2001 Fiat Bravo 80 SX review from UK and Ireland

Not much has gone wrong with the car only problem being that the roof above the drivers seat went through a stage of leaking and water dripping down the windscreen, getting so bad at one point that I had to drive sat on a bin bag as the seat was that wet!

I acquired this car when it had just gone three years old and previously had been a disability car so has full service history and was in absolutely mint condition, so I was impressed with it from the start and only being 18 years old I thought it was fantastic and boy was I right.

The car only had 9500 miles on the clock which is fantastic for a three year old car, but that is due to the reason above, yet since buying it 6 months ago I have covered nearly 11000 miles myself and it has never failed to start or skipped a beat.

I do a lot of miles and I was surprised at how comfortable this car is one of the most comfortable I have driven in my limited time driving (18 months, but owned 5 cars of my own in that time) and I would include the Ford Focus and Nissan Almera in the list of cars that are no better to ride in, also even though it's a 1.2 engine it isn't as slow as you may think with 82bhp on tap which is good for such a small engine it can shift if you boot it a little. It regularly cruises on the motorway with me at 100 miles an hour, but the fuel economy does suffer as low as 25 mpg on a 75 mile 100 mph journey.

This car is surprisingly well built for a fiat I did have a fiat cinqucento for my first car and this knocks spots off the quality of that.

Yet I do feel that the two things that I love most about this car are the looks and equipment. Even today 9 years after first launched it is still a good looking car and with electric windows, electric sunroof, CD player, central locking and no trim on the outside that isn't body colored its fantastic for the money.

I'm now thinking of trading it in now to get a Stilo which looks to be even better value for money and better equipped and built so maybe I will treat myself for my birthday.