Fiat Tipo Review 2023

Are you one of those people who look upon their car as nothing more than an appliance? Are you one of those people who is thoroughly unconcerned by notions of classiness or image, and who takes little to no pleasure in the mundane business of driving? Are you simply looking for transport to get you where you’re going without killing you, annoying you or breaking down every couple of miles?

And do you want to pay as little money as humanly possible to get it? Well, if the answer to all those questions is a resounding yes, then welcome to your next car, the Fiat Tipo.

Yes, in almost every tangible area, the Fiat Tipo trails most of its rivals, and by a long way in many cases. However, it’s much cheaper than any of them and, judged in isolation, however, it’s capable transport with lots of interior space and a big boot, and everything else, you can probably put up with. If you need more space, there's an estate version - the Fiat Tipo SW.

On both the engine range and the trim range for the Tipo, Fiat seemed to chop and change every five minutes, so it was pretty hard to keep up with what was available when. We do have a few recommendations, though. One of the engines that was omnipresent throughout the car’s life is also the one you want, and that’s the 1.4 T-Jet turbocharged petrol with 120PS. 

It's really the perfect balance between performance (it's powerful enough for most needs and rarely feels strained), price and efficiency. In truth, the 1.6 diesel makes the Tipo slightly nicer to drive, but that version is way too pricey to recommend new, as the Tipo is at its best when you keep things cheap. It's a different story on the used market, though - if you can find a reasonably priced diesel, it's the one to go for. 

If you’re going for an early car, Easy Plus trim is the one you want for the best balance of kit and cost, but if you can afford a later car, then Mirror trim and upwards got a better infotainment system with Apple Carplay and Android Auto.

As one of the UK’s most popular types of car, there are more choices of family hatchback to rival the Fiat Tipo than you could shake a stick at. The Tipo sits at the most affordable end of the spectrum, though, so there aren’t many rivals that can get near it on cost. 

Depending on what vintage of Tipo you’re looking at, Skoda would’ve had a rival in the form of either the Rapid Spaceback or the Scala, and the Vauxhall Astra is another affordable choice. So are the Kia Ceed and Hyundai i30, and these choices come with the added incentive of extremely generous (and fully transferable) warranties.

The Tipo straddles the family hatchback and small car sectors in terms of price, meaning practical models such as the Honda Jazz and the latest Skoda Fabia are worth considering, as are mini MPV models such as the Nissan Note. Also, while its a larger SUV, the Dacia Duster performs a similar no-nonsense, budget buy role to the Fiat. 

As an unabashed budget offering, you wouldn’t expect the Fiat Tipo to dazzle here, so you shouldn’t be too disappointed that it doesn’t. 

The dashboard has a single strip of soft-touch plastic running across the top, but pretty much everything else is fashioned out of hard, scratchy drab-looking grey plastic that has all the tactile appeal of a cheese grater. There’s very little in the way of sparkly trim pieces to try and liven things up, either, so the cabin has a pretty sombre, joyless atmosphere.

None of the various switches or buttons are particularly appealing in how they feel, either, and you’ll notice the air-con dials moving around in their mountings slightly as you turn them. Yes, this is all forgivable given the car’s budget status, but other (newer) budget offerings like the Skoda Scala feel a bit posher and rather more solidly built.

The modern standards, the Fiat Tipo does poorly here, even for a budget offering. Those who selected the Easy trim got a radio with DAB, Bluetooth, a USB port and audio controls on the steering wheel, but that was it. Easy Plus trim got a different radio with a 5.0-inch touchscreen display, but aside from the posher interface, no additional functionality was added. 

Meanwhile, range-topping Lounge added sat-nav to this system, making instructions difficult to see on such a small screen. When the S-Design trim was launched in 2018, a new 7.0-inch touchscreen system was introduced that then also made its way into most other versions. 

This was better, if only by virtue of the fact it added a bigger screen and Apple Carplay/Android Auto, but even so, the on-screen icons were small and fiddly to hit, while the software was slow and glitchy. Considering how clever the systems are in many rivals these days, the Fiat Tipo doesn’t really do well enough here.

Today, at least Fiat has acknowledged that decent touchscreens are expected by default in most new cars, and even the cheapest Tipo now has the 7.0-inch touchscreen. The list price has risen quite considerably to reflect that, however, so it's no longer incredibly cheap, just fairly cheap. 

The Fiat Tipo does a thoroughly decent job here. The front seats are roomy enough for folk of all shapes and sizes, and while the rear seats aren’t class-leading for headroom and legroom, they’re very competitive. 

You’d have to be well over six feet tall before you find yourself short on headroom, and even then, your knees should fit behind a similarly-sized driver in reasonable comfort. A pair of bulky child seats will also fit no problem, and they can be secured with ISOFIX tetherings. However, during those times when you need to cram three people in the back, you’d better hope you don’t become piggy-in-the-middle, because the backrest of the central seat is hard and uncomfortable, and you don’t get a great deal of space for your feet, either. 

At 440 litres with the seats up, the boot is bigger than those of most rivals - if not quite as big as you find in a Skoda Octavia or Honda Civic - so cargo-carrying should never be a problem. However, while the space is big, it’s not particularly clever. There’s a huge load lip that you’ll need to drop heavy items over, and no false floor to level it out. The rear seats fold down in a 60:40 split to boost capacity, but you’re left with a step in the load floor.

Like the Fiat Tipo's trim levels, the engine range had been altered throughout the car's life. This can be confusing for a used buyer. 

