Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £10,995 to £16,405
Handsome-looking hatchback with good space, nicely finished interior and efficient new 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engines. Promises to be good value.
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.
Price range likely to be £10,000-£15,000. On sale in UK June 2007.
Italian cars used to have curious driving positions forcing outstretched arms and knees in the air, but there's no such problem in the Bravo. The good-to-hold steering wheel is adjustable for reach and rake, and there's a pump-up/pump-down adjuster for the comfortable, supportive driving seat (and for the front passenger seat on some versions). You feel you're sitting sportily low, looking ahead over a lowish bonnet, which is an achievement given the demands of pedestrian protection legislation. The instruments look clear and 'technical', but we would dispute Fiat's claim that their orange night-time illumination is the best for quick focusing of the eyes. The stalks and other switchgear operate smoothly but the single-tone horn, even in the top models, is disappointingly utilitarian and un-Italian.
The view aft is hardly panoramic with those tapering side windows and thick rear pillars, but rear parking sensors are optional. On the move, the Bravo's electric power steering is precise enough and has about the right amount of weight to make it feel natural most of the time, but there's very little in the way of a true feel of the road. We tried two Bravos, and the diesel one had smoother, more credible steering than the petrol turbo one. The latter had more of that treacly resistance to self-centring typical of such systems. Pressing a City button makes the steering lighter at low speeds; unnaturally so.
As for how it handles, this is an obedient car but hardly one to thrill its driver. There's plenty of grip, so the nose doesn't drift wide prematurely, and if you take a bend quickly and back off the tail will edge out just a little to help you around a tightening corner without drama. But you really have to unsettle the Bravo even to begin feeling such a reaction. If you want a subtle interplay of accelerator, steering and cornering attitude, buy a Focus instead. The brakes have a pleasingly firm, short-travel pedal and a progressive action, though.
We tried the two fastest Bravos, both with 150bhp. First, the diesel with its 225lb-ft of torque available at a low 2,000rpm. It pulls with muscular gusto and reaches 62mph in 9.0 seconds, finally reaching Vmax at 130mph. It's quite noisy when revved, and there are sweeter-sounding diesels, but the best way to drive it is to use all that low-end torque and roll along in stress-free, long-legged fashion. The turbo's response lag isn't significant enough to annoy, the six-speed gearbox shifts easily and accurately, and all in all it's as good as this Fiat diesel usually is in its many different applications (most surreally, in the Saab-built Cadillac BLS).
And the 1.4-litre petrol turbo? Its torque peak of 152lb-ft arrives at a diesel-like 2,000rpm (the lower-powered version has the same peak at just 1,750rpm), but it revs happily to 6,000rpm, after which the power quickly fades. Press the Sport button and shape of the torque curve changes, a new, higher peak of 170lb-ft arriving at 3,000rpm. Presumably the reason why the engine isn't calibrated always to deliver such hefty torque is to keep the emissions figures low.
This turbo motor can't match the instant low-end wallop of the same-size turbo/supercharged unit in the Volkswagen Golf, but the turbo lag is small and the acceleration quite vigorous - Fiat has yet to quote performance figures for these new T-Jet engines. But it doesn't quite feel a 150bhp car, even though by today's standards the Bravo 1.4 T-jet isn't excessively heavy at around 1,250kg. It's fast enough to be quite fun, and feels like a typical 2.0-litre with a softer throttle response. For a 1.4 it is pretty impressive, although the soft-biting clutch is less so: it feels like it could slip too easily.
