CURRENT JUNK – Fiat Stilo
By crabfoot at 25 January, 2010, 4:05 pm
My wife and I have been buying FIAT cars for about 20 years. She needs a reliable car to get to work, it is usually new-ish and gets traded in after a couple of years. We had five styles of Punto, then she got a “company car”, financed as part of the job.
I thought the fuel and tax considerations through, and decided she should get a new diesel Stilo because it was frugal, and had the lowest emission ratings possible – good for tax benefits.
When the Stilo was reviewed, the reviews were unfavorable. Luckily, our car ignored them, and the adverse comments were mostly aimed at the petrol version. It was a good and faithful servant, gave no problems and over 45mpg consistently for two years (that’s 38mpg in the US).
When the company said it had to be replaced, we asked for another.
At this stage of the game, FIAT had almost given up on the Stilo, and was starting manufacture of a new Brava – but there were still Stilo estates to be had, and we chose one of those. Like the first, it is a good and faithful servant, gives no problems, and returns over 45mpg consistently. My wife has left the company, but we bought the car when she departed. We will be running this one into the ground, we thought …
So the car is now almost three years old. We took it for its first MOT early. It failed because a shock absorber bush was worn out, and it needed new windscreen wipers. The garage replaced the shock absorbers, but there was a problem – the first set of shock absorbers supplied did not fit. Another set had to be obtained.
This is a “phase 2″ Stilo, we were told. Some parts are not the same as the original Stilo. We had been finding out about this ourselves. I bought a set of wipers that did not fit, and took them back to the supplier. After searching around, he concluded they were a new type, only available from a FIAT dealer, and gave me a refund. So I went to a dealer – no wipers in stock. At a second dealer, I ordered a pair of wipers, because they were not in stock. One arrived within a couple of days, but we are still waiting for the other to arrive from Italy a fortnight later.
This is not future junk – this is current junk. The delay means that I now have to pay for a second MOT test when that wiper is fitted. If I had waited until the last moment to get the car tested, it would be off the road for the lack of a wiper blade. And frankly, the old wiper is still working …
In the past, I have avoided buying certain brands because of “planned obsolescence” – parts and upgrades being unavailable, etc.. Now I’ve been caught …
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