Earlier cars came fitted with a pair of 1.4-litre petrol engines: a non-turbocharged one with 94PS (we've not driven it, but on paper it looks to be best avoided) and a turbocharged 'T-Jet' option with 120PS. The latter is a decent engine with respectable refinement.

Its power delivery is quite eager, meaning you don’t have to thrash it too hard to make decent progress, but at the same time, it never feels particularly quick. The six-speed manual gearbox has a rather mushy, untidy action, too. In the early days of the car’s life, a 1.6-litre engine with 110PS and a six-speed automatic gearbox was also offered, but we didn’t get a chance to try it before it was discontinued.

The diesel range once kicked off with a since-discontinued 95PS 1.3 which we never got to sample, and there’s also a 120PS 1.6. It’s slower than the similarly-power petrol against the stopwatch, but because it has a bigger slice of low-down torque, it actually feels a good bit perkier, and brisker overall. Again, earlier versions of this engine were offered with a six-speed twin-clutch automatic gearbox instead of the mushy six-speed manual, but we never got the chance to try it before it was discontinued.

In 2022, the only available engine in the Fiat Tipo is a 100PS 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine. It's an odd choice to only offer that engine, but it's clearly because the car is nearing the end of its life. We've yet to try it, but it looks a little underpowered on paper. Still, at least it's turbocharged, meaning you won't have to thrash it too much to make progress. 

Another area in which the Fiat Tipo doesn’t exactly cover itself in glory, but given its budget car status, that’s no great surprise. The 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine stays reasonably quiet and smooth most of the time, but it does start to sound breathless and strained when you really work it. Still, it’s better than the diesel, which emits a more-or-less constant background clatter and gets coarse when you pile on the revs in search of acceleration. 

You feel quite a bit of vibration buzzing through the controls, too. In fairness, both engines settle down on the motorway, but they’re joined by quite a lot of road noise and absolutely loads of wind noise. Whatever sort of road you’re on, there are considerably quieter, more civilised ways to get around.

Not a brilliant showing here. Automatic emergency braking is provided on all Tipos (along with six airbags and stability control) but it only works at low speeds and it won’t recognise pedestrians, only other cars. 

And, when the system was tested by Euro NCAP back in 2016, they found it didn’t work very well anyway and awarded it no points. This contributed to a disappointing score of four out of five stars in the crash tests (officially it's three stars, because those safety systems were optional), and since the tests have become much tougher since then, it’d probably do even worse if tested today.

Adaptive cruise control is available, but only as an option, and only on the top two trims. At least all versions get a space-saver spare wheel rather than a pot of tyre sealant.

Things get off to a pretty poor start for the Fiat Tipo when it comes to reliability, because the brand finished stone dead last in the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index. It seems the old adage that Fiat stands for 'Fix It Again Tomorrow' is still alive and well. 

Having said that, it's difficult to draw conclusions on the Tipo's reliability as we've not seen any major issues reported. This doesn't necessarily mean there isn't any, rather that the Tipo hasn't sold in big enough numbers for problems to be widely reported. There was a recall in 2017 for the driver's airbag that may fail to deploy, however, so if you car was made in that year or prior, make sure the work has been done. 

Comparatively, no version of the Fiat Tipo will cost you very much to cover, which makes up for the mediocre fuel economy ratings. 

Insurance groupings range between six and 16 (group one being the cheapest and group 50 being the priciest), and most versions sit closer to the bottom end of that scale than the top. Many rivals are classified higher than that, and a result will cost you more in premiums. No minimise your insurance costs, keep your choice of version as humble as you can.

If the Fiat Tipo you find comes in Street, Mirror, S-Design and Sports trims, then you’ll pay £150 per year to tax it. That’s because these versions were introduced after April 1st 2017, when the government passed new tax rules applying a flat rate for this amount to all petrol and diesel cars.

For buyers of Easy, Easy Plus and Lounge cars it’ll depend on when your car was registered, If it was after the given date, you’ll pay £150 per year, but if it was before, it’ll be calculated on your car’s CO2 emissions. As it happens, you’ll still pay £150 on most versions, with a couple of exceptions. One version of the 1.6-litre petrol automatic (if you can find one) will cost you £165 per year, while if you go for the 1.3-diesel, its CO2 emissions were so low that you’ll pay precisely nothing. Happy days. 

Originally, the trim levels on offer with the Fiat Tipo were fairly straightforward. The entry-level Easy trim came with manual air-con, cruise control, remote locking, electric front windows and electric door mirrors, but if you wanted alloy wheels, you needed to upgrade to Easy Plus trim. This also gave you powered rear windows, rear parking sensors, front foglamps and leather wrappings for the steering wheel and gear lever, not to mention a better radio. 

The Lounge sat at the top of the range and added some chrome styling pieces, climate control, automatic lights and wipers, navigation and a rearview camera. Then, from 2018, new trims were launched on a sporadic basis. First came S-Design trim, which brought in the new 7.0-inch infotainment system along with xenon headlamps, part-leather upholstery and various styling bits and pieces. 

Then came the Street, which was based on Easy trim but added alloys and various other styling touches inside and out. Mirror trim then replaced the Easy Plus, and basically added the bigger touchscreen and more styling bits, and then the Sport was introduced, which took the S-Design car and added - yup, you’ve guessed it - yet more styling goodies. 

Later on, half of these models were dropped all over again, and the trim structure became Easy, Street, Mirror and Lounge. And now, most recently, the entry level Tipo is simply called 'Tipo', with City Life, Cross, and Red trim levels rounding out the range. Confused? Yup, us too.