Fiat Brava / Bravo

The name Bravo and Brava has been found on a variety of very different models throughout Fiat’s history. Originally used to market the Series 2 131 in the States (incidentally there was also a “Super Brava” too), the Brava moniker returned to the brand in 1995 with the five-door replacement for the Tipo. Built alongside its three-door Bravo sibiling, both designs were penned in-house at Centro Stile directly after they’d stunned the world with the Coupe and Barchetta. While the Brava might appear more pedestrian than the Bravo’s sporty haunches (except those triple banded rear lights which still look practically extraterrestrial), the styling on both was seen at the time as incredibly forward-looking and, in our opinion, still stands out today.

Fast forward to 2007 and Fiat third a third crack of the whip with a new Bravo built upon the Stilo platform. A great range of technical developments in the cabin (the ingenious Blue&Me system was reading your text messages out to you long before the likes of Tesla et al turned their dashes into glorified Rubmelows showrooms) and reasonable pricing made it a firm choice for fleet buyers when new. This means there is now an abundance of Bravos in the classifieds ready for the shrewd used car buyer.

Fiat Bravo / Brava (182)

Although we’ve bought and sold countless example of both the Brava / Bravo, for us the most noteworthy model is the Bravo 2.0 20V HGT. Sharing the five-cylinder engine with the non-turbo Coupes, this hot hatch developed 147bhp (later upped to 155bhp with the addition of the VIS unit) and could hit 60mph from a standing start in a touch over 8 seconds. A surefire future classic along the lines of the Strada Abarth or Uno Turbo, the Bravo HGT doesn’t hog much of the limelight right now so our advice is find itablyyourself a decent one before the values inevitably climb.

Fiat Bravo (198)

That rarest of cars, a mid-sized Fiat which actually sold reasonably well in the UK market, we’re huge proponents for the latest Bravo models. Great specifications, elegantly subtle styling and a decent range of engines suitable for most tasks, we’ve actually enjoyed running two Bravos (a 1.6 Multijet Dynamic Eco and a 1.9 Multijet 16v) as daily drivers ourselves.