Fiat Stilo

BeatTun

anyone got any reviews on this car?

ive got a 01 bravo special series with 2 years left of repayments on it, and it seems my choices are :

1) sell car now, still owe finance 7000 and have no car

2) keep car till repayments finished, and be left with a car worth next to nothing

3) trade in for a fiat stilo at 0% interest finance, owe the finance company around 10,000, and have a brand new car under my arse

id appreciate any suggestions, cheers.

Dcully

Im not being smart here but dont buy another FIAT.
Terrible resale value ,crap build quality although Stilo is better than previous FIAT models .
FIAT are fine if you only keep for couple of years after that its downhill rapidly.

BeatTun

Originally posted by Dcully
Im not being smart here but dont buy another FIAT.
Terrible resale value ,crap build quality although Stilo is better than previous FIAT models .
FIAT are fine if you only keep for couple of years after that its downhill rapidly.

i agree completely, but it seems this is the only way i can get rid of the fiat i have now and come out of it with any sort of a result

if i was to get the stilo i would keep it for a year tops and then trade it in against another brand of car, its just that fiat are doing a great 0% finance deal at the moment

Chimaera

I think your first mistake here was buying a new bravo in 2001 (I'm assuming this since you say there's still 7000 owing on finance and there's no way you'd be owing that kind of money on a second hand bravo imho). The Stilo was already in the pipeline at that stage if not on sale, and they would have been running out the Bravo. So sh values of those late Bravos were always going to be crap.

I'm guessing you also took out a finance deal from FIAT. This can look attractive when you're buying, but can leave you tied in to buying from them again - they make it quite difficult for you to opt out. A bank loan may cost a little more, but it's far more flexible.

Find out how much you can get for your car as a trade in against another brand, or how much you'll be left owing on the finance deal if you give it back to FIAT now. It may be worth your while to take out a bank loan to cover the cost of the money you owe the finance company and buy a decent car.

Dcully

Yep Chaimera is spot on.

RicardoSmith

While not a fan of fiats I have to say that I know a number of people who have them and none of them have had problems with them. Bravo's and Punto's. The new cars are much improved and as a cheap form of transport they are pretty good. Just don't pay too much for them though. Bravos seem to be dirt cheap second hand and are a good car for the money.

BeatTun

i completely agree with the idea of trading against a different more reliable and less depreciable brand of car...

but the main point here is that fiat are running a 0% finance package until 31st march

meaning u only pay back the price of the car and thats it, which could put a brand motor under my arse while costing me about 60 euros less per month

and who is to say i could get the fiat stilo (17,000) from a trade off my bravo - owe the finance company 10,000, and go and trade the car off a decent motor then, or just sell the car for 15,000, leaving me with 5k

RicardoSmith

Ah but would you get 15k for it?