My New car

[Thor]

Well I say New but I've had it for 2 months now: (also added to the Car Showroom thread)

Here's my 1999/T Fiat Bravo HGT 155 2.0 20v
It comes with: ABS, Air Conditioning, Heated Seats, 15" HGT Alloys, Electric Windows & Electric Mirrors as standard




I've done the following Mods:

• Fiat Marea Poly Eliptical Headlights
• 6000k Diamond White HID Kit
• Philips Blue Vision HighBeam Bulbs
• Ultra Xenon White (6500k) LED Sidelights
• Clear Side Repeaters

Uprated Lights in Action:

And now with No Flash:

• Longlife Stainless Steel Twin 3" Oval Exhaust system
• Original Fiat Alloys sitting on New Toyo Proxes T1-R Tyres
• Pipercross Induction Kit
• De-locked Front Door Handles with Remote Locking (via Uprated Alarm)
• Richbrook Tax Disc Holder

ICE

• Pioneer DEH-P7000UB Head Unit
• Alpine SPR-13S 100w RMS Component Speakers powered by Alpine F242 Amp (2x100w RMS)
• Second Skin Damplifier Pro Sound Deadening Door Kit
• Standard Rear speakers powered by Head Unit
• High Quality Amp Wiring Kit & Audio Cables
• *I don't require a SUB with the Front Amped speakers as they give me all the Bass I could ask for, plus I now have a Massive Boot for transporting my dog around.

This is the Nicest car that I've ever owned, so far anyways...

[staffsMike]

Looks very tidy, I imagine it has a bit of poke too

Good choice on the tyres as well, I run T1-R's.

[Thor]

Looks very tidy, I imagine it has a bit of poke too

Good choice on the tyres as well, I run T1-R's.

Thanks, gave it a good wash yesterday, didn't have time to wax it though, that will have to wait for a nice hot day, could be a while that, heh. It does indeed have a fair bit a power under the hood, fastest car I've owned to date.

[schmunk]

How much have the mods and ICE added to your insurance?

[Guy]

Nice tidy car there

[kalniel]

How much have the mods and ICE added to your insurance?

I'd be interested to know too

[Lowe]

Guys - how did we get here exactly?

Less of the snapping please.

[Ben_]

I am all about information, including giving.

Insurance on cars is about, where you live, who you are, what your car is.

Unless you have all of those the same as op then, its completley irrlevant.

I am not snapping, just wondering why its mroe important to riducule him on his ice ( as thats whats coming if its added anything more than a tenner I am sure) than talk about the car as a car

[schmunk]

I am not snapping, just wondering why its mroe important to riducule him on his ice ( as thats whats coming if its added anything more than a tenner I am sure) than talk about the car as a car

Actually, you're entirely wrong. That's not even close to why I was asking. So, as I said above, wind your neck in.

[vrykyl]

Nice ride - how did you find the hid conversion? did you do it yourself and was it hard? Been wondering about an hid kit for the mrs' polo - not for looks but cos she drives at night a lot....

[Thor]

Nice ride - how did you find the hid conversion? did you do it yourself and was it hard? Been wondering about an hid kit for the mrs' polo - not for looks but cos she drives at night a lot....

Thanks. Yeah, I installed the HID Kit myself, very easy to do tbh, but you have to make sure that you have somewhere to place the HID Ballasts, I only just managed to fit them into my cramped engine bay.

Also, if you do get an HID Kit you have to make sure that your car meets the legal requirements:
1) Clear Headlamps
2) Adjustable Headlamps
3) Headlamp Washers

The HID Kit itself is a Massive improvement over the standard or indeed Philips Blue Vision bulbs, plus they use less power so energy efficient!
>You won't need to use the HighBeams with the HID's installed, well, I've never needed to anyways.

This is the HID Kit that I brought for my Bravo, this is actually the 2nd kit that I brought as the first kit that I got for £55 Delivered was faulty, so true that you get what you pay for.

Now for my insurance: £700 odd Fully Comp including most of the mods (the major ones anyways)
27 Years Old, 4 Years NCD, 3 Points.
>No insurance quote is the same as it all depends on your personal circumstances, the car, personal mods n such so I don't know why people need to know, but no matter, there it is.
Oh, per chance anyone wants to know, the Tax was £185.00 as it was registered before March 2001, otherwise it would have been £210.00.

[stevie lee]

As this car is on my 'sensible car i would like' list here are some more sensible questions...

have you worked out the 'real-world' mpg yet? do you get more or less than the manufacturers say?

is there room to stick 16" or 17" tyres on without altering the wheel arches?

how much road noise is there? quiet hum, or loud rumblyness?

how warm are the heated seats? don't want to get crack sweat..

what's the suspension like? bouncy or hard?

