[gsurya]

Originally Posted by Yeldo

If I am not accused of comparing apples and oranges, what would make a better buy- the Punto Evo 90HP or the Polo 1.5TDI?

Polo has the better engine & gearbox combination. Punto scores on internal space. Both look great. Punto is better on the highways than in the city.

Overall I would say right now Polo is ahead simply because Punto could not sort out low end torque, it still has higher turbo lag compared to Polo.

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by Yeldo

If I am not accused of comparing apples and oranges, what would make a better buy- the Punto Evo 90HP or the Polo 1.5TDI?

IMO, the comparison is quite apt
Both have its merits, the fiat maybe a bit cheaper to maintain than the VW. But given a choice I will go with the Polo in its GT guise.

[damager21]

I think black Punto Evo by far looks the best. Specially those chrome additions on front and rear along with LED tail lights makes it stand out and further accentuates its beauty.









Source: TopGear

[Naman_Ferrari]

Does anyone know if the top end 'Sport' variant will be available for the petrol also?
Autocar says it will be available but some other website says that the Sport variant is reserved only for the diesel.

[amit]

The ridiculous ground clearance is one more reason to avoid the Punto. It may not make much of a difference dynamically but it looks absolutely stupid on a hatchback. What was the need to go upto 185/195mm?!

Originally Posted by amit

The ridiculous ground clearance is one more reason to avoid the Punto. It may not make much of a difference dynamically but it looks absolutely stupid on a hatchback. What was the need to go upto 185/195mm?!

I do not agree with you at all.

In my earlier palio, which i think is at 175 MM of GC, has never scraped anything. Exception is to a speed breaker in srisailam which is the only one where my car has scrapped bottom. I am sure that with this GC, it wont scrap that breaker any more. We are in india and high GC is a must for me and many other folks. Do you want to keep scrapping the breakers and other stuff like old Honda cars?

I am more worried about the engines. there is no 1.6 MJD. FIAT, you never understand.

[rsidd]

Originally Posted by amit

The ridiculous ground clearance is one more reason to avoid the Punto. It may not make much of a difference dynamically but it looks absolutely stupid on a hatchback. What was the need to go upto 185/195mm?!

The looks are fine, as far as I can tell. Nobody is complaining about the Evo's looks. If it makes little difference dynamically, great. My suspicion is the extra 1-2 cm makes very little difference on Indian speed bumps either, but if it helps avoid some fraction of scrapes, why not.

[damager21]

I sometimes wonder if Fiat India exists to sell its car or engines in the Indian market. Fiat has some of the best diesel engines in its stable yet for its own car it continues to offer the same engine which is available to both Tata and Maruti.

I am surprised to see that they are not introducing 'Multijet 2' diesel engine for Linea and Punto Evo. Its high team Fiat India realizes that there is a genuine threat of both Tata and Maruti coming up with their own diesel engines.

Tata recently launched their turbo charged petrol engine - Revotron, and have confirmed that there is a possibility of launching diesel engine in the future.

Ford launched its award winning Ecoboost engine, Volkwagen has its turbo charged petrol engine with 7 speed DSG, Honda recently launched CVT gearbox in City, Maruti launched AMT for petrol Celerio, Tata is launching AMT for diesel Zest.

Every manufacturer is trying to bring new technology to India. For some strange reason, Fiat is content to wait and watch. I think there should be some amount of urgency for Fiat to launch its latest engines in India.

[Biraj]

Not sure if it has been discussed earlier but aren't these two designs quite similar? especially the headlamps?

[avingodb]

I think Fiat did a good thing by presenting all the colour shades during the test drive. What it has done is to show the colour options to the prospective buyers in real life instead of just on the brochures. At least here it has sparked some more interest in the car!

[amit]

Originally Posted by gemi_kk

I do not agree with you at all.

In my earlier palio, which i think is at 175 MM of GC, has never scraped anything. Exception is to a speed breaker in srisailam which is the only one where my car has scrapped bottom. I am sure that with this GC, it wont scrap that breaker any more. We are in india and high GC is a must for me and many other folks. Do you want to keep scrapping the breakers and other stuff like old Honda cars?

Originally Posted by rsidd

The looks are fine, as far as I can tell. Nobody is complaining about the Evo's looks. If it makes little difference dynamically, great. My suspicion is the extra 1-2 cm makes very little difference on Indian speed bumps either, but if it helps avoid some fraction of scrapes, why not.

I had a Palio S10 which never scraped in 7 years of my ownership.

I also had a 2009 Punto but in 4 years & 60,000 Kms, it only scraped a speed breaker once. Ground clearance was never a big issue with the Fiat's hence I say a couple of mm's would have been fine but they went aiming straight at the SUV's! In comparison, my 2010 City scraped everywhere, even speed breaker's that were less then the normal sized ones!

The looks of the Evo maybe still good but the gap in the wheel wells is glaring. And if you look at the side view of the car, it looks ridiculously & artifically jacked up. The Punto could have been a beautifully balanced car but Fiat messed it up by over reacting on the ground clearance issue.

[thesilentone]

The Punto Evo looks smashing. But will it make any difference to its sale? No, I don't think so. Indian car buyers in this category are not swayed by looks. There is ample evidence of unconventional (to put it mildly) looking vehicles selling in great numbers.

Will it appeal to the enthusiasts? A big NO. The engine options and gearbox kills it in birth itself.

Will it appeal to the Aam Aadmi? Again a big NO. Fuel efficiency and little else is the watchword. The general perception is that Fiat is not fuel-friendly, so again it is status quo.

So whom are Fiat targetting? I doubt if even Sherlock Homes could answer that question. So again everybody is going to ogle at the car but no one is going to put their money on the car. I would love to be proved wrong. It is a real shame because Fiat has genuinely improved the looks of the car and I for one favour the great ground clearance for our roads. We will have to wait and see if the same power trains makes or breaks the car.

[rahul412]

Everyone is entitled to his opinion, as far as I am concerned, I am just loving this jacked up ground clearance in Punto. I somehow feel this high GC suits this new face much better.

Enhanced GC will come handy on many Indian roads( like drive from Moradabad to Nainital). Punto now serves dual purpose i.e, city car+ a softroader.

[N Kiran]

I have owned a Punto Active with lower GC for almost 3 yrs and 45k kms. Barring couple of scrapes (on an over protruding manhole), I never had an issue driving around Hyderabad. But one bad scrape on a trip to Wayanad left the engine guard bent and had grinding noise until I got it fixed.

I am now driving around Linea (8 months / 11k kms) with the higher GC and never once have I scraped it, be it in city or on my highway trips. There isn't a big difference dynamically, except for a bit of body roll (negligeble) when cornered at good speeds. This IMO isn't a deal breaker. And for me is an added advantage and gives me confidence encountering pot holes, speed bumps etc., and a peace of mind.

[Arkin evoisrevo]

Originally Posted by amit

The ridiculous ground clearance is one more reason to avoid the Punto.

Seriously? One could simply 'downgrade' the suspension to the pre-2012 setup before delivery.

Completely agree though, that the high GC looks terrible.