Fiat STILO   

It might be a veritable box of tricks, but does Fiats Stilo have what it takes to make progress in a tough market segment? Vanessa Hinkley wonders if the pen is mightier than a Ford

Quite why Fiat christened their new family hatchback the Stilo is anyones guess, but you can rest assured that the decision came after intense deliberations at the highest level. Focus groups, customer consultations and management meetings would all have come into play during the name selection process, before the Italian manufacturer finally settled on the French word for pen. Whatever it means, it fits in nicely with Fiats recent moniker policy; Seicento, Punto, Bravo, Doblo Stilo. Why not? Of more importance than the cars name is its potential to do battle with the established giants of the UK family hatchback sector - Fords Focus and Vauxhalls Astra.

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The Stilo has got its work cut out but Fiat are confident that its up to the job. On first impressions, the 5-door model that had the pleasure of my company for a week looked tidy and well-proportioned. There were some nice touches, like the rear light clusters and the 5spoke alloy wheels, but nothing too extrovert. Understated and practical were the themes that came across more than any aspirations toward sporting or styling excellence.

Inside, the car is bigger than the neat exterior might have led you to believe. Youll find gadgets galore, with the buttons and dials to control them positioned sensibly on the centre console. Theres a quality about the car that many buyers might not have automatically associated with Fiat and plenty of interesting features that might be familiar to MPV owners. The 5-door Stilo is an unadulterated family car, if youve got a partner and offspring that need to get from A to B, and occasionally to C on weekends, it could be just the job.

Here we come to the nitty gritty, the area where Fiat hope the Stilo can score points over its rivals practicality. As spacious, relaxed family transportation the car takes some beating; it will seat five in comfort for a start. The front seats are wide and you can adjust them to your hearts (and your heights) content. Our model had electrically adjustable driver and passenger seats plus the sliding/reclining rear bench - as you can imagine, there was a whole lot of sliding going on.

The boot isnt as spacious as youll find on some family hatches but the movable rear seats give you the flexibility of opting for legroom in the back or additional space in the luggage compartment. As is the style these days, the seats will contort into numerous configurations to accommodate oddly shaped loads, theres even a ski tunnel through the back seats for those wintertime trips to the Alps. Safety is another Stilo strong point, with no fewer than six airbags standard on all models. ABS and traction control are other welcome additions.

Covering all the electronic gadgetry thats offered as standard, or in the Stilos options list, would be a monumental task, but there are some innovations that stand out from the crowd. The days when a particularly lanky member of your family borrows your car, sets the seat right back and plays with your carefully adjusted mirrors, need annoy you no more. The Stilos electric and heated front seats allow you to save your preferred driving and mirror positions and return things to how you like them at the touch of a button when you get into the vehicle. In addition to this, theres the City function that renders the steering as light as a feather to ease urban motoring, the rear parking sensor that foretells of impending collisions when youre reversing, and the Dual Zone climate control that lets you set different air temperatures for driver and passenger ideal if you ever have to give a polar bear a lift.

Admittedly, most of the Stilos more impressive toys are optional extras and will be absent from standard versions but if you had the cash, and the inclination, you could order a Stilo that would put most executive saloons in the shade,

There are four engines to choose from in the Stilo, if you exclude the 2.4-litre 20-valve unit that powers the sporty Arbath versions. Three of these run on petrol and the fourth is a JTD diesel. I sampled the most powerful of the three petrol offerings and found it to be a pleasantly engaging drive.

Theres acceleration there when you need it and cornering is assured enough, although the 5-door Stilo is taller than its main competitors and this is reflected in a certain amount of body roll. This car wasnt designed to carve up racetracks, however, and the comfortable ride matched to light functional, controls make it good family transportation on the road. If you want more dynamic looks and sharper handling, the 3-door version is the one to consider. The only problem I came across in using the Stilo was that I tended to whack my elbow on the central armrest when applying the handbrake but this could just be me splitting hairs over what is an accomplished, drivable car.



Youll need £10,613 to secure an entry-level Stilo and £16,713 for the range topping 5-door Arbath. Choose wisely from the options list to supplement the generous standard equipment levels and youll find yourself with a great, value for money vehicle. Few models in this price range can offer such an extensive array of user-friendly technology and the interior is versatile enough to fulfil a variety of roles.

Id definitely consider a 5-door Stilo if I needed a new family car. Fiat have liberated ideas from the MPV sector and produced a vehicle with plenty of usable space inside. Therere some great ideas contained within the car and the quality of the materials used is hard to criticise. To a certain extent, an MPV-like interior has led to slightly bland MPV-like looks that arent as eye-catching as some of the other family hatchbacks out there, but the 3-door has a much more aggressive appearance to appeal to image-conscious buyers.

As a range, the Stilo has most of the family hatchback bases covered.

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