General What Bravo is best?

[rafsteve]

0-60 in 8.x vs 0-60 in 6.5

Anyone that thinks these cars is fast stock is deluded imo.

They are enough for getting past the mundane 1.x litre shopping trolleys . I bought this car to go slow and save cash along with my license .

They have more torque stock than the megan focus and golf in the same range.. so if you can only get past a 1.0 then.. somethings going wrong

 

[KillaChez]

They have more torque stock than the megan focus and golf in the same range.. so if you can only get past a 1.0 then.. somethings going wrong

Smart brabus 1.5 turbo

177bhp and 1090kg = 162bhp /tonne
165bhp and 1390 = 118 bhp /tonne

Massive difference , torque isn't everything especially when it falls of a cliff at 3000rpm

Torque * rpm = power .


I will re-asses once its mapped ,both cars where booked in for next week but we have both found issues that need resolving .

 

[Ashley1]

The 1.9 diesels (120 and 150 bhp) don't have DPF's in the Bravo. In the Bravo the DPFs started to be fitted when Fiat introduced the 1.6 (105 & 120) and 2.0 (165) Multijet.

Of these it was only the first year or so of 2.0's that caused problems, but I believe Fiat moved the position of the DPF closer to the manifold after a while, meaning it got hotter easier & therefore re-generated at lower speeds or at idle, rather than only when you were hammering it at high speed. This appears to have worked as later 2.0 Bravo's and other cars with the 2.0 diesel (such as the Alfa Giulietta) have very little (if any) DPF problems. The 1.6 doesn't seem problematic in any case, but like all diesels, it's not suited to long term urban use & needs a good drive once a week to be at its best.

The advantage of the 1.9 120 Multijet is that it has a solid 5 speed gearbox. The others get 6 speed ones, and the one in the 1.9 150 in particular (Vauxhalls infamous M32 box) is a bit of a dog with an appetite for bearings at anything over 40,000 miles.


Climate control is one of the other Bravo foibles (of which there aren't many to be fair). It's standard fit on the Dynamic trim but option on the lower Active and higher Sport trims. Unfortunately the 1.9 Multijet 120 with no DPF and good gearbox is only available on the basic Active or climate-control equipped Dynamic (you can't get a 1.9 120 Sport), so you'll need to decide between potential climate control issues, or gearbox/DPF problems. Or just get the basic Active spec and have none, but have a more basic car!

Personally if you like gadgets, go with a 1.9 120 Multijet Dynamic, which is a solid engine, with a solid gearbox, and just accept that you might have to fix the climate control at some point - though saying that its more likely that the 6 speed gearbox on the 150 diesel and the T-Jet will play up than it is for the climate control to break, I reckon.

Only Bravo to avoid would be the first batch of 2.0 165 Multijets, which are on 58 & 09 plate. After that they started to turn a corner & I don't think any Bravo's are as problematic as the (big arsed) Megane. Never heard of any water getting into Bravo's either.

Great info! Thanks a lot! What exactly is the climate control problem? My megane hasn't been the worst car, 21k problemless miles but after heavy rain, the electrics are a little, random, to say the least, windows randomly going down, wipers stopping etc... But you guys have swung this for me, definitely need a Bravo, anyone done any MPG testing on city/motorway? I get around 52 city and 58 motorway, hoping for roughly the same although think i might be stretching that with the 1.9, also any info on the 1.6 Eco? Only reason is it has £30 tax (like the megane) so would be good to keep that luxury!

 

[StevieKop]

Smart brabus 1.5 turbo

177bhp and 1090kg = 162bhp /tonne
165bhp and 1390 = 118 bhp /tonne

Massive difference , torque isn't everything especially when it falls of a cliff at 3000rpm

Torque * rpm = power .


I will re-asses once its mapped ,both cars where booked in for next week but we have both found issues that need resolving .