[Thor]

As this car is on my 'sensible car i would like' list here are some more sensible questions...

have you worked out the 'real-world' mpg yet? do you get more or less than the manufacturers say?

is there room to stick 16" or 17" tyres on without altering the wheel arches?

how much road noise is there? quiet hum, or loud rumblyness?

how warm are the heated seats? don't want to get crack sweat..

what's the suspension like? bouncy or hard?

MPG: Hmm, it really depends on how you personally drive, if you have aircon/heater and what fuel you are using.

I think it did around 335 on the last Full tank of standard Sainsburys Unleaded, so that's about 25MPG give or take.
>What kind of Driver am I? - I've a lead foot & I love the Air-con.

It's got a tank (well half tank now) of BP Ultimate Unleaded in it atm so I can compare the MPG between the cheap & Ultimate petrol.

RIM's: The Bravo HGT will take 17" Rims with Low Profile tyres and won't need any modification the the arches, you will suffer a harder ride and lower MPG if you do get bigger Wheels mind.

Road Noise: Before the exhaust upgrade it was pretty quiet except when I reved the engine to hear it Roar, heh. Now the new exhaust is on it's not that quiet, quite borey (that a word? ) upto around 3500RPM, after that it levels out and the Engine Roar takes over. If you keep it standard it should be relatively quiet. On saying that though it seems to be a little bit quieter since I added the sound deadening to the Front doors.

Heated Seats: I haven't really needed to have the Heated Seats on yet as it's not been cold enough to justify turning them on tbh, I'd have to get back to you on that one come winter.

Suspension Nice & soft, as in it doesn't crack your spine when you go over a bump in the road like my old VW Corrado used to, you can easily take speed bumps at say 30MPH and not really feel em, not that I advise you to do that.

Braking: Not as sharp as I'd like it to be but then again I don't think the Pads & Discs have been changed since 2005/06, I'm trying to hold off until the MOT is due next January, already spent too much on it this year and I've only had it 2 months. Don't get me wrong, they do work and have stopped me from going into the back of a lorry at high speed so they ain't that bad.

Lights: It's absolute must to upgrade the standard Bravo headlights to Fiat Marea Poly Elliptical Headlights and if possible an HID Kit too, once these are installed you won't need to worry about driving at night again.

ICE: The standard Bravo comes with a 6 speaker system (Front Components: Mid speakers in door, Tweeters in dash & Rear Coaxial speakers in the boot) and either a Cassette Player or CD Receiver. My one came with a Cassette player so that was the first thing to go, providing the speakers themselves are in good condition then most people won't need to upgrade them, so you could keep them and maybe put a 8" - 12" SUB in the boot for your bass requirements or follow the same route that I took with Amp powered front components leaving me with a massive boot.

Electrics: I don't know why but people seem to 8itch and moan about Fiat Electrics saying they keep going wrong, I've owned 3 Fiats now (including this one) with no Electrics problems, as far as I can tell all my Electrics are working fine, my windows, mirrors, heater, aircon, lights (I did blow a fuse but that was down to my Neon light in my boot, replaced with a bigger fuse, job done).

Car Security: All the Bravo's come with a CAT2 Immobiliser and I believe the HLX & HGT come with an alarm too, I chose to upgrade my system to a Full Closure CAT1 system just for peace of mind and remote locking, that and I couldn't seem to get the Fiat Alarm to work anyways heh.

Door Handles: The standard Bravo door handles are these cheap rubber ones than don't like the sunlight and tend to fall apart after a couple of years or so which is why it's best to swap them out for a pair of either Fiat Marea Front door handles (with keylock) or Fiat Marea Rear door handles (with no lock, perfect for keyless entry, what I did). The Marea Handles are ABS Plastic I believe and won't fall apart in the sun, they really do look much better than the standard Bravo ones.

Boot Space: More than Adequate to fit a Fli Active Twin 12" Sub Box in and leave you with 30cm ish of boot space for a shopping bag or too OR for a dog to fit in comfortably.

For any other information on the Bravo I suggest you visit Fiat Forums or Boo

If you're after a Sensible option then you might want to consider a Bravo 1.8 HLX as this would give you a better MPG and cheaper Insurance, I was going to get a HLX myself but when this beauty turned up in Autotrader with less than 36k on the clock and a recent Cambelt change I snapped it up sharpish.

[Howard]

Has it passed an MOT since you installed the HIDs? Have you had anyone flash you? They're illegal to use without self-levelling systems and properly designed projector lenses

[Thor]

Has it passed an MOT since you installed the HIDs? Have you had anyone flash you? They're illegal to use without self-levelling systems and properly designed projector lenses

I've only had the car for 2 months which still has 6months of MOT left, I'm told that most MOT test centres don't really care. I've not had anyone flash me yet, my headlights are adjustable from the dash and I adjust them accordingly. As long as they are aligned properly and don't dazzle oncoming Traffic then I don't see the problem?

[Howard]

The light *needs* to be dissipated properly, if you've got lenses that do this without dazzling other drivers you're lucky, but most normal halogen headlamp housings aren't designed for it