Fiat Bravo/Brava

EpiphoneSpecial

just browsing the usual car sites and was wondering if you guys could tell me why these cars are so cheap:
for example a '00 1.2 Bravo bout 35k all electric is 5,500

is there a reason for them being cheap??

cheers

egan007

You will get lots of replies to say because they are a fiat - but if they are of a dealer with a warrenty then sounds good

CTU_Agent

The reason is: Its FIAT!! they are notorious for head gasket problems among others.....they are a nice car and fairly cheap granted but you'l be plaugued with problems...

alias no.9

They have a bad reputation and image. It's not necessarily deserved. I had a 1997 1.4l for 2 years, I bought it in 2002 with 42k miles and sold it last year with 85k miles. At 75,000 miles it needed a new clutch, not unusual by any stretch of the imagination for a petrol car, what was unusual was that I got it done for €350 at a main dealer including an oil and filter change too. Other than that it needed suspension bushing changed for the NCT. I had to get rid of it because I was doing way too much mileage for a petrol car. I advertised in the buy and sell and it took a long time to get anyone to come and look at it, but the first person that did come bought it there and then. Now for the bad stuff, on the 1.2 look out for head gasket failure, check for white residue onder the oil cap and on the dipstick, check for mayonaise type gunk in the coolant expansion tank. The water supply to the rear wash/wipe can come loose, if it doesnt work look for water dribbling out of the bottom of the boot lid, it's very easy to fix. Radios have good sound, six speakers but can fail. They're tricky to remove, but not impossible. The interior trim is a bit flimsy so listen out for some rattles and squeaks.

Other than that give it the usual inspection, check that everything works, electric windows, central locking, wipers, lights, hot and cold air, check that the radiator fan kicks in when the engine heats up and cuts out when it has cooled the engine down.

Overall, you should probably haggle on the price, you'll probably get one for less than €5k if you're buying straight. Only buy if you're planning on keeping it for 2 or 3 years because it could be difficult to sell on but even if you only get €1500 for it in 3 years, < €1200 depreciation per year is hardly catastrophic.

Jip

I owned one a 1.2 from new since 2001 and sold it only a few months ago. As has been said, it's just has and image problem which is not wholey deserved.

In the 4 years and 56k miles I owned it for I never had one serious problem. Only once did it not start from me but that was because I had let the battery go flat ! Never had any other mechanical issues. I think the head gasket problem was more an issue with the older Puntos and not the Bravo. I had the rear wash issue that Alias mentioned but that was a 10 minute fix that involved a bit of glue.

The car was good fun to drive, and for a 1.2 it had more horsepower than most 1.4s such as the Focus so it was nippy enough (The older 1.4 model was horribly underpowered). Mine was fully loaded, such as a leather steering wheel and electric and heated mirrors. With a decent set of tyres on the alloys it held the road like glue, I used to look forward to roundabouts !

Overall, I really enjoyed owning the car and I sold it to get a bigger and more sensible car to go with my age !

prospect

Because they are FIAT.
I am not saying this because I think they are crap, but because people in general believe they are crap, and this reduces the demand for them, and hence the price. I'd say go for it, esp if they have a warranty.

alias no.9

Jip wrote:

I think the head gasket problem was more an issue with the older Puntos and not the Bravo.

It's the 1108cc and 1242cc engines that suffer from the head gasket problems, the 1242cc 16v is fitted to the bravo. Probably the reason they go more often in the punto is that poverty spec punto's have no temperature gauge, just a little warning light that doesn't come on until it's already too late.

Jip

I see, didn't know that now.

And I just remembered one small issue I did have. There was a time when the engine would stall when coming to a halt but that turned out to be just dirt in the throttle body which was easily fixed and not a Fiat specific issue.

Dagon

"people in general believe they are crap, and this reduces the demand for them, and hence the price."

Do you think this is by accident? By and large, the consumer experience with Fiat is very bad, with few exceptions. Buy a Fiat and you're asking for trouble.

