[nakul0888]

Originally Posted by nkrishnap

I see a lot of sarcasm in this. What makes you wonder whether the car will be on sale over a few years? Is it even relevant to this thread. This is of absolutely no value to the readers.

Punto Evo Abarth may not do much to the sales charts for Fiat, but has certainly done one thing for sure, ruffle a few feathers of the VW polo (mostly GT) owners which is not going down well with them.

One thing quite a few people are failing to see is. Now there is an additonal option for a performance hatch, a few manufacturers may follow and bring their performance hatches to the market. This can only be good as it provides more choice to the buyers.

By the way CD tagged along with me to drive the Punto Abarth. He drove for well overs 25 kms to guage what the car is capable of.

Ha typical Fiat fan. Getting all worked up for nothing.

I asked how long it will be on for sale so that I can see for how much more can I hold on to my 1.5 year old GT before trading it for the Abarth.

Besides I don't want to risk my money by jumping the gun and buying the car right now. I want to wait and see how the car fares in long term ownership reports. Whether it has any niggles/issues? Whether any updates/refresh arrive? IMO its always better to buy a car at the end of its product cycle as by that time, all the niggles will be fixed, it will be loaded to the gills, and there will be juicy discounts.

Unlike you, I am not a fan of any manufacturer here in India. Its the end product that matters to me. When I brought the GT, it was clearly the best by a country mile. So I brought it. Now it is the punto thats the best. If hyundai/Honda comes with something better tommorow. I will gladly ditch the Fiat and go for that. I hope you understand where I stand with this.

[dark.knight]

This thread as mentioned by OP, does not isolate on basis of budget or transmissions.. rather its just to seek opinions on what people's perception is about fun-to-drive hatches. Also I will not use the much flogged terms hot/warm/cool etc, in the end individual perceptions rule and none of us are here to convince others to change their preconceived notions or naturalistic preferences - each are correct in their own way. Having said that :

1) Mini Cooper+S
2) BMW 1 Series (yes it is a hatchback)
3) Punto
4) GT TSi/TDi

Obviously it goes without saying that 1 & 2 are several leagues above 3 & 4, a perfect mix of brand identity (very important), luxury, technology & fun to drive setup. With 3 & 4 it is a very close contest, they can as well trade places and I cannot argue. That's because I liked the responsiveness of the TSi and also the comfort of an automatic transmission even though I do not like automatics. The TSi in my test drive never left me wanting to interfere with the running (phantom clutch syndrome) due to its well-programmed 7 gears kicking in the right zones, whereas in the Ford Aspire auto I felt it to be sluggish & noisy in the low end & my left leg was literally itching to jab at a clutch and change gears due to poor gear selection (I don't know if it was an anomaly of a poorly maintained car). The Punto's steering, due to its inherent mechanism is of course much better and the suspension is 2nd to none, where it fails massively (for me) is the gear shifting & steering position. Yes, yes I know we've all heard this before and once you get adjusted it might not be an issue anymore. Since I've not driven an Abarth and purely going by paper specs I've given Punto 3rd position.

I think each time a hatchback is released there is kind-of a heated debate in forums with supporters of each brand trying to pull down the other brands. Here in Team-BHP I suppose we should keep emotions aside as much as possible & look only deep down into technicalities.. comparing TSi with T-Jet is not the most ideal thing to do, mechanically there is a whole lot different with them. The Abarth is the purist's car with the HPS & manual shift, however I feel a NA engine is part of a purists wish-list too (yeah I know a little nutty). TSi is the technoholics dream, dual clutch automatic, EPS & various electronic assists.

Lets allow members to express what they feel is the better car based on their factors (monetary or otherwise). As long as they give compelling mechanical reasons for their choice it is fine. However these mechanical reasons should be not be a catalyst to put down other brands.

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by vibbs

a 145 Hp engine should do a ton in less than 8 secs. Is it not?

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Correct. Probably due to the fact that it hits 100 in third gear and not second. You lose atleast more than half a second shifting to third around the 90 kmph mark?

But I wouldn't be worried about it. I'll never ever try that 0-100 run in real life. But smash the accelerator pedal in second or third gear for that occassional kick, and the 145hp should deliver it in bucketloads.

