Fiat Stilo 1.6 review
First off - I realise that many will not give a crap about a basic non-performance car no matter where its from. I myself tend to wonder about cars that we don't get here, and not just about the TVR's, Mistu Evo VIII's and Lotus elises. I am curious about the day-to-day regular cars as well, so I try to pick an interesting rental when I go abroad. I was in the UK for a few days last month and rented a Fiat Stilo 1.6l Dynamic 5 door.
*Exterior
- Nice tasteful dark blue paint. Good fit and finish.
- interesting blue notes in the headlight reflectors - light is regular white though.
- standard 16" alloys go well with the car. Its about the size of a
generation III Golf but taller, so anything smaller would look tiny.
*Interior
-Good seats with medium bolstering and decent fabric.
-Sombre black dash with light grey bits. dull, but very tasteful.
Will probably look just fine in ten years, unlike the first gen
Ford Focus dash. Weird but useful rubber sandpaper-like dash
top that really grips anything you set down on it.
- some mediocre plastics in the cockpit - gen III golf quality.
- a couple really bad - bad as GM - quality switches around.
- amazing headroom/good legroom front and back. good enough
for me to sit in the back seat with the front seats pushed all the
way back - not common as I am 6'2"...
- temperature controlled glovebox. Hmm. Ok.
- Good 6 speaker stereo
*Engine/performance
- 16v twincam 1.6l four, tuned for economy, not performance.
103hp at 5750rpm. 107 ft/lbs at 4000. 0-60 is a claimed 10.5
sec, but felt more like a 9 - 9.5 to my seat of the pants
stopwatch. Makes nice sounds about 4000 rpm, but loses
interest about 300 rpm shy of its 6500 redline.
- major letdown in the 5-speed's shifter. Feels like the cable
linkage is made from old clothesline parts. Too much travel and
really vague. Terrible.
- Good pedal placement, easy to heel 'n' toe.
*Handling
- Good grip from its 205/55/16 all seasons - fair amount of tyre
for a 2500lb econobox.
- Gentle understeer through roundabouts with not too much lean.
Really composed in transitions - similar to current stock VW GTi
suspension tuning
- Odd button labelled "City" on the far side of the shifter toggles
an over-boost to the power steering for toodling through
narrow streets and tight parking. Largely unnecessary, IMHO.
*Economy
- important when it costs over $100 to fill your econobox's fuel
tank. I got around 40 mpg.
* Verdict
- A nice but unspectacular car. This Fiat costs $27500CDN in the UK at current exchange rates. This seems excessive, however in context can be seen to undercut the 3 door 108hp 1.6l Honda Civic hatch which costs $28700 and the 99 hp 1.6l Ford Focus at over $30000.
-Would the entry of this Fiat in to the NA market make much of a splash? Probably not. If it were equipped with the peppier 133hp 1.8 and a sorted out shifter, and priced to compete with the civic, corolla and focus market, I could see it being a valid contender though. The available 170 hp 2.4l 5 cylinder could even make it a competitor in the Civic SiR/Acura RSX/Mazda3 2.3 range.
- I liked it, but didn't fall in love with it. Still manages to claim best rental car ever though. Fun to drive, comfortable and with a fair amount of kit.
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