General will bravo be discontinued soon?

[Tad-bravo]

Point is though, it's a major refresh but it's just a facelift, as the Bravo was. Okay so the Bravo's was very very minor but it was still a mid-life refresh, as BMW and Audi do after 3 years.

Let's just agree to disagree

The bravo never had a facelift. A facelift is when you reshape things, the bravo has always kept the same style.

If changing the headlights plastic colour is a facelift then changing the dash instruments from white to black in the sport models back in 2009 is also a facelift.

 

[Caravadossi]

... has not the current Bravo platform had it's life-span? I believe the Guilietta is the next generation platform.

FIAT-C (2001) > e.g. Stilo/Bravo
Compact (2010) > e.g. Giulietta/Giulia

I think the idea is that the new Compact platform will be fatal to all other platforms. Being modular it can be adapted to suit all models, whether short, long or wide across the whole FIAT Group envelope. But then in Brazil - the Bravo might live on (as did the Stilo) for a couple more years.

120131

 

[David C]

Fiat do like to get their money worth out of a platform (and quite right too...!).
The Fiat Cinq/Sei ran from 1992 until 2010 ..... 18-years...!!!
The Sei on its own accounts for 12 of those 18.

 

[PROV]

Fiat have an odd system of MYXXXX (model year). This allows them to change plastic grill colours etc.. (as Tad says), and I dont consider this a facelift either....

 

[Tad-bravo]

So this is the fugly crap they're replacing the bravo with in the family hatchback segment...

With this styling direction, the bravo's the first and last fiat car I'll ever own for sure.

 

[lyubohar]

This is to compete with Mini Countryman and the likes, it's not even close to Bravo's size in order to replace it. Completely different market segment and target. But it is ugly, yes

 

[ascott92]

I guess they're going for the "retro-cute" look as they did with the 500, and BMW did with the Mini.

Surely someone looked at the Countryman though and realized that it didn't work there, so why the hell would it work here?

Surely this is meant to replace the Idea though, less the Bravo. Quite why they're replacing that I don't know, seeing as the Idea peaked with 3500 odd on the road in 2007 in the UK. The Meriva in comparison had sold nearly 7500 after less than a year in production...

 

[skviki]

So this is the fugly crap they're replacing the bravo with in the family hatchback segment...

With this styling direction, the bravo's the first and last fiat car I'll ever own for sure.

I seriously doubt this has anything to do with Bravo. It looks like it belongs into segment similar to Kia Soul (much prettier) and the like (Citroen C3 Picasso for example).
And I agree that in this segment it's not the best looking. It's not THAT bad, but if it doesn't bring something extra to the table it won't make too much sales. Shame they didn't retain more Fiat 500 looks. BTW it's also a pity the 500 isn't a bit bigger - I was very excited when they announced it and very disapointed when I hardly fit myself into it. True, I'm a bit over size for Italian standars ...

What worries me more with this 500L model is that it's made in Kragujevac,Serbia, former home factory of the infamous Yugo and Zastava 101 and the disasters we had to put up with in a controlled market of Yugoslavia. Those Fiat's base models converted into Yugo and Zastava were nightmares of a car. The only good thing about them was they were based on Fiat, simple to repair by yourself, and if you lived near the Italian border you could smuggle Fiat original spare parts across the border to put into your wreck of a car made in Serbia.

Hopefully Fiat management has put strict factory leadership over Serbian workers and that rigorous quality control measures were put into place.

 

[PROV]

Arent the 500 and the previous generation Panda built in the old Polski Fiat factory? They have an excellent reputation for build quality so I wouldnt worry too much about past histories of factories. Its the present that counts..