Perhaps you guys have driven too many modern Fiats for too long but it doesn't take a genius to see that it is the darn gearbox! To someone not used to the Punto/Linea, the gearbox saps away a lot of fun with its poor ratios and lack of shift precision. Honestly feel the car would be transformed with a better gearbox

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

First impressions from power drift and a little bit of reference to the GT TSi where they dismiss it as being a direct competitor to the Punto Abarth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzRAJY3Hb3M

Originally Posted by IshaanIan

Perhaps you guys have driven too many modern Fiats for too long but it doesn't take a genius to see that it is the darn gearbox! To someone not used to the Punto/Linea, the gearbox saps away a lot of fun with its poor ratios and lack of shift precision. Honestly feel the car would be transformed with a better gearbox

Ahem! I'm no genuis. So you think its wrong when I say that a half second improvement would have been possible if there was no need to shift to third (Read: Better ratios)?

And you are right about the gearbox. And you are right about people getting used to it too. I'm being reminded everyday in the forum that the box sucks. I'm too used to it these days to figure it out myself though. Infact, i love it for normal usage. However, trying to shift hard (like a 0-100 launch) and yes - it is rubbery and notchy. Doesn't affect my daily driving though.

[rnair]

Before Fiat Fans start bashing me up.... I am a FIAT fan as well and have owned all iterations of the Palio including the S10. I am just back from driving the Abarth for a short spin. One thing I noticed(within city) is that there is a definite turbo lag in the lower gears, but Im sure there is a lot up its sleeve. It does take a little time to get the turbo running.
And yeah... I drive a GT and i know what I'm saying!

[binish]

Hi all, another clarification required. One of the reason along with 145 bhp that has raised the excitement of all is the FIAT's claimed 8.8 second to a ton. But overdrive has clearly mentioned that they were able to achieve a best of 9.3 seconds only after multiple attempts. So lets not expect 8.8 seconds, as that may be under ideal condition (I dont know what it is, may be there is no wind or even air ). Normally the 0 -100 given in car magazines is not the one given by manufacturer, right, its put after those magazines/press test drive the vehicle. In that case first of all we are talking about a 9.3 second to 100kmph car here vs GT TSI. Now my doubt is that I have seen autocar mentioning 10.5 seconds for GT and lot of youtube videos showing 9 seconds to hundred in the remapped TSIs. So without remapping, 9.5 seconds will be possible or not?
So is autocar showing the 0-100 in D mode whereas youtube videos are driving it in S mode? or press also drives in S mode while testing 0 - 100 ?

[devansn]

Voted for the Abarth, primarily for the power and torque on offer.

However, to me, if it did not have the ride, handling and steering that it has now, my choice would have been different. If the Polo or any other car with (anything above 100 BHP) had a better steering, ride and handling than the Abarth, my choice would have been that.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by binish

Hi all, another clarification required. One of the reason along with 145 bhp that has raised the excitement of all is the FIAT's claimed 8.8 second to a ton. But overdrive has clearly mentioned that they were able to achieve a best of 9.3 seconds only after multiple attempts. So lets not expect 8.8 seconds, as that may be under ideal condition (I dont know what it is, may be there is no wind or even air ).

Hi,

Bhpian NKrishnap and Crazy driver tried to time the 0-100 on the abarth. Pls see the quoted post from the review.

[b]

Though the 0-100 kmph is mostly insignificant in day to day driving, we did try to see how close the numbers can be to the claimed 8.8 secs. While Crazy_Driver managed 9.9 secs to the ton mark (2nd gear launch), I was able to manage 9.38 secs later after dropping the tyre pressure to 30 PSI from the 42 PSI which the car had. With minimal tyre spins, the 8.8 secs seems very much achievable. Though this number is not ground breaking, it is good enough considering how heavy the Punto Evo weighs (with the Tjet, the weight of the Punto Abarth ought to have gone up by a few Kilograms from 1198 Kgs)

[imp!]

While I wouldn't classify the Polo GT TSI as a hot hatch, I think I'd buy one over the Punto Abarth despite enjoying the drive of the Abarth more.

The Punto is just too uncomfortable with the quirky ergonomics for it to be a viable option for me. Thing is though, I have a Laura 1.8 TSI. So I already own a FTD car, what I want is something fun to drive and comfortable for city/commuter highway driving.

[Skyline_GT]

Voted for the Abarth Punto.

Beats the Polo GT on paper as well as in real. Clearly the hottest hatch ever to be sold in India. The 1.4L 145bhp engine is simply explosive. Also personally feel that the Punto with it's bright red and white color scheme and the Abarth vinyls all over looks much sporty than the relatively mundane paint schemes on Polo.

