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I started to look for my first own car sometime in February-march this year.
My requirements were pretty simple

1. A hatchback
2. Smart looks
3. Fun to drive with good handling and ride quality
4. And a slight bias towards FIAT

The only Fiat hatch available that time was the Palio stile, it(1.6 sport) met all the above criteria, except that it was at the end of its life cycle, the interiors looked dated, spares were expensive and not available easily.I was considering it as an option but was not quite convinced about it.

The other options were the SWIFT , i20 .Although the Swift had good A.S.S. and was fun to drive , i never liked the shape of the car.Then came the i20 1.2.It looked good, had lot of equipment on board but seemed a bit expensive , the ride and handling was not up to the mark.I also considered the ford Fusion at one point , but it was way overpriced and out of m budget.

Meanwhile there were rumors floating around that PUNTO launch is nearing with the spy pics all over team bhp.So decided to wait till the car is launched , anyways i did not have many choices left.

On June 17th the car was launched i rushed to concorde motors Hosur road to see the car.There it was an exotic red PUNTO emotion shining in all its glory, parked in the showroom, it was love at first sight :).

The decision was made there and then , my first car would be an exotic red PUNTO , the variant and fuel type was not finalized .Went for a test drive of both the petrol(1.4) and diesel the same weekend , the sales team at concorde had no idea about any of the features and were least bothered about selling any cars, somehow managed to get a 500mt test ride of both the cars.The sales guy was not interested in telling me anything or taking down my details.I thought , the car is launched now itself and this being a weekend , lets give them a try on a weekday.Went for another TD on a weekday at lunch time, both the petrol and diesel were parked and there was hardly any crowd around , BUT when i asked for a TD the reply i got "sir the sales person is busy right now , so you will have to wait". wait i did and again manged to get only a 500mt TD. Disgusted with their behavior decided against buying a car from them.

Meanwhile i got really busy with work and did not get any time to think about the car.Got some relaxed time in july and as suggested by a BHPian , went to Prerana motors sarjapur road , on a lazy sunday morning.I was greeted by MR Ashok sales manger at the showroom.the gentleman knew all the features variant wise and gave me a quick demo of the car parked in the showroom.
I was impressed !! ,he Offered a test drive of the petrol as diesel was not available that day.I went for a test long drive , with Mr. Ashok alongside .
Was impressed with ride handling and the feel of the car.It was final it is going to be a PUNTO.The sales amnager Mr. Ashok promised to send the diesel TD car to my office as one of my colleague was also interested .I got the TD car as promised , took the TD and got confused what to go for Active diesel or Emotion Petrol (budget constraints).So went for another TD of both the cars on the next weekend,by then read GTO's review which made the decision a little easier .So finally after 100 second thoughts and many calculations later it was decided .

The Exotic Red FIAT PUNTO Multi Jet Diesel Active will be my first car.

ms001 - hearty congratulations and welcome to the GP club :D

Congrats dude.

Time to change your profile pic with your very own Punto clap:.

Finally she is here! :D

Booked the car on 14th august at Prerana motors sarjapur road.
As i needed finance from a bank which had no prepayment charges ,the sales manger Mr Ashok offered to get finance arranged from Canara bank(1st year 8.5% 2nd&3rd year 9.5%) , SBI was also an option but as they take a minimum of 3-4 weeks for processing, decided to go with canara bank.
Was promised delivery within 2-3 weeks , and loan sanction within a week.

The car arrived on 28th august at the stockyard , 14 days from the day of booking , super !! Went for PDI armed with the team-bhp checkist on saturday 29th aug.Was entirely satisfied with the car.So blocked it.

Meanwhile getting the finance turned out to be pain in the backside , which eventually got sanctioned on 3rd sept and the draft was handed to me on 4th.
Made the final payment the same day and deiced to take the car on friday 5th sept after registration , but unfortunately Mr Y.S.R Reddy expired that day so RTO was closed on 5th.

I had to take the car on 5th as Sharads or pitrapaksh was starting the next day 6th sept.Mr Ashok promptly offered "puja delivery" on the 5th itself .
Took delivery of the car in the morning did pooja and a round of the city and returned the car to showroom so that it could it registered the next day.

Finally the car was mine with registration and insurance on the evening of 6th sept.All in all a very good buying experience the car was delivered on time as promised and the showroom guys were quite helpful. I would recommend Prerana motors for anyone looking for a FIAT or TATA car.

Initial Impressions.
I have completed around 950 Kms till date mostly within the city and around 150 Kms of highway.

Pros

• Excelent ride and handling
• Solid build.
• superb looks with plain lines and excellent paint job
• Spacious
• decent equipment level
• Some thoughtfully implemnted small small features
• Superb steering
• comfortable driving and passenger seats
• decent millage 13.5 in B2B traffic , 21 on the highway

Cons

• A pillar hinders visibility a bit, needs some getting used to
• Low front end ground clearance , scrapes on some steep ramps.No problem with any speed breakers
• Turning radius is big , again needs some time to get used to it.Iam used to it now.
• Engine noise could have been lower.

Accessories

• Mud flaps - freebie from the dealer
• Floor mats - freebie from dealer
• ICE - Kenwood 6043 HU, JBL 4 channel amp, JBL comp speakers at the front, sony 5' speakers in rear doors, JBL 12inch sub .
• 3m CS20 sunfilm on the rear and sides

Apart from this absolutely miss central and remote locking, which will be in the market by month end, as promised by the dealer as well as accessory shop.

Here are a few pictures (nandi hill trip), sorry about the quality as they are from my phone cam(digicam gave up on me all of a sudden).Interior pics coming up later.

Congrats!
Finally your thread is here.
How about some real life pics :)

Edit- As i posted you had also posted the nice looking pics of the car!

Thanks Harsh!

Yeah Sagar she's here , yours inspired me a lot :)

Thanks ! sure will do as soon as i have some decent snaps

Thank you sir!

Pleasure buiddy :)
So is the sunfilm working out fine in terms of heat reduction?

Also let us know the cost and break up for sunfilm and the ICE.

nice car. I would go for it just for its strong build. I hope the engine is top-notch as well.

Congratulations and drive safe !

thanks , the engine is a gem , and i am loving it.

The sun film is very effective cost 3300/- Its premium film, cheaper options also available as i am not going for the front windscreen film, invested in good side and back film.

ICE
HU kenwood 6043 - 8500/-
Front comp JBL - 4500/-
rear sony - 1600/-
amp 4 ch JBL - 6500/-
JBL Sub+box - 4500
Misc - harness wiring etc
total - 26700 /-

i am loving it :)

Awesome Awesome Awesome! :D

The mudflaps are finally there huh? Got to give the showroom guys a call.

Now get the interior pics posted quickly before I do! :p

And nice ICE you have there!

thanks
yeah mudflaps are available
some pics

Congrats dude! But get rid of those mudflaps.... they are too big and ruin the lines of a perfectly good looking car.

thnks yeah they are ugly will get rid of them after the rains

Surely the car looks hot without the mudflaps but trust me, LOTS of mud spills on the body without them. The car looks dirty (or more offroadish) with those stains :p I had mud spills on my front doors and some even on the rear view mirrors!