Fiat Brava 80

...I've had my Italian built Fiat Brava for about 15 months now and it has served me well to say the least. In that short period of time, it has ventured 29,000 miles, would you believe it? A huge amount of milage to be covering in that space of time, one might think. So, what have I been using it for? One might also think I have been travelling around the world in it to cover that many miles, but actually, it has just been bombing around the same area ...
...grey plastic with a standard Fiat radio with CD changing facilities, plastic dials etc etc. Plastic everything. But it doesn't look tacky or anything, it's just basic. The bad thing is that it doesn't have a rev-ometer; I like to know how many revs I am doing as it's a good indicator as to how much fuel you are eating up when driving.

The standard Fiat radio and tape player is a pain in the backside to remove; as it doesn't look that ... more

I've had my Italian built Fiat Brava for about 15 months now and it has served me well to say the least. In that short period of time, it has ventured 29,000 miles, would you believe it? A huge amount of milage to be covering in that space of time, one might think. So, what have I been using it for? One might also think I have been travelling around the world in it to cover that many miles, but actually, it has just been bombing around the same area over and over and over again, from home in Kingston to University in London to Dad's house in High Wycombe and Mum's house in Princes Risborough. Over and over. I dread to think how much money I have spent on petrol...

I will tell you about this car and it's life in categories. That will make it easier, I think...

ECONOMY

Mine being the 1.4 litre 75bhp version, this is not too thirsty when it comes to petrol. I find if I put in a fiver's worth of petrol, it will give me 50 miles on average, so that works out at 10p a mile which is not bad. £5 these days will only get you about 6.5 litres of petrol, so if my maths is correct, that will mean the car does about 40 miles to the gallon, which is not bad at all.

One other thing about petrol consumption is that in order to get this generous amount of miles to the gallon, you have to drive moderately, by this I mean not revving the car too much or pressing the accellerator more than you have to and accelerating slowly- in other words, boring driving!

PERFORMANCE and POWER

Ah, my favourite topic! Unfortunately, this is not built as a performance car, although there are other variations of the Brava which have a little more oomph, like the sports version which is a 1.6 litre 16 valve.

For anyone who wants to buy a fast car, the Brava 1.4 is not the car for you- but you can't have everything- if it's cheap to run it's going to be slow to drive. As I am a student, I cannot afford a fast car right now, so I have my Brava instead.

The 1.4 is not bad in terms of speed, but is really no faster than a Transit van, sadly. It goes from 0-60 mph in about 15 seconds which I suppose, is average. The accelleration in 2nd gear is the best, with the most pull, but it won't get you past about 30mph. Third gear is a little disappointing in terms of pulling power, but like I keep stressing, this aint a performance car!! Go get yourself a Lambo or something (a little cheaper) if you want speed!

In terms of power, the Brava doesn't have much of it. At a measly 75 bhp and 12 valves in this quite large car, it does feel like it is struggling sometimes, especially up steep hills, where I sometimes find myself slowing down to about 15-20 mph with a tail of cars up my backside and absolutely nothing I can do to shake them off. Once I even had to put the car back into 1st gear to make it up this steep hill! How embarassing! It's not normally that bad though- it was a bit poorly at the time!

HANDLING

This car handles quite well. Although it would not be advisable to take corners at 50 mph in this car, it has been done, and it did survive, albeit a little scary! This is something I would not do again in this car, but I was pleasantly surprised (more like extremely relieved) at how well it coped with this thrashing!

The brakes in this car are strong- it has also had to do a few emergency stops in its time and it is a very quick reactor to breaks. Be prepared to be trown forward in your seat rather fiercely, but be relieved at it's capability.

It is also good in the rain. Throughout the time I have had it in this abysmally wet country, it has never slipped or slid or skidded once. Maybe that's because I am a very skillful driver. Then again maybe it's down to the cars ability to cope well in bad situations.

INTERIOR

The dashboard of all Bravas are more or less the same; grey plastic with a standard Fiat radio with CD changing facilities, plastic dials etc etc. Plastic everything. But it doesn't look tacky or anything, it's just basic. The bad thing is that it doesn't have a rev-ometer; I like to know how many revs I am doing as it's a good indicator as to how much fuel you are eating up when driving.

The standard Fiat radio and tape player is a pain in the backside to remove; as it doesn't look that appealing, I decided to replace it with a state of the art CD player, and the damn thing would not come out! I ended up having to take it down the Fiat garage where I found that you could only remove it with a specially made tool!

The best hting about the interior is not the snazzy designed seats (?) but the amount of space it gives you in both the front and the back- I once squeezed five friends in the back and they still felt comfortable enough to bung more people in there! There is loads of leg room at both ends of the car. The boot is also massive- I have enough room in there to store almost all of my belongings- and that is a lot of stuff!

DRIVING

It's quite an easy car to drive in terms of the pedals which are not too sharp when you press them, but reactant enough to satisfy. Driving feels quite smooth as well. The only thing is that I have ahd people complain about lack of visibility around the car and that the big plastic skirtings and quite narrow rear window restrict viewing around the car, making the blindspots bigger. I've never had a problem with this though.

EXTERIOR

Quite a funky looking car, with not many others that look like it. I feel proud driving my brava as it looks good! The standard Fiat hubcaps it comes with are a bit naf, but replace them with some 15 inch alloys (you could even fit some 16 inches on if you wanted) and the car looks a treat; stylish, funky and cool without looking over the top! This is a car to buy if your after some subtle style- with just a few more adaptations to the standard model, you'll be lovin' it! For example, replace the black plastic lines/bumpers around the car with metallic paintwork the same colour as the car. Or you can glam it up a bit with side skirting. You could put a bodykit on it if you wanted to go the step further- I would reccommend it, as I have seen some kitted up ones which look damn good! Or else you could tint the windows if it's image you like. Anything goes on the brava if you do it properly!

PARTS

These are cheap to buy as Fiat is such a large company and this is quite a popular car. For example, a new engine will cost about £500. They are also widely available to buy both new and second hand- if you go down to your local Fiat garage they will have new parts and many will have a selection of second hand parts if you're after something a bit cheaper.

SAFETY

As I have already mentionned, this is a safe-feeling car to drive, and as it's handling is so good, this makes it less likely to cause accidents. The same goes for the breaking; as it is very reactant, it will cope better in an emergency situation.

The car has only one airbag, on the driver's side, but that is only the older versions; the newer ones come with airbags on both sides. The seat belts are nice and sturdy as you would expect.

Like many newer cars, it has a crumpling front; it was designed to crumple in an accident to take away some of the force of the impact, therefore making the driver/passenger less likely to get hurt.

PRICE

At new, one of these will cost you £10000. The 1.6's are a bit more pricey and range from £11000 to about £18000.

There are a lot of them about second hand; mine cost £4000 when I bought it and it is a P reg (1997). I have seen them go for as low as £3000 to this day. The oldest ones were made in 1995 and therefore are the cheapest ones.

ANYTHING ELSE?

All Bravas come with electric windows in the front, electric sun rooves and a CD changer compatible stereo. The better models have electrics in the back as well and heated seats in the front.

They come in a very large variety of colours, so pick one to suit your taste.

SOME SITES WHICH MAY BE USEFUL

www.fiat.co.uk (official site with info and buying new)

www.fiat-approved-cars.co.uk (search for used Fiats and dealers)

www.autotrader.co.uk (the best site to buy privately sold second hand cars of any type)

I hope that's everything, happy buying!

 

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