Some other cars i feel that deserve a mention-
Fiat Palio S10 (India's original hot hatch! Great Grandfather to the current Punto.)

Suzuki Swift (India's favourite hatchback! Its nowhere close but is still as much fun to drive!)

[VRPAI]

If your talking about hot hatches,it has to be the Abarth!. Nothing comes close to it.The car just keeps pulling and how!. Just slot in into the gears and within no time youl have the widest of grins on your face. It's simply put the most fun to drive car available in our country right now.And the way it masks speeds is amazing,I was doing 90odd and it felt as if I was doing 40-50, only when the beep came did I realise I was doing 90. The braking the handling the ride everything is just perfect. The only weak link maybe the not so great gearshifts.However it wasn't much of a concern for me and the shifts where ohkayish.

If your talking about hot hatches it has to be the Punto Abarth!. If anything else then it has be my all time favorite Fiat Palio S10!.

[GT145]

Always the mighty Scorpion !

Why I voted:

1. Handling - This is the one thing I admire the FIAT's most. Figo would have been a competition if it was still coming with hydraulic steering.

2. Brakes - Below 1.2 Million INR OTR there is no other machine which can possibly match T-Jet's all wheel disc brake setup.

3. 145Bhp Trubo Petrol Engine - Most of the time I feel 105 Bhp is not useful in Indian Roads, though there were very few occasions where I felt the opposite. For the price tag Punto Abarth will never let you feel you ran out of power.

Though I'm still a big GT TSI fan, love the DSG + TSI, a practical performance hatch for Indian conditions. S10 and GT TDI 1.6 are two of my other favorite all time hot hatches.

[Dr.Naren]

Figo diesel is the fastest hatchback under 10 lakhs rupees. Abarth Punto and Polo GT cost more than 10 lakhs. Figo diesel top variant with 6 airbags is around 2.5 lakhs cheaper than Abarth. 0-100 time of Figo diesel is just 0.6 seconds slower than Abarth Punto (Motorbeam V box test). With a 30k remap and another 40k for bigger tyres and alloys it would be the "fastest hatch".


Note from Support: Post edited for grammar.

[VRPAI]

Originally Posted by Dr.Naren

Figo diesel is the fastest hatchback under 10 lakhs rupees. Abarth Punto and Polo GT cost more than 10 lakhs. Figo diesel top variant with 6 airbags is around 2.5 lakhs cheaper than Abarth. 0-100 time of Figo diesel is just 0.6 seconds slower than Abarth Punto (Motorbeam V box test). With a 30k remap and another 40k for bigger tyres and alloys it would be the "fastest hatch".


Not from Support: Post edited for grammar.

IMO 0-100 timings only tell you half the story. The figo is a great car with a gem of an engine.But the Abarth is a different animal . Be it the build quality,the handling ,the brakes the raw power ,the suspension -The Abarth just out does the Figo on all these aspects. Heck, I'd say take a drive of both those wonderful cars and you'll understand what am talking about. Figo is a great car but then again saying the figo is as good as a Abarth with a few mods takes it a bit too far. Petrol is always petrol buddy, a month and 3200kms of driving my first diesel in the form of the Elite i20 I still love revving the nuts out my S10 much more than the i20 though i20 Diesel is a pretty good car. Heck I still miss redlining my poor old i10 kappa which was so much fun .
Just my two cents

[Dr.Naren]

Originally Posted by VRPAI

IMO 0-100 timings only tell you half the story. The figo is a great car with a gem of an engine.But the Abarth is a different animal . Be it the build quality,the handling ,the brakes the raw power ,the suspension -The Abarth just out does the Figo on all these aspects. Heck, I'd say take a drive of both those wonderful cars and you'll understand what am talking about. Figo is a great car but then again saying the figo is as good as a Abarth with a few mods takes it a bit too far. Petrol is always petrol buddy, a month and 3200kms of driving my first diesel in the form of the Elite i20 I still love revving the nuts out my S10 much more than the i20 though i20 Diesel is a pretty good car. Heck I still miss redlining my poor old i10 kappa which was so much fun .
Just my two cents

I never meant Figo could be better than Abarth punto with few mods. I have driven both cars. Abarth punto is definitely the hot hatch. But Figo diesel can be faster than abarth punto with few mods and still costing less.