Wife fancied a smaller car and she has the hots for the mito cloverleaf...I though it looked a bit small so went and checked dimensions...its only 3 inches shorter but an inch wider than my first generation ford focus i had many years ago..so what was a compact family car is now the size of a supermini

GET the Mito Cloverleaf, I had one, loved every single minute of it, what an engine, it really puts the 1.4tsfi vag engine to shame.

and as the Mito is based on the Punto chassis(but lighter) it's proven to perform well in warranty surveys so far and reliability looks good in long term too.

I don't rate the climate control system though, the standard aircon looks nicer.

and if you want to stretch and pay for the leather seats they really are very nice.

some alfa specialist tuners can remap the car for D mode only, meaning she can drive it around all day in N mode, when you hop in it, switch it to D mode, feel the steering go heavy and quick, the throttle response become sharp, the dampers firm up, the traction control lay back and with the remap feel another 20bhp kick in too!!!

you will soon be getting out of the vRS and into the Mito for your driving thrills.

I'm seriously thinking of cancelling my order for my Fabia Estate vRS and placing an order with a quicker build time for a Mito CL.

It might not be as fast off the line up to 60ph but thats cos the fabia has a DSG.

the car is quite a bit lighter, with wider tyres, better weight distribution and lower centre of gravity so don't be surprised when you find you can't shake a Mito Cloverleaf when in your vRS.

I cannot deny its a handsome little car..the new cloverleaf alloys are very nice..and she wants it in Etna black, the black wheels and the contrasting wing mirrors makes it a good looking wee car

I'm not keen on the Mito.

The 159 however :p

But I'm not sure I'd ever buy one with my own money.

<meanwhile, back at the point>

I recently saw a MAXI "Countryman" parked behind a V@*Xh@11 0m*g@ estate. Ok, the V@*xh@11 was longer, but the MAXI was every bit as wide, and taller, and is supposed to be a "small car"?

The problem with the Mito and indeed any Alfa is depreciaton, they lose value faster than a lead block falling from a block of flats. Compared to the Fabia, in 2-3 years the Fabia would have lost considerably less than the Alfa.

I agree though, cars today are a lot bigger. The MK1 Golf for example, is a lot smaller than the MK6 and is smaller than most modern supermini cars.

And you'd still end up with an Alfa

I did look at the Guilietta (sp) before the vRS but thought better of it. Don't think I'll even own any form of italian car.

Residual for the Mito are some of the best in it's class, admittedly the lower spec models are better than the higher spec Veloce 135 and Cloverleaf 170.

I ordered a Bispanicino(however it's spelt) white cloverleaf, with red leather seats, Bose sound system(with subwoofer), tyre pressure monitoring.

excellent car, not fair to make ill informed comments about residuals, rust and reliability. see as this year it finished higher than VW in some warranty claim polls.

The Mito is based on a Punto, and Fiat are leaders in motor vehicle development and R&D, take there Multiair system for example, or the common rail diesel type of engine that are now in most VAG cars.

Breara and Spider are the last in a generation are poorly designed and poorly built Alfa's, the Mito and Guiletta are top notch cars, expect the replacement to the 159 to be very good indeed.

whats your opinion on the BOSE?

options I was looking at was climate,Bose, etna black and maybe the tinted windows

Climate is the one option i would avoid, unlike the fabia, where the climate looks and feels much nicer than the manual air con. in the Mito i had a 155tb Veloce with Climate when mine had it's delivery delayed.

it's a fiddley system, found it didn't really do a good job when i had someone else in the car... I'm not following the trend but there's not alot of nice things said alot it on the Alfa Forum, except for those that specced it and can't admit they made the wrong choice.

The Bose system is a surprisingly rare option specced in the Mito, I've noticed maybe only 1 in a 100 cars having it fitted, but for what it offers the price is good, the subwoofer is concealed in the spare wheel area and doesn't impact boot space.

After having driven a normal 155tb Veloce without the Bose, when i got into my car the difference was huge. Now just because at the time i was listening to alot of Prodigy where a system with good bass helps doesn't mean i couldn't pick up on the significantly better sound quality.

Still it's £660 IRCC, so if you wife doesn't listen to music in the car often or like to turn it up every so often then i would say it's not essential.

Etna black looks pretty cool under strong light and has a better finish than the solid black paint. tinted windows for the price, hell why not, i specced them and didn't think twice about it. i know it can be done for slightly less at an aftermarket detailing company, but it's hassle free having it from factory.

