As some of you may know, I've abandoned Skoda and gone over to the Italian side for a while.

After 150k in octavias over the last 6 years I fancied a change and also fancied saving myself some money on the next car.

List price for a Fiat Bravo 1.6 Multijet Eco Dynamic with metallic paint and a sunroof (more on that later) is over £17k but I paid £12.5 which just goes to show how desparate some dealers are to make their sales figures at the moment.

So, it's cheaper, but how does it compare.

Well let's start with the obvious stuff. It's a slightly smaller car than the Octavia by about 25cm. Most of that is lost in the boot and there's also a little bit less space in the back seats as well but as I rarely need to carry adults in the back that's not a problem for me.

Appearance - While there was nothing wrong with the Octavia it was fairly dull and other than the design of the rear lights at night there wasn't much that stood out. The Bravo on the other hand is a vastly better looking car and apart from the 3 door version of the new Megane I think it's the best looking car in it's class.

Performance - It's a 105bhp turbo diesel engine, and inevitably it *is* slower than the PD140 engine in the octavia but it doesn't feel underpowered. Once the turbo comes in at about 1600 rpm it pulls very well and has a slight edge on a PD105 Octavia, not least because it has a six speed gearbox rather than a five as you get in a Skoda. It's also much quieter and smoother than the Octavia was which is a pleasant change.

Economy - This is the car's strong point. It has taller gear ratios than the other diesel engined Bravos and will cruise at over 70mph at less than 2000rpm as a result. Fiat claim 62.7MPG combined and while I've not achieved that yet the car isn't run in at all. My Octavia improved by at least 10-15% over the first few thousand miles so if I see the same here I'll beat the target. On my drive back home from work the best I'd get in the Octavia would be an indicated 58mpg which was about 55mpg actual. My best so far is an indicated 64 though I don't know what margin of error there is. Round town it's returning over 50mpg which is cracking for a car of this size.

Ride and Handling - No problems here. I've not pushed it hard but it goes round bends well and rides over bumps in the road just fine. It feels different to the Octavia but isn't noticably better or worse. At first it felt like it was rolling more, but that's just because the seats don't hold you in place quite as well. I've seen a few mentions of the power steering being too light in Fiats and while it is in my girlfriend's Punto it's nicely weighted here. It also has a City button which lightens it up a lot - handier than I expected in car parks.

Comfort - It's a very pleasant place to sit. The interior feels very nicely screwed together with no rattles or creaks and the seats are comfy but not as narrow so you do move round a bit more on bends.

The sunroof is excellent with a much larger opening in the front than you got in the Skoda and also a smaller glass panel in the rear. The glass in the front slides up and back rather than into the roof like it did in the Octavia so you get much more light and air but it gets too noisy for my liking at about 5mph less.

My main complaint here would be that there aren't quite as many storage places as you got in the Skoda - it's just not quite as well thought out as it could have been.

Specification - This is a Dynamic spec car which is the most luxurious one - there's a similarly priced Sport option which loses some bits and gains others. It has plenty of kit as standard - dual zone climate control , electric windows all round , cruise control and a very trick stereo with Blue & Me. This is a hands free bluetooth car kit and MP3 system that will play music from any MP3 player with a USB connection or a standard USB memory stick. It's got steering wheel mounted controls and is easy enough to use , though the sound quality isn't as good as the Stream in my old Octavia. I'm planning on spending £100 or so on replacing the speakers which should sort that out though.

Oddly it doesn't have rubbing strips on the side doors , so that's £60 I'll need to spend as well, and it doesn't have rear parking sensors which is a little unusual. Still, not the end of the world and an easy thing to retro-fit.

Oh , airbags! There's 8 that I've found so far. Two in the front , two in the side of the front seats , two in the A pillars and two curtain ones above the front doors.

It does also have a swimming pool! If there's a lot of water on the roof you don't want to open the front window and then brake. All the water runs off the roof , in through the window and onto the door handle which has a little storage compartment that fills up nicely I won't be making that mistake again.

On the whole , first impressions are very positive and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes over the next three years.