Why a person would go for a relatively new Fiat as opposed to a Toyota or Honda a few years older is beyond me!! These things are cheap for a reason!!

If you want a cheap car get a Skoda. Not a Fiat, or a Renault or a Citroen or a Peugeot, no matter how good a deal it *appears* to be.

Jip

Well I've owned 2 different Fiat models in that past and had no problems with either apart from normal wear and tear.

prospect

Can't agree with you there Dagon.

Alot of peoples opinions are formed from listening to others. In particular older people like their parrents. There is no doubt 15 years ago they were very poor cars, but nowdays I don't think that applies. But the bad feeling continues.

If you look up reliability index on google, you will see that FIAT currently rank higher than citroen, renault, and skoda.

Also there are alot of other factors to consider, and I am going to over-simplify this just to avoid any confusion.
1. Over the past 20 years, FIAT have had far more cars on the roads than Mercedes. So, they obviously have had far more breakdowns, etc. It is all about numbers.
2. The average person who buys a FIAT, esp. a second hand one, has usually got less money to spend on their car than your average Mercedes owner. Therefore the car might not have been as well looked after as a merc.
3. It is all about attitude.
-- "My Fiat broke down", "Ha Ha, thats what you get for buying a heap of crap"
-- "My Merc broke down", "Really, you must have missed a service or something"

Fiat are far from the best car on the road, but if you look after it well, then you should be okay.

EpiphoneSpecial

cheers for all the feedback guys

the bravo i was looking at, was from a dealer so warranty should come with it

egan007

Jip wrote:

I see, didn't know that now.

And I just remembered one small issue I did have. There was a time when the engine would stall when coming to a halt but that turned out to be just dirt in the throttle body which was easily fixed and not a Fiat specific issue.

Hi
Currently have this problem on my bravo - cutting out when stopping.
Did it cost much to fix?

Cheers

Jip

Can't remember now, it was back in the winter. I think it was only about €30 or €40, just the charge for labour as no parts were required. The mechanic just took it apart, gave it a clean and it was as good as new.
I don't know where you are but I got it done in Alasta Autos, South Lotts road near Ringsend.

egan007

Jip wrote:

Can't remember now, it was back in the winter. I think it was only about €30 or €40, just the charge for labour as no parts were required. The mechanic just took it apart, gave it a clean and it was as good as new.
I don't know where you are but I got it done in Alasta Autos, South Lotts road near Ringsend.

Cheers for the info

alias no.9

Dagon wrote:

"people in general believe they are crap, and this reduces the demand for them, and hence the price."

Do you think this is by accident? By and large, the consumer experience with Fiat is very bad, with few exceptions. Buy a Fiat and you're asking for trouble.

Why a person would go for a relatively new Fiat as opposed to a Toyota or Honda a few years older is beyond me!! These things are cheap for a reason!!

If you want a cheap car get a Skoda. Not a Fiat, or a Renault or a Citroen or a Peugeot, no matter how good a deal it *appears* to be.

My father has had 6 fiat's which between them have covered well in excess of 500,000 miles over the last 23 years or so. They've all proved reliable. An early 1980's Uno had a problem with rust that was sorted under warrenty and went on to cover something in the region of 250k miles and a late 1990's punto had a head gasket fail, again covered under warrenty, that's hardly a poor reliability record for such a sustained period of time and such large mileage now is it? In addition to this, as I've already said, I've had a bravo in the past which did not conform to your stereotype but not only that, I have two sisters who both drive fiats, one of them is on her second, neither of which have given any trouble.

ds20prefecture

Dagon wrote:

If you want a cheap car get a Skoda. Not a Fiat, or a Renault or a Citroen or a Peugeot, no matter how good a deal it *appears* to be.

You'll be lucky to find a cheap Škoda.

See this thread - Fiat scored around the same as BMW when it came to the percentage of breakdowns. And far better than Audi.

Lose the pre-conceptions and you end up with a grand car for less money.