to somebody else.

Steve, unless you're minted (with sometimes I consider) you wouldn't walk away, you would take it just like any other prize and sell it on. On the other hand it would look nicely in the Uni car park for a little while and as said before, I would love and cherish it. A friend recently said "there's not really much like a 'bad' car anymore" and I would be inclined to agree, be it a Ford, VW, Vauxhall, Renault, Fiat, Cit, Peug, BMW, Merc, Toyota, Honda etc. they don't really make any bad cars anymore - just ones with good and bad points over the others.
 
Paul.. as for bad cars...

I refer you to my earlier post refering to the Kia Rio... in the 80's it would have been ok, but today it is just so far out of date, in terms of style, quality (i can't comment on how it drives ;) ), and it isn't even that cheap, its competitors (Proton Gen2 and that new Dacia) have it easily licked.

As for Roger/Samico, feel free to PM to discuss this further if you'd rather not embarrass yourselves on an open forum by making further unfounded/absurd comments :D
 
Re: Paul.. as for bad cars...

Hehe, I was going to mention some car marques however such as KIA don't follow this rule but they are hardly mainstream!

I thought people would take that as read though.
 
Roger1949 said:
re all the argument over Stilo v Astra. I'm afraid that like it or not, Samico is correct in what he says (he's a bright kid) The facts are, Fiat should stick to doing what they do best i.e. make good cheap small cars and leave the performance side of things to their brother, Alfa Romeo. the Stilo is a horrible car to drive, the steering is dead (city mode? whats that all about??) and has no feed back at all. The acceleration is poor except on the diesels and they suffer dreadfully with turbo lag. The top of the range 'Abarth' is a joke and denigrates the once famous name. The materials used in the Stilos construction are cheap, the ride noise is appalling but, the radio is an improvement to that on other Fiats in so much as you can actually turn it on and off without the use of tweezers.

The Astra, although not very attractive is far more of a 'drivers car with better handling, steering response and the engines are far better across the range
personally...I wouldn't have either

Listen to Samico...he knows what he is talking about, dont be put off by his age, remember..Michael Schumacher was a triple kart champion at 16

This thread has amused me no end, but this post takes the biscuit. I'd struggle to respond without insulting you Roger, so I'll keep this brief.

Opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one. Opinions are also subjective, that is your opinion. Like it or not that doesn't make it fact. It is my opinion that the Astra has never been and will never be a drivers car. It is a rep mobile, simple as that. It is the automotive equivalent of a washing machine.

To pick up on a few other points. I've owned more than a dozen Fiats and I can't ever remember having a problem with the size of the buttons on the stereos. Fiat generally use Blaupunkt or similar which also provide stereos for other manufacturers.

The Abarth name has every right to be on a Stilo with a 2.4 20V 170BHP engine. This car is more powerful than many of Abarths own creations. Abarth mostly focused on tuning smaller low-powered Fiats.

Have you actually been in a Stilo. I fail to comprehend how you can say that the materials used are cheap. Most would agree that the Stilo was a huge step forward in terms of quality for Fiat. The soft feel dash, and excellent equipment levels make it great value for money.

City mode, to answer your question, only affects steering at low speed. If switched on it deactivates at 35 mph. It is only there to assist with parking, etc and doesn't affect steering feedback when on the road at speed.

PS, if samico is such a bright kid he really should learn how to construct a sentence properly. :)
 
pghstochaj said:
You could say something like "Ahhh he's Irish" but I won't, leave that to somebody else.

Steve, unless you're minted (with sometimes I consider) you wouldn't walk away, you would take it just like any other prize and sell it on. On the other hand it would look nicely in the Uni car park for a little while and as said before, I would love and cherish it. A friend recently said "there's not really much like a 'bad' car anymore" and I would be inclined to agree, be it a Ford, VW, Vauxhall, Renault, Fiat, Cit, Peug, BMW, Merc, Toyota, Honda etc. they don't really make any bad cars anymore - just ones with good and bad points over the others.

Paul, I thought you knew me better than that. :) I'm not minted, but I'm not poor. I'm happy with the cars I have. I'll be changing the Brava in the new year. Needless to say not for an Astra.
 
I know you wouldn't keep it but I know that if somebody shoved 10k infront of your face you wouldn't say no. You would simply go to a Fiat garage and ask for a PX.
 
I have a feeling...

That we won't hear from Roger again, which is a shame as I would generally be interested as to what he has to say in defence of some of his comments.

Truth is though, that was his first post, he joined up obviously with the intention solely of putting his opinion on this thread. He has no interest in Fiats or this forum.

It was probably to attempt to back up Samico, who as I have already stated I suspect is his son.
 
Re: Steve...

Steve C said:
I think not. I posted here before about my sister Golf GTi. What a sh*t car that was. It broke 3 times in 3 months and no way did it deserve the GTi badge.

To be fair, the new one seems more deserving of the badge, its still too well equipped though, they should have gone back to windy down windows and no air con. I saw a pick of the Mk1 and Mk5 together in the latest Auto Express, comical :D
 
James,

Compare the JTD with an Audi (VW/Skoda) of equivalent size and you'll understand how a diesel should/can perform. As far being Samicos' father is concerned, it is completely irrelevant. All I'm saying is don't be so judgmental and dismissive about anyones views..especially because of their age
 
Stuart

The Abarth promises much but doesn't deliver. Compare it with the Honda Accord type S 2.4, and then tell me the abarth is a good car
 
Yes you're right, except when the case REQUIRES knowledge about the subject and not just a view. For example, would you accept advice about marriage from a child? Would you accept advice from a child about what it's like to be old? Didn't think so.

The Stilo Dynamique:
1.9JTD: £12,895 10seconds 0-60, Top end of 119mph, IG: 5

Look at one of the Golfs, say the 1.9 S TDI 5d:
1.9TDi: £13,983, 12seconds 0-60, top end of 112, IG: 8

Ok so that's the mainstream Golf beaten, for less money, less insurance and most probably a higher spec, oh and lets not even look at the SDI (0-60 slower than my bike and definitely slower than my old Uno....!) Now whose diesel is it that can perform?

On top of this, the Fiat JTD is very easily tuned up to either 155BHP or 170BHP with simple engine modifications for a few hundred pounds from a company like Angel Tuning. Sure you could probably do this with a VAG engine, however, I bet you can't beat it easily.

Who created common rail injection? Yes, Fiat with Bosch.
 
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