My new daily - Marea Weekend

[Vin]

I finally decided to call time on my Fiat Brava After 9 years and 233,000 miles in my ownership, she's now showing 273,000 on the clock...

 

Here she is...

 

 

The mileage isn't the reason I've changed. I asked for first refusal on a friend of mines Marea Weekend 130 JTD, so a few weeks ago I got the word that it was for sale and a deal was done. I picked it up yesterday.

 

As I said, it's a Marea weekend with the 2.4 five cylinder turbodiesel. It's done 67,000 miles, manual box, full leather and air con. It's a great thing to drive, put your foot down in fifth and it just flies. It also sounds great at low revs . For the first 10 years it was owned by a retired army major in the Salisbury area. Here it is...

 

 

The Brava is not dead though. My sister has taken it on, so it has left me for a quieter life in the Peak District.

 

As a result I have been left with her old Peugeot 306 Estate...which I need to get rid of...

 

 

I could just weigh it in, but it's MOT doesn't run out until October 2013. It's a normally aspirated 1.9 diesel. It has comedy central locking, that doesn't work and it will soon need a power steering pump... £100 to fellow shiters...I'll do a separate thread for this.

[stilo_active]

I love Bravos/Bravas and Mareas but especially the Weekend. Drove a fair old few of them when I worked for Fiat. Lovely engine that 2.4.

Is that Panda in the background yours too?

[Vin]

Yeah, that panda is the 750L - It was my accommodation at Shitefest 2012

[Cheggers]

Tell me more about the 306, pez or diseasel??

 

Edit: Ignore my rambling...just read the post and it's all there

[pandarus]

Yeah, that panda is the 750L - It was my accommodation at Shitefest 2012

 

Hi Vin, hope you are ok. Do you still have the mark 1 Panda? I just love 750s btw.

 

I think Mareas are really underrated, especially the Weekend. Great purchase, yet another one that's on my shite list

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Top shiting- a car named after vomit [ http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/tran ... n=marearse ] is surely worthy of shite status.

On a similar note, I need to call that Samba vendor for SambaS!

[hhhugues]

I once owned one of them, it was great !

 

Well it would have been had it been looked after - and it definitely hadn't. It had pretty much everything that can possibly go wrong with these (main one i remember is the obvious leaking sunroof, also a whiny steering), and the engine could probably have done with a little fine tuning because it was pretty awful on fuel for a diesel.

That said it did go like stink, and when the seats were dry it was really comfy. I think I drove it across France 3 times including one all the way to Barcelona, and then eventually sold it for spares when the clutch gave up, so over a year and a half or so it probably owed me no more than about £300, small repairs included. Top cheapo motoring. Then I was dumb enough to replace it with a Laguna 2, which ended up owing me 3 times that in half the time.

 

Yours look in a much better condition than mine though. Best of luck with it !

[ypsilandra]

Dad had a Weekend with the 5 pot petrol engine, a genuinely fab car and really comfortable over long journeys. And thanks to the Österreichen Autobahnpolizei the only car I ever got a speeding ticket in too. Dad traded it in for a Bravo with the same engine which was a very different, much less enjoyable drive. The ultimate shite variant has to be the wonderfully named Marengo commercial. A great car for living out those Italian plumber fantasies.

 

I've just realised how wrong that sounds

[Morgan84]

The only real bad thing about the Bravo,Brava and Marea range was they did suffer the tinworm pretty badly if not kept in check underneath ( seen a few rotten ones ),but appart from that,they were in my opinion Fiats first real decent offering back when first launched

[Spiny Norman]

Same car as the Bravo, basically. Mate had a boggo 1.6 Marea saloon inherited from his Dad and it soldiered on for years without needing too much in the way of shekels spending on it from what I recall. Utterly forgettable car though, apart from the fact that it had the same electric window switches as my Alfa 156.

[ruffgeezer]

Talk to me ref: the pug, I've got to do some more surgery on the Xsara for it's mot in march, this could be an ideal bridge-the-gap motor.

[Vin]

Here's the thread I did for the Pug. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15869

 

Cavette has already bought it off me

[wuvvum]

I had a Marea 2.4 JTD a couple of years back - like you say, it didn't hang about for a diesel. I'm not sure whether it was quicker than my current Rover 400 or not, but it certainly sounded better. I did find the ride rather jiggly though, but maybe I'm just getting old. The 2.4 diesels still seem to be pretty sought after - possibly because there aren't many of them about.

[ruffgeezer]

Here's the thread I did for the Pug. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15869

 

Cavette has already bought it off me

 

Bollocks!

[ProgRocker]

Nice Marea Weekend.

 

Back in 2002 I was tempted by a burgandy W reg 1.6 100 SX saloon with air con (£4995) but I went for a T reg SEAT Ibiza 1.4 instead (£4695). As a 24 going-on-25 year old with just 1 or 2 years ncb, I was a bit concerned about the insurance cost of the Marea (maybe £500+ for that first year) - especially as Fiats tend to be pretty pokey things. I always wondered what would have been if I had pushed the envelope a bit more and went for the air conditioned Marea?

 

The Brava looks great for 273k miles!

[hhhugues]

Actually, while we're on the topic of diesel Maria / Bravas - Vin, have you ever experienced the brava going on limp mode for no apparent reason ? My old man also owns a 105 JTD and for a while it would go on limp mode when he started the engine, then would be fine once warmed up, but its now doing it all the time. Any ideas what to look for ? Sorry to hijack the thread, thought it'd be silly to start a new one when I've got the expertise at hand !

[Vin]

I never actually had any problems with specific 'limp mode' on the Brava, but about 4 years ago it was suffering from piss poor acceleration. Pulling away from junctions and roundabouts was a nightmare and it took ages to get up to 60/70 mph, but once you were there, it was OK. What I did was replace the MAF meter (20 odd quid from E-bay and a 15 minute job to do) which cured it and turned it back into the flying machine it was.

 

If that isn't the problem, then unfortunately I have no knowledge of what it could be.

[flat4alfa]

HLX for the win!

 

Yes my 156 2.4 has had two MAFs now. Same lump, identical sluggish pull-away. Local mechanics want to flog you an EGR swap, but it's an easy MAF swap to do at home. Otherwise it's been great. Never had a limp mode. Maybe later tonight, eh.

 

Drove a JTD Marea W/E or two before the 156. Jiggly ride but still rolypoly. Unlike the 156, which is just jiggly.

 

In a few years the Cromashite will replace Mareashite.

[hhhugues]

I would definitely have thought it's the limp mode on my dad's car as it wont rev past 3000rpm and that light

comes on. Or is it something else ? i've never had limp mode kick in on any other car, mind...

 

Anyway, no worries and thatnks for the replies, thought i might as well ask !