[~~VinZ~~]

It's been a long time since i planned to write a Review on my experience on my 30k ride. But i never get a time out of my busy life and reasons for busy life? New ride, Newly wed and a new job

Alright, back to business. I got her on 2009 August and it took me 1 year and 8 months to complete 30k, not so bad.

To those who have not met her, here are couple of pictures with this thread. I should say, she is one photogenic lady. Those wonderful curves could make anyone drool. I feel so proud everytime i look at her. My wife has a fetish for Civics and she has been asking me to upgrade but somehow i dont feel like.

Service History:
1st Service: 3100 KMs (Prerana bangalore)
2nd Service: 12750 KMS (Prerana bangalore, I just felt like giving for serivce before 15k)
3rd Service: Pending

1) Total Number of visits to Service station: 8 (2 Services, 3 for Gear box issue, 2 for Defrogger burst issue, 1 fixing a dent)

2) Total number visible scratches on my lady: 2, I drive in bangalore so i cant blame myself for these. Fixed one already.

3) Total dents on her: 1, Again, i drive in bangalore and these 2 wheeler drivers are crazy. They think they all are valentino Rossis. This too got fixed. Replaced left OVRM once and the left OVRM cap twice.

4) Average Consumption in City: 13 to 14 kmpl

5) Average Consumption in Highway: 18 to 25 kmpl

6) After market accessories: 3M sunfilm, Reverse sensor

7) Max speed: 170 km/hr. I am not a racer and i dont prefer speed driving most of the time but there are certain time when i really wanna go fast and there are certain times when i want to have a confortable drive with my wife. And to say, punto handles both the situations very well. On highways i love to cruize around 90 to 100 km/hr.

8) Impressions on my friends: "Ohh this is spacios", "the dashboard is stunning", "Nice steering wheels", "They could have made the interiors better", "FIAT will never learn to make quality interiors", "You are going in 120, i dont even feel like 60", "Comfortable rode"

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What i Love the most: Stunning looks, Superior handling on highways, meaty steering wheel, Blue & Me,

What i wish would have been better: Plastic quality, music system, speakers, cup holders

What i do not like: This is something to think in deep. Ok, i think the ground clearance is less, because i keep ending up in scratching stones and bumpy roads.
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now, to go over in detail.

The obsession started when the car was displayed in Geneva.
2007, i started looking for a new car and the journey started with options, including linea.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/hatchb...ght-punto.html

With the help of some of the experts in teh Team-BHP i finally booked my punto. It did not confuse me much to book one too.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...ery-taken.html

My initial plan was to go for a petrol, as i was already driving a petrol zen and the diesel was not in my mind at all. But considering a lot of factors and suggestions i received i finally ended up in MJD Em Pk. And i completely am happy that i decided to go for Diesel. i am in love with the multijet. You know, like the saying "you do not buy a FIAT, You Own one" and i own one punto. I use the work CAR very less on her. I say "I will bring my punto" "I drive a punto" "Thanks my punto".

Well, I love my car and i take care of her like one among my family. Clean, fresh allways look stunning.

I take her to office everyday and long drives on long weekends too. She already visited

1) Kerala 4 times: palakkad once and thrice to kannur
2) Mysore 3 times:
3) Doddabalapur 2 times:
4) Coorg: 1 time
5) Planning for ooty next weekend.

And now to go over some issues that i am facing currently and would be glad if i can get some comments.

1) it's been some time i started getting this issue with my Gear. Or it could be with the clutch. The gear gets so hard sometimes and it will stay for a while and it goes back to normal super smooth too. I went to the service station couple times to find out the problem and they could not do a detailed analysis and told me they will check when i leave for service.

Could it be probelm with gear oil? No, i asked them to blled it out 2 times and did not work out. What i have noticed is that in long drives after 30 or 40 kms the problems starts slowly and in city this probelm rarely happens. So might be when it is heated up? planning to get this checked in detail this week.

Any one else facing this kind of issue?

2) Blue & Me: This has started acting weird now. i had my 2 GB drive connected all the time and never use to change to different one. Last week my wife wanted to connect her 16 Gb thumb drive to play songs. But to our surprise, right after i selected play anything it went back to CD mode and the mobile got reconnected and very suprisingly the Media player was out from the menu list.

