Seeing the huge success of the German carmaker Volkswagen with its flagship model Golf, Fiat decided to design the Stilo based on their Bravo.
While the new Fiat Stilo looked much alike the Volkswagen MKIII, Fiat also ditched the fully independent suspension found on the Bravo and adopted the semi-independent suspension like the one in the Golf. The results was a heavy and underpowered vehicle with a rather dull exterior design.

Failing to impress the targeted customers, Fiat decided to give it one more try in 2006 when the Stilo was slightly updated.

Aesthetically, the facelifted model heated a new grille design with a horizontal silver slate that supported the front badge.

The Italian carmaker tried to bump the sales and introduced a facelift for it in 2006. Its headlights featured clear lenses and the same angular shape as before. A big aesthetic improvement was for the door-handles, which were painted in body color. Before the facelift, they were black.

Inside, the black air-vents were refreshed and got a new aluminum-like finish. The instrument cluster now sported white dials and the electric mirror controls were moved from the window control console behind the gear stick.

A major update was represented by the new infotainment system that added a color touchscreen.

Fiat dropped the 1.2-liter engine under the hood, which was carried over from Punto, and the base version featured a 1.4-liter four-mill. An interesting option was for the diesel version, which was paired to a standard 5-speed manual, and, as an option, the customer could get a 6-speed manual.

Not even the facelifted version helped Fiat to raise interest in the Fiat Stilo, thus the model was put out of production in 2007.