1998 Fiat Marea HLX review from UK and Ireland

When I serviced it the airbox screws had corroded to the point of not being able to undo them without drilling the heads off, other than that nothing has failed or dropped off. There does seem to be 2 odd rattles, one from behind the dashboard, and the other from the drivers seat, but nothing seems to have broken.

The car is HLX spec with climate control, so there is not much you could really desire on the spec side of things. I have had a Marea before, a 2 litre ELX, and the performance of the diesel is obviously not as good, but is very good at in gear flexibilty as long as the turbo is spinning. It returns between 36 and 40mpg, which isn't too bad considering the way I drive it! Service costs are steep, 220 UKP for a 24,000 mile service, hence why I did it myself. I bought the car at 18 months old with just under 20k miles on it for 10,000 UKP less than list price, which makes it a good bargain in my book. Overall I like the car, and it's a bit different to the normal rep-mobile's on the roads, and would probably buy another.