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.
You feel you're sitting sportily low in the Bravo, looking ahead over a lowish bonnet, which is an achievement given the demands of pedestrian protection legislation. 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.
As for handling, 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.
The two fastest Bravos both have 150bhp. First, the 1.9-litre 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 its top speed of 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.
And the 150bhp 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.
This turbo motor can't match the instant low-end wallop of the same-size turbo/supercharged TFSI unit in the Volkswagen Golf, but the turbo lag is small and the acceleration (0-62mph in 8.2 seconds) quite vigorous. 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 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.
Sensible options in the range are the 1.6 diesels: the 1.6 16v MultiJet 120 and 105. The 1.6 16v 120 unit replaces the 1.9 JTD 120 offered in the Bravo range at launch.