Tried again with 2 Gb, 4 Gb and one more thumb drive but everytime the same results. Media player will go out of hte list and come back later, the mobile will be reconnected. Like something is not right with the system.

Any thoughts?

3) Rattling. never tought i will face this issue in Punto but i recently started getting rattling sounds from my rear left door.

Planning to give my car for servicing this week, so any comments or help before that would be great.

Thank You!!

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Allways wear seatbelt, drive safe, follow rules, respect pedestrains and be calm.
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[DRIV3R]

1) Check if your car has the new clutch cylinder (metal), FIAT earlier provided plastic/alloy ones. Get it replaced under warranty and your clutch issues should be gone.

2) Am not sure, check the format(NTFS/FAT) of the thumb-drives and that the songs are kept in the root folder.

3) Check for the rear left C-pillar, it's prone to rattles. Replaced under warranty too.

[jkdas]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

1) Check if your car has the new clutch cylinder (metal), FIAT earlier provided plastic/alloy ones. Get it replaced under warranty and your clutch issues should be gone.

2) Am not sure, check the format(NTFS/FAT) of the thumb-drives and that the songs are kept in the root folder.

3) Check for the rear left C-pillar, it's prone to rattles. Replaced under warranty too.

Correct! the clutch cylinder issue is a pain! I donno why they went for a plastic one.

About Blue & Me, wasn't there a firmware update sometime in 2010?

[~~VinZ~~]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

1) Check if your car has the new clutch cylinder (metal), FIAT earlier provided plastic/alloy ones. Get it replaced under warranty and your clutch issues should be gone.

2) Am not sure, check the format(NTFS/FAT) of the thumb-drives and that the songs are kept in the root folder.

3) Check for the rear left C-pillar, it's prone to rattles. Replaced under warranty too.

Thank You!!.. Will check the clutch cylinder and rear Cpillar this week.

Originally Posted by jkdas

Correct! the clutch cylinder issue is a pain! I donno why they went for a plastic one.

About Blue & Me, wasn't there a firmware update sometime in 2010?

Thank You.. a firmare upgrade? when was it?

[DRIV3R]

Dude, what's a defrogger?

The closest possible word I can think of is defogger, please share the issue you had with it.

Nice pics, can we have more? Interiors, rear quarters, etc.

[Rubbertramps]

Nice detailed analysis and barring the gear box i think its pretty decent for a FIAT after you have driven 30k. Some refreshing news for a budding punto owner !

[~~VinZ~~]

Originally Posted by DRIV3R

Dude, what's a defrogger?

The closest possible word I can think of is defogger, please share the issue you had with it.

Nice pics, can we have more? Interiors, rear quarters, etc.

Thanks for finding the closest word for me Well done.

The details on the defogger burst is there in my other threads mentioned. Please do check and i shall check if i have any pictures of the burst taken that time.

Yes, There are more pictures in my garage, please have a look. And also keep this space tuned, i will try to capture over this weekend.

[Palio_2005]

nice review. I guess some rattles do sneak in after 30,000 km especially on our roads. You are right when you say "you own a fiat". I promised myself that I would not buy another Fiat car after my Palio looking at the poor resale and the tough time I had selling it and other issues associated with Fiat/Tata. Unfortunately nothing else came close and I settled for a Linea. Done 8500 km. So far so good

[~~VinZ~~]

Originally Posted by Palio_2005

nice review. I guess some rattles do sneak in after 30,000 km especially on our roads. You are right when you say "you own a fiat". I promised myself that I would not buy another Fiat car after my Palio looking at the poor resale and the tough time I had selling it and other issues associated with Fiat/Tata. Unfortunately nothing else came close and I settled for a Linea. Done 8500 km. So far so good

Congratulations on your Linea.

It's fortunate my friend. Like you mentioned "nothing else came close to linea" Yes, i am facing some issues but i dont regret owning one. Other cars in this league by 30k would show lot more issues that fiat i am sure.

[~~VinZ~~]

Here are some more shots of my italian beauty