Hi All, Looking at a 2 year old Tipo T-Jet Lounge Estate as a daily load lugger / occasional tow car. I've read through the experiences of new owners etc on here and all seems fairly normal.

One question, on the estate, do the rear seats fold flat? A what car review that I cringed my way through on youtube said that they don't, which seems 'a bit crap'. I have 2 Bravo's in the family at the moment and tbh, the rear seats don't fold completely flat either but it's fine for most of what I normally use it for.

So, any real world experience? (No opinions based on internet reviews please)

Thanks!

Fairly sure the seat base tips forward in the estate so the can go flat

Hi, Chris3234 is right, the seat bases fold forward which means the seat back can fold almost flat. Not the best pic but hopefully you get the idea.

They might go lower if the headrests are removed or the front seats are further forward.

That's spot on as I was thinking it should be. Most of the reviews I've seen are really poor at telling you the basics. Thanks all!!

155Ringman said:

Hi All, Looking at a 2 year old Tipo T-Jet Lounge Estate as a daily load lugger / occasional tow car. I've read through the experiences of new owners etc on here and all seems fairly normal.

One question, on the estate, do the rear seats fold flat? A what car review that I cringed my way through on youtube said that they don't, which seems 'a bit crap'. I have 2 Bravo's in the family at the moment and tbh, the rear seats don't fold completely flat either but it's fine for most of what I normally use it for.

So, any real world experience? (No opinions based on internet reviews please)

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I've done 4000 miles now in my Tipo estate and I'm still happy with it. The handling isn't brilliant on poor surfaces however it fairly soft but body roll is ok.
I compared my car to an Astra estate (I drove a 1.4 Turbo petrol for a couple of weeks prior to purchasing the Tipo), just last week I did 800 miles in the works 2018 Astra 1.6 diesel and to be honest I don't think its noticeably better to drive. One thing though fuel economy was showing 7 Mpg better than the Fiat.

The info system is fairly good, I would have liked it to have apple car play, ah well...

Forgot to mention have you looked at the OSV review on youtube? It's much better than the usual reviews and there is a 30-minute version around somewhere.

Howie

Picked up the Tipo that I was looking at and been using it for a week now. It's a nice place to be and does all the day to day things very well. The load area is long but the opening is not as tall as it could be. A full sized wheelie bin will not fit in unless you turn it through 90 degrees but there is plenty of room with it in there. Pretty happy overall although it is definitely harder on fuel than the bravo tjet that I was previously using. I'm thinking a map might release a bit more torque and that would help a little perhaps. Some pics..

Hello
I am not sure when FIAT in their wisdom decided to make the flip and fold rear seats an optional extra but on the current model it seems you can only have the flip and fold rear seats as part of an option pack which includes leather style seats at around £500 or so. I spent some time with a salesman trying to sort this out as the brochure shows them as a £75 option on their own but the ordering software in the showroom only allows them to be ordered as part of a pack. I would have thought that anyone choosing an estate would expect the rear seats to fold flat as standard but it seems car manufacturers don't share this view.
David

Still enjoying the Tipo, spent a few hours last Saturday fitting a Brink towbar which was all reasonably straightforward other than the dimensions for the cutout in the lower surface of the bumper which could have been much smaller. I may use the section I had cut out to cover some of the gaping hole that resulted. :-(

Another thing that I wanted to offer here for anyone that is interested is the dog guard that was fitted to the car when I got it. I'm not selling it per se, I'm doing a charity car rally this Saturday in my mx5 and would take a donation of £25 to the Friends of the Cancer Centre (NI) in exchange for the dog guard. I will package it up and send it for that price.

155Ringman, do you have any other photos of the Tow Bar fit? What wiring option did you go for? I've not had the chance to look at the job yet.

Regards,

Hi Howiedean, no sorry didnt take any more photos as I was cracking on to get it done after washing 4 cars earlier that day. The mechanical side of it is straightforward, just remove the impact absorbing structure behind the bumper which exposes the ends of the chassis box sections under the boot floor. Then there are two heavy duty brackets that are tied into the chassis legs and also use the impact bar mounts although they are only M8. The main chassis box section mountings are M12 with proper high tension bolts as you would expect. Then it's just a matter of bolting on the horizontal beam and cutting the underside of the bumper to suit.
There was a standard 7 pin wiring kit with the towbar and I have led the wire into the spare wheel well at the moment until I can get some time to finish the wiring.

Before I bought this bar, I asked my local fiat dealer about a towbar kit and the answer was..... £650!

This brink bar was £165 including delivery to Northern Ireland.