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General What to look for when buying a Bravo?

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General What to look for when buying a Bravo?

Craig010

Craig010

Welsh Bravo
Parked in the garage
Joined
Jul 4, 2010
Messages
155
Points
32
Location
Port Talbot, Wales
Hello, first post in the bravo section!
Soon i will be looking to buy a new car. After much deliberation, i have decided on a Bravo 1.9 Multijet Sport. It a lovely looking car inside and out, and the insurance cost seems to be around half of any other simmilar car for me!
The car will be 57 / 08 plate probably, with around 25,000 - 35,000 miles.
The main thing i want to know is what areas to test / look for when looking at one.
Thanks in advance :)
 
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Craig010 said:
Hello, first post in the bravo section!
Soon i will be looking to buy a new car. After much deliberation, i have decided on a Bravo 1.9 Multijet Sport. It a lovely looking car inside and out, and the insurance cost seems to be around half of any other simmilar car for me!
The car will be 57 / 08 plate probably, with around 25,000 - 35,000 miles.
The main thing i want to know is what areas to test / look for when looking at one.
Thanks in advance :)
Click to expand...


Hi and welcome!

I have a 58 1.9 MJET Sport. I'm sure other members will have a list of things to check for, but based on the threads that I have read since becoming a member six months ago:

* Listen out for vibrations in the drivetrain when accelerating, particularly when on slight gradients. This could indicate a potential flywheel/driveshaft bearing problem.
* The bulbs behind the air con switches (if you dont find a car with optional climate) are always on, even when headlights are off. Ensure that both the leftmost gauge and the rightmost gauge have the same amount of luminosity. Both of my bulbs have now burned out at 43k miles - Fiat quoted £60 to replace, I will live with it as it will only happen again and its not a big deal.
* Try and avoid a car with a DPF (Diesel Particle Filter) as these can be problematic. Find the PDF guide in the sticky at the top of the Bravo forum and look for the dash light for the DPF. All cars have these lights I think but mine doesnt come on when the car starts as I dont have a DPF.
* Check the boot badge for water spoiling (i.e. pinkyness) and the front badge for cracks from stone chips.
* Check that the drawer mechanism under the passenger seat works OK.
* Beware white gauges - these look the best IMHO but are difficult to see in certain light conditions. Personally I wouldnt change mine but some feel differently.
* Check the leather on the steering wheel/gear knob, some of these have been known to bubble and warp due to heat I think.
* A few cars have the rare five year warranty, try and seek one out.

Aside from those common faults, be sure to check for the other obvious things applicable to any new car purchase and you should be OK.
 
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Hi and welcome

I would echo andy's words but be aware that some cars did not have the underseat storage.
If you have a 6 speed box make sure the warranty offered by the dealer goes beyond winter - some, including myself have found that cables freezing - this is a Fiat, rather than a Broavo, issue.

Trev
 
And front suspension knocking. Make sure you bump it over speed humps and pot holes, and turning on and off pavements. You'll find several threads about this issue, and the original reason I became a member of this forum
 
Thanks for your inputs guys. I knew about some problems, as i check the forum daily and have done for months, but there were a few issues i didnt realise :)
What i havent been able to gauge is what the general reliability of bravos are like. You see a few faults on here obviously, but it would be good to know the proportion of cars that dont have faults, vs the ones that do.
Anyway, ive made my choice, and within two months, ill find out for myself :)
 
Craig010 said:
Thanks for your inputs guys. I knew about some problems, as i check the forum daily and have done for months, but there were a few issues i didnt realise :)
What i havent been able to gauge is what the general reliability of bravos are like. You see a few faults on here obviously, but it would be good to know the proportion of cars that dont have faults, vs the ones that do.
Anyway, ive made my choice, and within two months, ill find out for myself :)
Click to expand...

Don't pay too much attention to andysan's list, the reliability of the car is excelent with absolutely no mechanical problem. He probably meant it for you as a check list of even the most unprobable issues that you could check for. If it was for a WV golf it would have been ten times longer.

The leather peeling off the steering wheel is the only issue that is general to fiat cars from 2005 to 2009 that were not cared for correctly.
 
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Tad-bravo said:
Don't pay too much attention to andysan's list, the reliability of the car is excelent with absolutely no mechanical problem. He probably meant it for you as a check list of even the most unprobable issues that you could check for. If it was for a WV golf it would have been ten times longer.

The leather peeling off the steering wheel is the only issue that is general to fiat cars from 2005 to 2009 that were not cared for correctly.
Click to expand...

Yep, I didnt mean that I have had all of those problems myself - I think the suspension knocking and the flywheel/driveshaft bearing issues are most prominent. Not aware of any members that have had engine/turbo problems and only one that I know of has needed a new box.

I've been quite unlucky in the sense that I've had a few things go wrong that would have happened on any car - i.e faulty glow plugs, 2x windshields replaced, mechanic accidentally punctured my radiator etc... Fiat have always been good and never charged me a penny for fixes that quite clearly werent covered by the warranty.
 
Even then alot of the suspension knocks turn out to be an annoyance rather than a danger. Mines was a perished transmission cable holder inside an arch, others have been rubber bushes. But, a word of warning, some have turned out to be knocking steering racks, so if you do here a knock, get it thoroughly checked over
 
I think the bravo is generally sound, there's just a few niggle problems that seem common. Love mine and wouldn't change it for anything other than a 159 or maybe a GT.
 
All of the morons around here park their cars on the footpath :bang:

I've never had an issue with my Bravo's DPF btw so I personally wouldn't worry about having a DPF. Front badge has just this week cracked though :( .. but if the car was right why would you not buy it for the sake of a £10 badge, if buying used from a main dealer for example then just get them to change the badge :)
 
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The dpf problem seems hit and miss, and with the driving and milage i do (alot) im not worried about it tbh. Also, a £10 badge doesnt phaze me either, it was just stuff like engine ( but i know the 1.9 units are pretty bulletproof, especially the 16v vairients ) gearbox, suspension, steering and mainly fiat electrics that im worried about :)
 
My brother has a grande punto sport with the 1.9l multijet 16v remaped to over 180bhp.

He drives like a mad man everyday and is maybe around 90000 miles with absolutely 0 mechanical or electrical problem.

Only thing that got replaced in his car so far is the front brakes and tires of course.
 
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Craig010 said:
The dpf problem seems hit and miss, and with the driving and milage i do (alot) im not worried about it tbh. Also, a £10 badge doesnt phaze me either, it was just stuff like engine ( but i know the 1.9 units are pretty bulletproof, especially the 16v vairients ) gearbox, suspension, steering and mainly fiat electrics that im worried about :)
Click to expand...

You pretty much have nothing to worry about (y)
 
Craig010 said:
Glad to hear that :) I thought the grandes only came with the 1.9 8v motor, which can be prone to EGR valve faults??
Click to expand...

I'm not in the UK, we have different models here.

There's only one GP Sport here and it's a 1.9l multijet 16v 140bhp with sport seats/suspention, 17" alloy, sideskirts and spoiler, blue&me, dual AC and some other gizmos...

they probably replaced the 1.9 with 1.6 by now.
 
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