Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £13,255 to £17,650
Handsome-looking hatch; nicely finished interior and efficient new 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engines; good new 1.6 diesel.
Lumpy ride on the biggest wheels, engines could be quieter at speed, no external boot release, optional sat nav has ultra-vague instructions.
A vast improvement over the unloved Stilo but no more than an average car in its class.
Fiat says the Bravo is the highest-quality mainstream car it has ever made. Certainly its structure feels very stiff (much stiffer than the Stilo's) and the interior finish is quite lush, with a padded dashboard and upper door casings, a padded cloth headlining, plus a metallic gloss black console panel and leather accessorisation on top models.
It's a shame the windscreen pillars lack the headlining's cloth finish, though, and there's plenty of hard plastic below the hip-level 'Plimsoll line' where many buyers don't really look closely.
The paintwork and panel fit are excellent, and the whole car seems well assembled. The attention to detail is not great, however, with some sharp-edged plastics and the odd squeak, rattle or intruding wind noise in our test cars.
As for reliability, the Stilo was pretty dubious, though its glitches should not have been carried over to this new model. We can't help but be suspicious, however, as Fiat's reputation for build quality - and customer service at its dealerships - is still poor, despite recent efforts to improve the standards of both its production output and its aftersales support. Top Bravo models have plenty of electronics, so fingers crossed.
