Fiat Tipo review

Everything’s clearly laid out but the materials aren’t great, especially on the lower half of the dash. It’s shiny, tinny and won’t keep Hyundai or Kia awake at night. Skoda, Seat and the French will sleep soundly too. So, material fetishists will not like some of the hard plastics, but in all honesty, they’re not in the places your hand will brush or knock unless you’re looking for something to criticise. It feels well put-together and the layout is decent. If it was priced directly against a Golf, you might take issue with some of the cabin fixtures (like the weirdly small sat nav screen), but it’s not. So you shouldn’t.

Also worthy of note is its driving position. It’s normal, and you should find it easy to shuffle the seat and wheel around to match regular human proportions. Not every Italian car in recent history can boast the same. Folk in the back will be impressed at the knee and shoulder room, too, but less so with their headroom. Weird how Fiat has taken a boxy roofline and misplaced the extra space inside. There’s a ‘Station Wagon’ version that solves that particular issue.