Think twice about the climate...... ask if you dealer has a car with it fitted so you can have a fiddle around if poss.

though if your wife isn't too bothered about the Bose, and you skip on the Climate then you could opt for leather instead, which really adds a touch of class to the interior and makes it classy than other car in this segment except for the rip-off of the century A1 which is nice inside too.

p.s. there aren't any offers on Mito's really, it's kinda list price and thats it's, but in reality they have about £200 flexibility, best to use that to get money off Etna black paint rather than those overpriced Supaguard paint protection thingy

Edited 20 January, 201214 yr by Sonner

cars have been getting bigger for years. Current Focus has way more space than a Contina I I would guess has similar external dimensions.

as a follow up to this..I handed over the keys to my trusty vrs on saturday (was sad to see it go, it was my third one, but they have not refreshed it enough this year, will come back when there are new vrs models either in the new models range or the replacement octavia..no hesitation in coming back toskoda in the future

my new motor

I'm not the biggest fan of them but that does look nicely sinister in black.

as a follow up to this..I handed over the keys to my trusty vrs on saturday (was sad to see it go, it was my third one, but they have not refreshed it enough this year, will come back when there are new vrs models either in the new models range or the replacement octavia..no hesitation in coming back toskoda in the future

my new motor

That's a nice looking motor. What BHP does it have and how does it compare to the hot Fabias, clios etc...

hehe my missus says it looks like a mafia hitmans car..if he was a midget

power wise its 170bhp... 0-60 is supposed to be 7.5 ..its still brand new and I am supposed to behave but it doesnt feel to much slower than the vrs on the commute to work, but the gearing is different especially in third the octavia feels like it has a longer gear so can hang on for longer..more torque through the rev range as well in the vrs

its rides nice though

sadly as the fabia doesnt offer a manual I was never going to get one and the clio feels a bit tired now and is way out when it comes to tax and fuel comapred to more modern smaller engines

in the end its a compromise..we wanted something smaller with a bit of poke that doesnt break the bank...plus is looks cool..the wheels are just superb with the large calipers peeking out

Edited 14 May, 201214 yr by FTM

I would suggest checking out the Grand Punto Abarth if you are interested in the Mito. My Dad has a Abarth Grande Punto and we test drove both that and the Alfa Mito with the same 1.4 T-jet at 155 bhp. The Abarth rode better, had less road noise in the cabin and was cheaper to buy, driving was very similar (as you'd expect from the same engine on the same platform). Only fault so far has been a dodgy relay on the fuel pump fixed under warranty, but it does rattle a little now it's 3 years old. Levels of grip are amazing, handles well but a little twitchy, steering lacks feel and is artificially weighted in Sport Boost mode, far too heavy. He's going back to a German car this week actually, says he's had enough of Italian build quality!

Edited 14 May, 201214 yr by ckyliu

Have you seen the size of the ruddy MINI FFS its absolutely mahoosive, the top of the bonnet is now almost the same height as the original mini. in fact i reckon with a bit of effort you could probably fit an original mini in the back of the MINI Countryman.

I parked next to a new Mini countryman the other day and it was taller and almost as long as my S4 avant!!

Mini, indeed!

Mostly I agree with you but it is good to read that Peugeot has lopped nearly a quarter of a tonne in weight in the new 208 compared to the lard arse 207. It looks to be a great little car with the new lightweight 1,2 triple.

Wife fancied a smaller car and she has the hots for the mito cloverleaf...I though it looked a bit small so went and checked dimensions...its only 3 inches shorter but an inch wider than my first generation ford focus i had many years ago..so what was a compact family car is now the size of a supermini

This has been happening for years

Fiesta has more space that the original ford escort, infact there might be just about as much space in a Ka!

Edited 14 May, 201214 yr by slider

The MiTo is nice, but this is the dogs IMO

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/237501-alfa-romeo-giulietta/page__fromsearch__1

Wife fancied a smaller car and she has the hots for the mito cloverleaf...I though it looked a bit small so went and checked dimensions...its only 3 inches shorter but an inch wider than my first generation ford focus i had many years ago..so what was a compact family car is now the size of a supermini

Cars have always been getting bigger... Compare dimensions of say a Fiesta from the 1990s or early 2000s with the later models. They get larger until there's the opportunity to create a new segment underneath the existing ranges. (ka, 500, cinqecento etc).

J.