Nice review

Thanks.

By way of comparison , this is what I reckon you'd get for about the same money if you wanted a new diesel Skoda , based on prices from Broadspeed , and factoring in the cost of a sunroof and metallic paint where possible.

New Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI PD 105bhp S 5 Dr £12623 - so no budget for options and a very basic spec for the same money.

New Skoda Fabia Estate 1.4 TDI PD 80bhp Fabia 3 5 Dr £12086 - you'd get metallic or a sunroof but not both for £12.5k I reckon. As an alternative you could get a 1.9 in 3 spec with no options or a 2 spec with money to spend on toys. You could have a decent spec hatch on budget but then you've lost a lot of luggage space.

New Skoda Roomster 1.4 TDI PD 80bhp SE 5 Dr £11892 - space in the budget for several options , or you could go for a 1.9 SE spec for £12429 and that's it!

When you look at it like that , the Fiat does make a good case for itself on cost grounds alone , and it doesn't feel like a cheapo option when you drive one.

Indeed, it does make sense - like I said I nice little review for those with an eye on the £'s if considering a new car purchase.

Be intresting to see how things are going with the Fiat in 60k miles time - like you say brand new things look are looking good

Will it still be going with 60k on it ? As you say, the Skoda will do 150k...the Italians I've had have been nothing but trouble and were swept up with the dust and put in the dustbin.

Will it still be going with 60k on it ? As you say, the Skoda will do 150k...the Italians I've had have been nothing but trouble and were swept up with the dust and put in the dustbin.

I think (just as with Skoda) Fiat have moved on a bit in terms of reliability (not that the engines were ever an issue with Fiat's, just the electrics) and build quality since the 70's & 80's

Will it still be going with 60k on it ? As you say, the Skoda will do 150k...the Italians I've had have been nothing but trouble and were swept up with the dust and put in the dustbin.

My D-Reg panda went past 60 with no issues , and my GF's bravo is an 04 which hasn't broken down once.

Sharkrider's Grande Punto is up to 75k in 2 years and has been just fine.

As for Skodas , my first got to 82k with no problems apart from a clutch cylinder and then failed aircon. The Mk2 had 13 visits to dealers with creaking suspension then a blown turbo at 55k.

Ever so reliable

You can get a bad car from any brand.

Be intresting to see how things are going with the Fiat in 60k miles time - like you say brand new things look are looking good

Well it has a warranty as good as the Skoda , so if it lasts me three years I'll be happy.

NIce review, keep us posted. lol @ the "it does have a swimming pool"

and yes, mine has just ticked 76k with no real issues (less than I had in the vRS anyway) and about 100 different drivers (pleanty of learner abuse) , doing so well, now my warrantys run out, I haven't even bothered to get an aftermarket one.... a fully useful warrenty (no wear and tear get out clauses) is about £450, I asked myself, would it need £450 worth of repairs in the comming year? Now I've changed jobs, and will only be doing about 20k a year, I doubt it.... last year, it had a wheel bearing, and the EGR valve done under warrenty, that probably wouldn't have been £450... the year after though, when it approaches 100k, I may go for one!

Just remembered something else it has too - cornering lights.

When you have the lights on and are below a certain speed it will turn the fog light on one side of the car if you indicate or turn the steering wheel past a certain point.

At first I thought this was a daft idea and some of the time it's of no benefit but other times like turning into my driveway it's really handy.

What's even better is that you can turn features like this on and off yourself - very similar to the facility you get with Maxidot on a Skoda but it's standard.

Just filled up for the second time so I have my first idea of how it's doing on fuel.

563 miles and used 49.66 litres which works out at 51.5 mpg (the trip computer claimed 54.8 so it's about as inaccurate as the octy) which I'm reasonably happy with.

It's some way off the claimed 62.7mpg but I didn't do many long journeys in that lot and I reckon the octavia would have done about a true 47-48mpg in the same period. Journeys that I know I'd have got about 55-57mpg were showing 62-64mpg.

In the first 5-10k miles the octavia improved by about 15% and I'm expecting a similar change here so it's all looking good.

