[CaliforniaKnight]

I love this car, but need more kit on it.Is there any special kit accessories Fiat India sell for the Punto?
And can those tuning boxes, are they available for the punto?as its the same engine as the Swift D.

[Sawyer]

Originally Posted by smilenow

To top it all off,my uncle who deals primarily in cars and car equipment,is livid with me for buying a fiat,which in turn has the family raising eyebrows at this decision,and now since the delivery is delayed,all they are saying is "sigh,fiat!!",and i am tired of playing the marketing manager for the company.

I had to smile at that, the one about playing marketing manager - I am afraid that being the marketing managers of the company, historically, is a fate that befalls all Fiat enthusiasts. While the real ones seem to still haven't quite figured out how to get their act together to support another great product. Thing is, for things such as cars, when one is addressing volume markets, mundane things such as logistics, service, etc., matter just as much as product. As the Marutis and the Hyundais - and even the GMs to an extent - have realized very well. Otherwise the only buyers for Fiat will be Fiat enthusiasts, and those cannot fill in, on an ongoing basis, more than 10% of the installed manufacturing capacity that has been created by Fiat India.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

So what are the fiat lovers saying? Heavy is good, or heavy is bad?
And trashing light japanese/korean cars is ok?

Now, where and why did Fiat come into picture here? Even the examples I talked about were of Maruti and Honda.

I am not blindly saying heavy is good or bad. I am saying that, it depends on design of the car and the build quality both. And better built car invariable tend to be heavier (Unless as I said, they use special material Or, are generation ahead of others in terms of design).

BTW, light Japanese cars are not so much light anymore and hence, not as FE as earlier. Swift is heavier and less FE and so is SX4. And, so is Getz/i-20 compared to Santro. Of course, they are safer and ride better than their predecessors.

(Just in case, you are wondering why we are comparing Getz with Santro, Palio was compared with Santro/Wagon-R/Zen when it was launched and was perceived as Fuel Guzzler).

And talking about FE, most Fuel Efficient non-hybrid cars are manufactured by Volkswagen these days, thanks to their amazing engines.

P.S: Apologies if tone of my previous post was offending, but I have seen this argument on T-BHP just so many times in past and I really don't get it, when someone says that Alto is as safe as Indica just because it is modern car with side impact beams or crumple zones :-)

@RX135- no offense taken. Your post was pretty sensible, and I agree with everything you've said since I started commenting on this thread.

I just used jessie007's logic of "heavier car is better"
I dont believe in it. Just tried to point out like you did, that heavy is not necessarily good or bad. Just like light cars are not necessarily unstable.
and like you pointed out, jap cars are not all light. neither are the koreans.
The jap and korean diesels however do seem to give better power/torque and mileage, in case of the swift, despite using Fiat's engine.
except for the 1.6 fiat- all the other fiats in india have been embarassingly slow. Because of the poor power to weight ratio.
there's 2 ways out- increase the power or decrease the weight*
Fiat is doing neither.

It is, however, puzzling that you did not leap to the defence of the jap and korean "tinboxes", but you were pretty quick to fight for the Tank. Not just you, most other esteemed fiat fans on this thread have been silent when every other car manufacturer in india is bashed on this thread.
Defending other car manufacturers on this forum is now almost a crime. Wierd!

*There is ofcourse the 3rd way/the way of the cognoscenti/way of the tifosi- refuse to believe in the face of proof that the indian punto is slow

[sukrit7]

Originally Posted by smilenow

Medium Gray,I visited the showroom today,and vola to my surprise a mjd[e-pack],medium gray was there on the gate. When i enquired with the salesman he was clueless about it.
They explained that their order for all punto's had suddenly "expired",i pressed him further to explain that,again he had no clue.

Part of the problem is that when i first visited the showroom on the 20th of june,the entire fiat staff was off duty.So i was assigned someone who primarily sells tata cars.He doesn't know jack about fiat cars but is a good person.
I thought 'who cares,who sells me this as long as i get the car",and well... ta-da!!

What accentuates my problem is that i have had two buyers with two very very lucrative offers for my 5 year old Santro [2lacs for the car,it is very very well maintained],walk away,just because i couldn't commit to a delivery date. And that was because of the showroom guys not committing to a delivery date.

The amount that i receive from the sale of the santro will be paid as part of the payment for GP.

And guess what,they still aren't committing to delivery date.
In 4 days i guess,i'll have to take the deal to ABS gurgaon,as i need the car due to certain unavoidable circumstances.

To top it all off,my uncle who deals primarily in cars and car equipment,is livid with me for buying a fiat,which in turn has the family raising eyebrows at this decision,and now since the delivery is delayed,all they are saying is "sigh,fiat!!",and i am tired of playing the marketing manager for the company.

That's really surprising because I received my minimal grey just yesterday; you probably saw my car.
anyway am heading over tomorrow, shoot me a pm with your name(if the car is booked in your name or the name of the person it is booked in), i'll speak to them and tell them you're disappointed. Am on decent terms with them, shall try my best. Tc

[smilenow]

Originally Posted by sukrit7

That's really surprising because I received my minimal grey just yesterday; you probably saw my car.
anyway am heading over tomorrow, shoot me a pm with your name(if the car is booked in your name or the name of the person it is booked in), i'll speak to them and tell them you're disappointed. Am on decent terms with them, shall try my best. Tc

Nah,yours is a minimal grey,mine is the darker shade[medium grey],and that is the one i saw.
Since you took delivery yesterday[congratulations by the way],their claim of this order expiring thing seems a little more dubious than before,Instead of the name[i'd prefer to wait till about the 16-17th july,and then ask you for help],just ask anyone if their recent order for all punto's got expired.
Lets see what they tell you.