You made out it was a standard smart forfour. I am sure brabus could tune a lot of cars to do 0-60 in under 7 secs but comparing the Bravo, which hasn't been tuned by brabus, to a lot of other cars with similar engines it isn't slow. And it beats more than 1.0 shopping trollies.

 

[JTD_Liam]

Great info! Thanks a lot! What exactly is the climate control problem? My megane hasn't been the worst car, 21k problemless miles but after heavy rain, the electrics are a little, random, to say the least, windows randomly going down, wipers stopping etc... But you guys have swung this for me, definitely need a Bravo, anyone done any MPG testing on city/motorway? I get around 52 city and 58 motorway, hoping for roughly the same although think i might be stretching that with the 1.9, also any info on the 1.6 Eco? Only reason is it has £30 tax (like the megane) so would be good to keep that luxury!

I'm not 100% sure but I believe the actuators get stuck or stop responding, so you can't alter the direction of airflow. However, a quick search for 'Bravo Climate Control Problems' will bring back a few more specific cases I think

I owned a Fiat Stilo with an older version of the 1.9 120 Multijet (it was a Unijet/JTD 115bhp in my Stilo) & that returned 48-53mpg, so I would expect similar from the 1.9 120.

The 1.6 Multijet 105 Eco will probably get more like what the Megane got. It has a 6 speed box, not sure which one but not read of any horror stories with the 1.6 box. The 1.6 Multijet engine doesn't seem to crop up on here with masses of problems so I guess you could try it and the 1.9 and see which you prefer - obviously the cheaper tax on the 105 is a bonus - make sure your specific car is the low CO2 one as they also did a 120 version of the 1.6 for a while, which I think sat in a higher CO2/Tax band!

 

[BravoCity]

I own the Fiat Bravo 1.9 120, 5 speed gear box.. In second gear the boost control is quite powerful.

My tax cost me around £130 for 1 Year or £70 6 Months.
Overall the car has done over 95k miles on the clock. And still going strong

I average around 430 on a full tank / a road driving and city.
Motorway can easily hit around 700 miles on the range.

Only Issue I can think of is that mines came with the stand 16" Alloy wheels try finding either the 17" or if ur lucky 18" sport alloy wheels.

 

[JordanB08]

I've got the 1.6 multijet 105 and it's been perfect for me cheap to run and pretty quick too obviously not as quick as the 120 option but it's not sluggish only problem I've had is the gear selectors and after some time it makes it difficult to go into 1st and 3rd

 

[Ashley1]

Thanks for all the advice, think I'm gonna go with the 1.9 120, I'll just take the hit of the extra £100 a year tax, currently in the megane get 800 miles to a tank at 70mph, reckon I could achieve this with the CC set?

 

[Matthewr1990]

Depends on tank size. I believe the Megane hads a bigger tank

 

[Ashley1]

Little bit concerned about the Climate Control issues now, been looking at them and realise it seems costly to fix, obviously getting a sport will get rid of that problem but then the Sports have DPF as far as I'm aware.

Should I be worried about the Climate Control issues or should I just accept it as a niggle, because mechanically all the reviews point to a Bravo.

Ahhh help!!

 

[santa]

Little bit concerned about the Climate Control issues now, been looking at them and realise it seems costly to fix, obviously getting a sport will get rid of that problem but then the Sports have DPF as far as I'm aware.

Should I be worried about the Climate Control issues or should I just accept it as a niggle, because mechanically all the reviews point to a Bravo.

Ahhh help!!

I have Bravo with climate control, it's a 2009 and has driven 126000 km., so far no problems with climate control.
I had a Stilo with climate control (same system I believe), I had it for 2 years and drove 60.000 km without climate control problems.
I also had a Lancia Ypsilon (with the same 2-zone climate control), that one I had for 2 years and drove around 60000 km, again with no climate control problems.
So I (personally) wouldn't worry
An I love automatic cimate control, It's so much easier than manual aircon