Category: Hot Hatchbacks 
Price Range: No data available
Great-looking hot hatch properly designed for a good time, grippy, rapid and involving. Great heritage too. Esseesse kit makes it riotously entertaining.
The jury is out on the ride comfort until we try them in the UK, and Grande Punto cabin feels cheap.
Fiat shows again that it understands its past and knows how to make it work in the present. This is a proper hot hatch, especially in wonderfully non-PC Esseesse form, and great value.
The Fiat Grande Punto is hardly the most expensively-built small car on the market, and its shiny, hard-plastic door trims advertise that fact loudly.
But with the visual drama of the Abarth bits all around, you tend not to notice the base Punto beneath. All the Abarth add-ons are well-engineered and tastefully applied, with good fit and detailing, and the whole car feels tough and solid.
The hotted-up mechanicals should be reliable enough in the regular Abarth, but it will be interesting to see how well the 180bhp version holds together - not that we have any reason to doubt that it will.