[jaygeetee]

One thing my dad noticed today when we went to TD the Punto was that the seats were not very Long. We are 5'11'' and normally the car seats end about an inch from the lower end of our thighs (lower part of the knee) but the ones in the Punto was atleast an inch/1.5 inch shorter.

1)Would this cause discomfort for long rides (esp for tall people)?
2)This was the case with both the front and the rear seats. We had a vista around to compare and i had TDed the i20 just 30 mins before.

Owners, reviewers please comment.

[amitcd]

the car in black at the showroom was stunning!!!
I wonder why i have not seen anyone booking back punto on team-bhp.

[~~VinZ~~]

Originally Posted by amitcd

the car in black at the showroom was stunning!!!
I wonder why i have not seen anyone booking back punto on team-bhp.

My black punto will be driving down to bangalore soon

[inreverse]

I know this is not a Linea thread, but I think Fiat on a whole gave a good though to what the profit would be if sales didn't rise. I just bought a Fiat Linea Emotion Pack (Nova White). I wanted to go for a Punto (This hatch I consider to be the one that can be tuned and modded as need be and with ease it would still continue to look stunning no matter what you do to this hatch). But my wife had other thoughts

After driving all the Japanese Zero's and German Panzers for a while, I'm thrilled to find out that the Italians got it right (somehow). I see a bending curve in how the Linea may impact the sales of the Rs. 8 lac car. There are very few choices to go for in this segment. The older City Zx GXi mid range model costed around Rs. 8.2 lacs on road (2 years back, without airbags, ABS and EBD) and now the newer one costs even a bit more with no added features apart from the i-Vtec tag and basic safety features.

Skoda's are good - BTW I'm probably one of the fewer souls who had a good experience with their Skodas

Fiat's only chance is to nibble the whole apple bit by bit. I surely feel that after a year of reviewing and pulling up the stats, Fiat will pull a Gen-X Punto or a Linea with a more powerful engine or perhaps the initial release of these models are intended to figure out where to start. There's no place for stunts now. I drive two fantastic vehicles at the moment Pajero and Laura.

I needed a sedan that fills in the gap between the two. And luckily the Italians answered the call with the Linea.

Definitely the Punto has killer looks and good value for money. Plus it doesn't smell all plastic either like most Indian counterparts.

[sukrit7]

There's been a lot of talk about underbody rusting, this is what the manual says
"Body and underbody warranty"
Your car is covered by warranty against perforation due to rust of any original element of the structure or body"

...fiat implemented the best manu. tech. to effectively protect the bodywork against corrosion.
"spraying the underbody,engine compartment, wheelhouse internal parts and other parts with highly protective wax products"

[inreverse]

Yes and it's good to have a 2+2 year warranty. I've been extremely careful before taking the delivery. I made sure everything from all known dimensions was spanky clean. Afterall I waited 4 weeks to take the delivery of the white Linea

[rganeshiyer]

[quote=rippergeo;1380223
It is, however, puzzling that you did not leap to the defence of the jap and korean "tinboxes", but you were pretty quick to fight for the Tank. Not just you, most other esteemed fiat fans on this thread have been silent when every other car manufacturer in india is bashed on this thread.
Defending other car manufacturers on this forum is now almost a crime. Wierd!

*There is ofcourse the 3rd way/the way of the cognoscenti/way of the tifosi- refuse to believe in the face of proof that the indian punto is slow[/quote]


I kinda agree here ! I love my Palio 1.6 but I don't feel the japs and germans are behind. Nothing can match the precision of japs and the engineering of germans.Also, koreans are one of the few people to treat India well by introducing and debuting their best cars here. I also notice that being anti-fiat is considered blasphemous in some of the forums here.Fiat is great in it's own way but they can learn a lot a lot from the japs,koreans and germans anyday ! BTW, I love the Punto ad on TV ( in english) and they subtlely seem to tell people to move away from the mass cars ( which as per me is maruti and hyundai). Punto is a good car and definetely has stunning looks but I still feel it may come a cropper against my 1.6 war-horse. Any thoughts !! I look forward to the new controversy I am generating here

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by rganeshiyer

I kinda agree here ! I love my Palio 1.6 but I don't feel the japs and germans are behind. Nothing can match the precision of japs and the engineering of germans.Also, koreans are one of the few people to treat India well by introducing and debuting their best cars here. I also notice that being anti-fiat is considered blasphemous in some of the forums here.Fiat is great in it's own way but they can learn a lot a lot from the japs,koreans and germans anyday ! BTW, I love the Punto ad on TV ( in english) and they subtlely seem to tell people to move away from the mass cars ( which as per me is maruti and hyundai). Punto is a good car and definetely has stunning looks but I still feel it may come a cropper against my 1.6 war-horse. Any thoughts !! I look forward to the new controversy I am generating here

Just one correction here.... Euro and Italian or German are all the same... they are all classified as 'Euro' cars. So its Euro Vs Jap Vs Koreans! :P

[JayD]

Originally Posted by rippergeo

*There is ofcourse the 3rd way/the way of the cognoscenti/way of the tifosi- refuse to believe in the face of proof that the indian punto is slow

no doc, its merely an 'illusion' that the car is slow. just like the rear seat 'seems' to be cramped. And the plastics 'look' cheap, and how the dead pedal position 'feels like' its designed by a person with one leg and more.