First car - punto?

Hi everyone,
I am about to buy my first car and have zeroed in on punto 1.3 multijet. In fact I just learnt driving. Today while going through the magazine "auto car" I read their view about punto in the last few pages and saw that the negatives were "mediocre performance". I thought it could be a biased review or a 1.2 petrol's review (though they never mentioned which variant they were talking about). Then saw the exact same view written in "what car" magazine. I am now bit confused. Since I am a new driver I am not really able to find which one performs better or handles better. I think that is something learnt with experience. I haven't test driven yet and will be doing it this weekend. Should I still go with punto 1.3 multijet? How is the performance? And how is the cabin noise?

Firstly, welcome on board.

You say you have just learnt driving and you are about to buy your very first car. Congrats.

Coming to the magazine reviews - FIAT is seldom popular with magazines for unknown reasons. Please take magazine reviews with a pinch of salt. The Punto comes with FIAT legendary tank like build quality, decent space, excellent road manners, wallet friendly mileage and last but not the least, class leading safety. So what if it is 2-3 seconds slower in 0-100 numbers? Does that really matter? After all, how many times do you need to drive as if on a race track? By choosing the Punto, I believe you have made a right choice and will not regret it.

All the very best.

Rajan

Hello,

Welcome aboard. Congrats on the decision.

Rather than we trying to convince you (as FIATians) that GP is a good car, i would suggest you to go through many reviews reports from the owners, TeamBHP and youtube videos. So that its not assumed as biased.

Yes when comming to performance, its not clear as what those magazines are aiming at. Are they referring to 0-100 timing? or car sucks going on high speeds on a highway? or whatever else.

I am not an expert on cars nor as a driver. Few months back i too learnt driving like you did. After that taking TD of the GP, i went crazy about it. The handling, the cornering, suspensions, leg room, boot space, AC, steering control, etc. was amazing and did not suck as compared to Toyota Liva.

Yes as already said you aint gonna be doing a drag race. I am not sure why people are soo choosy about this in india when almost never in their life they gonna stress their engine in reaching 100 with in 8 secs or so. Its really not a good point to ponder upon. So think again, this poor peformance point from those magazines should not block your dicision.

Also take more than 1 TD if possible/needed preferrably from different dealers (different cars), so that you can re-assure yourself about your opinion. If you are going for 90HP, then i am very happy to say you chose the beast. I am not sure about 75HP one and its performance but i am sure it should not let you down.

Go through the review reports from the owners here please. That should give you alot to think about than just depending on those magazines.

Good Luck mate.

I have driven Maruti Zen for the 5 years and now i have my Punto MJD since the last one year. I find the punto far easier to drive both in city traffic (decent torque at lower RPM) and superb drive dynamics on the highway. Even at speeds beyond 100 kmph the car is very composed and completely under control. And of course its value for money considering others in its class based on build quality, safety and the engine.

Buddy, Welcome aboard.

Just do back to back Test drive of the cars you have in mind. While TD'ing take the punto over to an incline and and start from gear 1, without touching the accelerator. Try this with other cars as well. You would get the idea of what sort of torque you get. 2012 and forward fiats have one of lowest NVH levels.

Performance - Take her for 4-8km drive on the highway and you will know if you see any performance variation.

I have driven both Punto 75hp and linea 93 hp same as Punto 93hp on highways and city as well. Found 75hp punto best suited for city drive while 93 hp engines on linea/punto are made for highways touching 140-150 with ease and with so much of confidence that you will want to press down and take her to 180+ figs . I am not promoting speeding here but then this is my response to your query on performance.

Another fact is the safety features on Punto Dynamic and above versions are just class leading. IT IS BUILT LIKE A TANK. PERIOD.
Others rip your money just for having Service centers or for the brand name ( German, Japanese or Korean).
Also consider the cost of Long term Maintenance. 3year warranty + 2 years extended warranty is best in the industry.

only thing I would think is about service centers, which by the time your car reaches 15k or 1 year ( i.e. if you buy one) you would have strong service network in place.

I am used to riding a royal enfield thunderbird bike, although these days i ride quite less. few months back when i had some free time on a holiday, i took a test drive of new swift diesel.
what i felt can be best explained with an analogy:
someone who is used to riding a royal enfield, when he rides a hero honda splendor, what difference would he observe? people who have ridden any RE will understand this. no offence to splendor owners though

it did feel slightly better in pickup compared to punto. one needs to decide how much that pickup from zero matters to oneself!

Very well explained with the example... It indeed feels that way. :up

The only reason I did not suggest a back to back test drive is because, you have stated that you are a new driver. For someone who has just learnt driving, a Nano is going to feel as powerful as a Hummer, even if they drive both back to back. OK, that maybe stretching it a bit far, but I guess you can understand what I mean . That is essentially because of the way anyone with minimal experience would drive.

I would suggest you take a friend who is an experienced driver for the TD.

Rajan

Thanks everyone. I am getting close to 50k discount (22k insurance, 22k discount plus exchange bonus etc) on 2012 model. What are the improvements in 2013 model vs 2012. This 2012 model was manufactured in Nov 2012. So resale value will balance the discount I guess. So what do you think, 2012 or 2013 model? I read in the same review under positives that interiors, aircon and ground clearance were improved in 2013. Your thoughts will be helpful