Fiat Tipo hatchback - Reliability & safety

Fiat has never been a brand that could boast reliability among its strongest attributes, and it has slumped in our 2021 Driver Power survey, dropping 11 places down the rankings since 2019 to finish 26th out of 29 manufacturers. It’s a shame that some safety equipment is limited to the top trim levels, but at least every model gets some essential features.

Fiat Tipo reliability

A 15th-place overall finish in our 2019 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey was the strongest showing Fiat has had in recent years, but it couldn’t replicate that result in the past couple of years. Owners are fond of the styling, ride and handling of their cars. Running costs, though, were regarded with less enthusiasm, and 13.2% of Fiat owners reported their cars suffering one or more faults in the first year of ownership in our 2021 survey.

It should be stressed, though, that this feedback applies to Fiat cars on the whole – too few Tipo owners participated for the model to be featured individually.

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Safety

The Tipo is a reasonably safe car in standard guise, scoring three out of five stars when originally assessed by Euro NCAP. Its 82% adult occupant rating is strong, although it’s disappointing to see it only managed a 60% score for child occupant protection.

Euro NCAP judges the Tipo in a more favourable light when it’s fitted with the autonomous emergency braking system (AEB) that’s standard on all UK specification cars. While individual scores for adult and child occupant protection remain the same with this feature fitted, the safety assist score more than doubles, from 25% to 57%, which is enough to lift the car’s overall score to four out of five stars.

All models now come with speed limit assist and traffic sign recognition, plus cruise control and a speed limiter.