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-   -   Fiat Grande Punto : Test Drive & Review (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/official-new-car-reviews/60626-fiat-grande-punto-test-drive-review-30.html)

I went to the dairy circle show room on all three occasions, 3 different guys.
No one by the name of Manjunath.
on all 3 occasions , no salesman came up to me and asked what i was looking for, they were busy passing time somewhere, had to request the receptionist to please call a salesman.
Once i went in the morning , there were very few customers around ,the TD cars were parked but the receptionist said " sir we are waiting for the sales person to come , to give the TD"

Oddly I had this exact expereince at Hyundai when I went to check out the i20. The salesperson was disinterested in even looking at us and refused a test drive saying the driver was not avaliable (the demo car was avaliable) and he doesn't know when the driver will be back. It's more then 15 days and they haven't called back to offer me the promised test drive. He even gave me the prices verbally and when I asked for a price sheet he said "I just told you the prices."

excatly even i have the same problem! the sales guy is pretty good with the technical side and the way he presented the car but he has no idea when the RTO issues will solve!

ps: i got my driving license today which makes me doubly more desperate to get the car!

Fiat service is not all that bad. At least my experience tells me that Fiat mechanics (at the service stations) are one of the best in the business & that is because of the detailed training they undergo, unlike Tata & Hyundai.
Yes, their salesmen maybe a bit different, but I have seen many good Fiat salesmen too. When you go to some Maruti & especially many Hyundai showrooms, I often got the feeling as if those guys are doing a favour by attending us:mad:.
The product knowledge of an average Hyundai salesperson is the poorest of all. The best being Maruti & GM.

I had taken a Test Drive of the MJD Emotion Pack Punto from TAFE Motors, Chennai.

My initial observations of the Punto!

• The attitude of the sales men was Perfect! But they were poorly trained. They had almost half information about everything they had to say. Probably they need to do their home work well.
• The LOOKS - Its a beauty! It was a Black colour Punto which was smiling at everyone in the showroom. And it almost pulled everyone who was coming inside the dealership. A True italian fat beauty made me drool around the car for atleast 15mins :D
• The engine is aptly powered, like the Linea the 1st & 2nd Gears were short!
• Balance between Ride & Handling was typically Fiat. The handling was amazing and the way the Punto eats away patholes was amazing
• The stability of the Punto could be easily felt. I took it to speeds of around 80KMPH on slightly bumpy and twisty road in the city and it was solid! Felt complete control on the car.
• Interior fit & finish was much better than the Linea. Probably the feedbacks on Linea have been worked upon here. But there are a few plastics which felt cheap (Power window buttons)
• I could find my driving position easily without much fuss.
• Good amount of boot space!
• Rear seat comfort was good. The sloped seats made my knees in touch with the front seats. Overall it wasnt bad! I would rate rear leg room, Average & much better than the Swift anyday!

Overall, its a good car nicely priced! I would definetly recommend this car!

I am booking a Punto Active 1.3 MJD soon!

Incase you're interested in seeing the white color, i've posted a picture here
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-d...to-booked.html

I'm not publicizing, just being helpful; hope it's alright

Dear All,

As I am waiting for the delivery of my Punto (which is taking ages !!) I thought of doing some analysis of the pricing of Punto. lol:

I collected the ex-showroom prices of all 77 cities listed on Fiat India's website and did some calculations. As these are ex-showroom calculations, I expect similar analysis of OTR prices will show some different results since the tax structure in each state is different.

First table is pretty straightforward. Nothing much to explain.

Second table I thought was interesting. As you can see, as you go up each variant, Fiat demands a higher premium in the petrol version compared to its diesel counterparts. For eg : Punto Emotion Pk Petrol demands a 40.15% premium over Active, 20.19% premium over Dynamic and 10.77% premium over Emotion. Whereas Punto Emotion Pk Diesel demands a 25.74% premium over Active, 18.25% premium over Dynamic and 9.81% premium over Emotion. I guess that is largely because of the fact that majority sales will come from Diesel and Fiat can improve margins due to economies of scale.

Hope you like the work

Amogh

Dosnt the petrol active come with 1.2 engine?

Yes .. agreed. But that is the trend even when you compare petrol cars with same engines with their diesel counterparts

Let me clarify

Petrol Emotion Pk and Petrol Emotion have the same engine.

Petrol Emotion Pk demands a 10.77% premium over Petrol Emotion

Diesel Emotion Pk demands a 9.81% premium over Diesel Emotion

@Amit

SBI is offering 8% car loan for 1st year and 10% for the second and third year. May be this will help to boost car sales (particularly GP's sales).

I have been following this forum actively from the time Punto has been launched. Finally yesterday I went to Concorde motors,dairy circle for a TD. As already mentioned by others, these guys are not interested in selling any cars from their showroom!!!! The sales guy was not interested to share any information, the receptionist was always on phone and trying to avoid to talk to us...I was interested in buyin the car rather than they sellin to me..I knew quite a bit of the car thru this forum than the sales guy there..After a wait of 45mins got a chance to drive both petrol 1.4 and diesel

The TD was very short as the guy was not ready to give long drives though there weren’t any customers waiting for a TD. Fiat/Tata has to learn how to get customers in to their showrooms!!

My comments on the car
The car just looks awesome, enuf has been said about the car & i dont wanna comment more. I just love the looks. The interiors are fair enough as compared to Swift and liked the console and steering wheel. I couldn’t find a suitable driving position though!! Since am 5'10'' there is ample space in the rear and it’s not as crampy as swift. The boot is HUGE!! But the rear seat could have been pushed back little..

[COLOR=black]The music system wasn’t great and it seems in emotion u don’t have a USB :Frustrati wonder what’s the problem to provide one. Looking at this i would rather go for dynamic and get the accesories outside.. Thou i wud miss the ABS :(

Petrol 1.4
I drove this first because the diesel wasnt available, I personally feel that there is no excitement driving this, pick up wasn’t electric and it was just normal and the car feels good only when its revved!!!

Diesel
Wow... I just love the grufy sound when u put ur foot down on the pedal. Though this doesn’t have the same Turbo feel of swift the pick up is quite linear and I quite liked it, it does push u back when u pedal the accelerator!! How many people use the turbo in city conditions and get like getting thrown back in b’lore traffic :). I dont think this is a turn off and feel the car is quite powerful, but u just need to understand her and drive her better to get the power. The gears are quite easy and fall in their slots with ease!! The 1st and 2nd gears are short but the 3rd is amazing, u can go around at speeds of 20 with out any jerks till about 70!! The steering feels rock solid and suspension is just tooo gooood

I liked the car, but just waiting for intial ownership reviews to book one. I would recommend this car to buy to anyone anyday

You have the USB in the Glove Box in the Emotion+ Variant.

thank sanjeevi, i'm aware of this, i was mentioning about emotion...dont feel the music player VFM, can get a better one outside

@Mafioso: I think you can add a USB cable - needs to be checked though - there are lots of different USB cables on the Blaupunkt India website.

Thanks,
Amit.

@Amit, are u sure??? if this was the case why wudnt fiat provide it, i feel the player must be different and no option of USB as well