Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £9,995 to £15,345
Neat, plain styling and fashionable Italian image; the Multijet diesel engine; five-star NCAP crash test score; fun to drive; choice of bright, colourful interior trims
Quality unconvincing; lower-powered engines uninspiring; awkward five-speed gearbox; not particularly well-packaged; in no way innovative
It's a thoroughly pleasant little car with an appealing image, but it has a number of irritating flaws and it's not a class-leader by any stretch of the imagination
The Punto has long been a popular choice, with over six million sold since it replaced the Uno in 1993. Its cheeky, curvy styling has caught the attention of young, middle-aged and older buyers alike, and though it has always been competitively priced and has sold in huge numbers to rental fleets and soforth, it has never looked common, cheap or nasty. Like its arch-rival the Renault Clio, it has a certain flair and chic to its design which gives it a little more class than many other mainstream superminis.
This Punto has been co-developed with Opel/Vauxhall's Corsa - a project pre-dating the breakdown of the GM-Fiat alliance - but Fiat claims that there is no more than 30percent communality of components, with the two cars sharing only their floorpan, suspension and steering components and systems such as heating and ventilation. These items have been further fine-tuned by Fiat, and the Punto should have a character distinctive from its GM twin, which also goes on in 2006.
Fiat is calling this new-generation range "Grande Punto" - no translation needed, surely - to push home the fact that it has increased substantially in size, and also to distinguish it from the earlier models, though these will remain in production for a while alongside the Grande versions, marketed as budget entry-level options with a minimal level of equipment. Grande Punto, on the other hand, is to come with a wide range of trim, fit and finish choices, an extensive options list and all the mod cons expected in even runarounds and shopping cars these days.
Engines on offer from launch are 65bhp 1.2 8-valve and 77bhp 1.4 8-valve petrol units, and no less than four Euro IV-compliant diesels: 120 bhp and 130 bhp versions of the 1.9 Multijet diesel engine, and 75bhp and 90bhp versions of the new 1.3-litre Multijet 16-valve unit. A warmed-up Sporting version - probably with a turbocharged version of the 1.4-litre petrol engine - is to follow next year, and a proper hot-hatch Abarth model a little later. The Abarth is expected to come with both petrol and diesel engines, and a power output of up to 220bhp.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Fiat Grande Punto
wrote on 29 01 2008
wrote on 26 09 2007
wrote on 13 09 2007