I have been keeping track of my MPG in a spreadsheet, so I think you might get roughly the same.( even though the 500 is only 75bhp )

Using the old trip / fill after 35 tanks of fuel am currenly on 54.7mpg, which aint bad for 10.5k miles.

Things are looking good for the fiat diesel engines .

P.S - Have you tried to download the Eco Drive software from the main site, put it on a USB stick, plug it into the USB slot in the car, this logs any journeys made in the car. ( good for if you leave the car at a dealers & they take it out to get lunch, you can see if its been ragged )

Just got up to 1000 miles today and the second tank of fuel is looking better than the first by a couple of MPG.

On the way home from work yesterday I got an indicated 65mpg which is a decent improvement on the 58 that was my best ever in the octy.

Yes , I do have the EcoDrive software installed and am on 69 at the mo. I'm not expecting to get much higher as some of it's recommendations are a little odd - especially how early they want you to change up a gear - but it's a handy tool indeed.

Bit of an update - I've had the first problem with the car.

I'd checked the climate control worked ok when I collected it but since then on hot days I'd found that the aircon wouldn't cool the air - you could tell it just wasn't kicking in. As soon as the weather changed and the temperature dropped by a few degrees it would behave again.

It was booked in today and they tell me the level of gas in the system was incorrect which they have now fixed. I won't know for sure until it's another hot day but hopefully that will be the end of it.

It's not a major issue and the dealers seem to have done their job ok though they did want to charge me for a courtesy car which I quickly put them right on.

By comparison , my octavia had a problem with the climate control where it would sometimes only blow very hot air that the dealers never managed to fix in three years!

I set a new personal record on the 23 mile journey to work this morning.

I was driving in my most economical fashion and stuck to 60 on the motorway , but that's an impressive level of economy!

wow nearly 70mpg... bloody careful driving there had my 1.9 up to 63mpg once, but I cant help driving like I stole it, so its more like 50 most of the time

I got 68 today and that didn't feel like I was going particularly slowly.

It's looseing up nicely.

I got 67 on a 190 mile run this week

The last two tankfulls have been a genuine 55mpg overall which I'm pleased with. My Octavia would typically do an indicated 52mpg on a tankfull of similar driving which was a true 48mpg (pretty much spot on the Skoda official figure) and that's when it was fully run in.

Today's job was to replace the front door speakers which were ok for factory fit but nothing special. In thier place has gone some Pioneer TS-H1703 custom fit speakers for a nice improvement - 90 quid well spent (including the mounting brackets and a glue gun).

It's now up to 4.5k or thereabouts and the engine is indeed loosening up.

My last tank of fuel was almost entirely doing long runs and I seem to have got 62.2mpg - 691 miles and it took less than 51 litres to fill it to the brim which is excellent.

Today's job was to replace the front door speakers which were ok for factory fit but nothing special. In thier place has gone some Pioneer TS-H1703 custom fit speakers for a nice improvement - 90 quid well spent (including the mounting brackets and a glue gun).

Not knowing how good Fiat's factory fit speakers were compared to Skoda's, would you think I'd notice the difference in my Octavia (MY07)?

I'm tempted to switch my fronts and install rears. I also have an old but high end pioneer 4x65W amp I could use to feed them if I bother to rewire the car.

Not knowing how good Fiat's factory fit speakers were compared to Skoda's, would you think I'd notice the difference in my Octavia (MY07)?

I'm tempted to switch my fronts and install rears. I also have an old but high end pioneer 4x65W amp I could use to feed them if I bother to rewire the car.

The factory fit speakers in the Mk2 Octavia are better than what came in my Bravo so you wouldn't see as much of an improvement.

Will it still be going with 60k on it ? As you say, the Skoda will do 150k...the Italians I've had have been nothing but trouble and were swept up with the dust and put in the dustbin.

 

Just wrapping this ancient thread up. but the answer was yes. Sold today at 70k and it had been a very good reliable car. Absolutely everything still worked fine.

So,that fiat engine was fine and dandy ! I had the stilo 1.9 and a cracking car