Team-BHP - Fiat Grande Punto : Test Drive & Review

Booked an emotion pack variant of the Punto on the 23rd of june.
Delivery is expected in the 2nd week of july although the guys at Rama motors[okhla] are very non-committal about the delivery date.
They say its because the color that i have chosen is not that "freely" available.
The color is "medium grey"

I took two test drives of the diesel variant before booking the car,and the ride quality beats anything else in this segment.[Subjective opinion]
The car currently is in transit.
FIAT should really speed up its marketing efforts,otherwise a perfectly good product will fail to live up to its promised potential.

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Originally Posted by smilenow (Post 1362705)

Booked an emotion pack variant of the Punto on the 23rd of june.
They say its because the color that i have chosen is not that "freely" available.
The color is "medium grey"

Welcome to the forum!

Congrats on your Medium Grey Punto. Even I have booked a Medium grey yesterday. I was told that Black and Medium grey were not the most popular colours and thus were available more easily than the reds and the blues and the silvers(minimal grey)

Congrats again!

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Originally Posted by gautomobile (Post 1362681)

Booked!
Emotion Pack MJD!
Medium Grey!

At B U Bhandari, Pune. The sales executive was knowlwdgeble and cooperative. In all we got a very good treatment at the showroom. Would be getting delivery on the 11th next month. Cant wait!

Welcome to the B U Bhandari Punto Owners club !!! lol:

Who was the sales guy ? Ketan ? The B U Sales guys are pretty good.

You are one lucky chap !! You have to wait only for 13 days. I booked on the day of the launch .. 17th June .. and still will be getting the car on 11th July :Frustrati

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Originally Posted by amoghchaphalkar (Post 1362729)

The sales guy was Vinay Deshmukh. He even reached office on his holiday to meet us as he had commited.

I must congratulate you for booking the first Punto in Pune. Till now BU Bhandari have had booked some 65 Puntos. Pretty amazing I think in a matter of 10 days!

Thats about 6 Puntos a day! Wow!

We heard that the RTO issue would get solved maximum by the 5th or 6th. So you should be getting your Punto soon!

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Originally Posted by amoghchaphalkar (Post 1362493)

That is because Fiat has given incomplete information to the sales force. From whatever I have seen, read and heard.. Fiat launched this car in a haste without giving proper information or training to the sales force on the ground

Only because the product is good .. they have survived

I disagree. I have been to two Fiat showrooms and the salesguy's at both these places were very knowledgeable and excited about their new product. It was clear that the training given was top notch. Sometimes we blame the manufacturer for everything but have you thought that the problem may lie with the salesperson in question who must have gone and enjoyed himself in a 5 star hotel rather then paying attention to what was being told to them?

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If anyone's interested, here is some Loan information that I was given:
HDFC (11.5%) with a 5L loan for 5 years

A better option is Kotak. Check them out.

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Originally Posted by furioussphinx (Post 1362588)

Car booked, amount paid, the wait is on, and am officially getting the first punto in the city. Ive gone for an exotic red MJD active. I felt the active and the emotion pack to be VFM. Active fitted my budget aptly. The wait seems to be like forever, 4 more days to go! Will give a detailed initial report along with loads of pics over this weekend.

Congrats FS, Cannot wait to see your GP, perhaps we should have a speical meet so that the Hydeez can see her.

Cheers,

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Originally Posted by GTO (Post 1361984)

By that reckoning, the Linea should not be compared to others from the C segment (City etc.) even though the pricing puts it right there. Do we compare the Linea to the City or to the Civic?

If the Punto offers an XL size within the same price band as other competitors, that's a big plus.

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Originally Posted by GTO (Post 1362002)

I agree. They are from different segments. My point is : They will still be compared and cross-shopped.

Punto (& also Linea) offers an XL size (& XL Features/ equipments) within the same price band as other competitors, that's a big plus.
And it seems Fiat had to price both very competitvely (ending up customers thinking of buying lower-featured/ equiped car to compare those cars with GP/Linea) because of the compulsion caused by the state they are in, in Indian Car Market.

Both GP & Linea are amongst the Best Deals available in the market right now. With Linea clocking 900-1000 p.m. & if GP also takes off, is this the right time to buy a Fiat (who knows after 1 year, what will be the price if both cars turn to be successful & Fiat fortunes turn around) ?

Yday I had been to Tata Service Station for some work on my Linea. While I was coming out, I saw a GP Electric Blue in the driveway which they said came for PDI. Before taking off, thought of checking GP from a Linea-owner perspective.

The colour is top-notch & what a deep gloss!! :cool: Better than Linea. Are new Linea's also going to come with such Gloss??

The Seats are quite soft. Softer than Linea's. Feel more comfortable.

Everyone talks about Rear legroom, so decided to check it. With Driver's seat at comfortable driving position, there is quite an adequate Rear Legroom & my knees were not touching front seat (I'm 5'10" with long legs)

No difference in Interior Plastics, more or less similar to Linea. Linea's Biege interior gives spac'y feeling.

Parked near Linea, GP looks to be its younger sibling ;)

Was getting late & hence drove off without further checking

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Originally Posted by amit (Post 1362749)

I think I was misunderstood. What I meant was, the sales guys were uninformed about the logistics / delivery issues. I was not talking about the technical side. Nobody had a clear idea about the delivery schedule. The standard deviation was way too high. Some were saying one week, some one month !!

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Originally Posted by amoghchaphalkar (Post 1363227)

same is the case here in bangalore, the sales team have no idea about the features or the delivery schedule and they are least interested in selling anything, i have visited the showroom thrice , ready to book the car , but no one seems to have any information nor are they interested.
they didn't even call once to follow up.

I complained to the helpline also but they never got back .

Sadly its the same old "" TATA - FIAT" story this time as well

@Amit
I agree, The sales guys are more enthusiastic in selling FIAT products.
But only if they are FIAT appointed executives, TATA people still continue to cold shoulder prospective FIAT customers. (out of my personal experience of course.)

Test drove the Punto, Liked the over all feel and handling, The diesel has a very light clutch and is apt for city conditions though not a scorcher as I had to drag the car in second gear to go places.

The petrol is nice but the sales guy said the actual mileage they are getting is 11Kpl in city with AC and 12- 14 Kpl on highways.

Body is awesome - built like a tank.

clap: Sat in the FIAT 500 in the showroom and took pictures.That car is a little beauty...18Lacs on road.

Poor service response can Kill a brilliant product, FIAT kindly take note & don't let it happen !
I am personally sitting on the fence and waiting for the initial product experience from GP customers. Still in two minds whether to go for Ritz/Swift/GP MJD.

Maruti’s Service & resale values are a big ++ however somehow Maruti product don’t appeal to me.

GP is in my heart but my mind tells me to go for Swift/Ritz , FIAT’s sales & service attitude can tip my decision towards a Maruti.

Come on FIAT just do it …

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Originally Posted by tj123 (Post 1363466)

Agreed that the Maruti Service is better than most, but Fiat Tata is not all that bad either. They can only improve from here.

Also the service intervals for any Maruti / Hyundai is 5000 km on an avarage. For the GP it is 15000 km. That means you need not visit the service station that often.

I have booked an Emotion Pack MJD over a Maruti and I am confident that down the line too I would be proud of this decision.

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Originally Posted by ms001 (Post 1363403)

Which showroom u have visited. If you were not visited the Near Diary Circle showroom go there and ask for Mr.Manjunath. He got very good knowledge about the Punto and its features.