[dj_turbo]

Originally Posted by DigitalDragon

Thanks DJ. I will wait for your response on the Reverse Sensor.



This is an interesting find. I was wondering how they can mention some feature which is non-existent. On the contrary they did miss to mention the driver side auto up in the feature list.

Hi DigitalDragon, The brand is MGT.

regarding the rear AC vent, there is one duct opening under the front seat, I have seen the pictures somewhere on the forum but could not find them now and haven't tried to locate them in my car .

DJ

[pinin]

Originally Posted by DigitalDragon

@ dj_turbo

Congrats for owning the little cute italian beauty. The color is just awesome and so are the snaps.

I am seriously contemplating to buy one 90 HP shortly. Few queries:

1. Which brand is the reverse parking sensor?
2. During a recent visit to showroom, i felt the stock seats are a bit hard. How comfortable do you find them for a long drive ? Is the ergonomy perfect, meaning do you feel any pain in neck/back/shoulder after a long drive?
3. The Punto site says there is a rear foot level ac vent. Have you experienced it ? Somebody had a wish list of this feature in one of the posts in this thread.
4. I came across the driver side window auto up feature during my inspection of the car. Hope you have experienced it. Surprisingly the Punto site does not mention any such feature.
5. Last one - what about the body roll in hill areas ? I read you went on a trip to Kasauli. I also drove from Ludhiana to Kasauli this April in a Zen Estilo. There was significant body roll.

Thanks and look forward to hear from you.

Hope you do not mind hearing from me

1. Well do not have sensors on my car and hence will have to wait for DJ
2. The seats are good. You will not find them hard on long trips. Ergonomically - not the best seats in business. There is definitely something amiss there. After 15,000 kilometers on the odo am still scratching my head to find out - "What it is?".
3. The AC vents are definitely there and they work well. Will notice them better if your feet are not fully covered when sitting on the rear seat.
4. It is present - the one touch up/down feature.
5. Just drive the car to feel its rock solid stability. Simply put - Best in class.

Hope this helps

Pinin

[DigitalDragon]

Originally Posted by dj_turbo

Hi DigitalDragon, The brand is MGT.

regarding the rear AC vent, there is one duct opening under the front seat, I have seen the pictures somewhere on the forum but could not find them now and haven't tried to locate them in my car .

DJ

Originally Posted by pinin

Hope you do not mind hearing from me

1. Well do not have sensors on my car and hence will have to wait for DJ
2. The seats are good. You will not find them hard on long trips. Ergonomically - not the best seats in business. There is definitely something amiss there. After 15,000 kilometers on the odo am still scratching my head to find out - "What it is?".
3. The AC vents are definitely there and they work well. Will notice them better if your feet are not fully covered when sitting on the rear seat.
4. It is present - the one touch up/down feature.
5. Just drive the car to feel its rock solid stability. Simply put - Best in class.

Hope this helps

Pinin

Thanks to both of you. I did have a TD but the car condition was not good enough. I felt losing confidence at a speed of 110 contrary to what you all have mentioned here. Need to take another TD. Will update once I have a longish TD.

[dj_turbo]

Originally Posted by DigitalDragon

Thanks to both of you. I did have a TD but the car condition was not good enough. I felt losing confidence at a speed of 110 contrary to what you all have mentioned here. Need to take another TD. Will update once I have a longish TD.

I seriously recommend a TD at another dealership as high speed stability is the best in this car IMHO. Had you mentioned small first two gears or sluggishness at 0-20, I would agree to that, but nothing beats the feel of Punto on highways and in-gear accelerations above 3rd cog (I read on ACI and OD mags that 20-80 and 40-100 KMPH times of Punto 90HP is less than even Verna CRDi)

DJ

[dj_turbo]

I have been using "My Car" application on my Android phone and using Full-to-Full method, following are the important states related to FE:

Car Odo Reading over time:


Line chart for Fuel efficiency; the lowest figures are in 100% city use in Delhi and Mumbai.


Monthly fuel efficiency since I bought the car in April:


Next time on highway, I will try to be light footed and it will be interesting to see the results.

[punto_]

Congratulations on your purchase! I loved the reverse parking sensor.. can you share the price for it?

[blueblooded]

The choice of colors is really great,I heartily welcome you to the group of punto owners .
Its not the exaggeration that there is no car like punto in its segment and god knows what keeps the people away from it.
Be it tank like build or superb ride quality or the distinctive looks I just cant stop raving about it.
Some says that TFASS is poor ,given they are not at par with maruti but then they are fast picking up.
Moreover the stories of overpriced spares of punto are cooked ones and this i came to know after my car met with an accident .
So hope that the sales of punto improve and many more people share our joy of riding arguably the best hatch on the Indian roads

[dj_turbo]

Originally Posted by punto_

Congratulations on your purchase! I loved the reverse parking sensor.. can you share the price for it?

I bought this parking sensor with the car and dealership gave me 50% off on the MRP of 4500. I think you should be able to get the same in 3500-4000.

Originally Posted by blueblooded

The choice of colors is really great,I heartily welcome you to the group of punto owners .
Its not the exaggeration that there is no car like punto in its segment and god knows what keeps the people away from it.
Be it tank like build or superb ride quality or the distinctive looks I just cant stop raving about it.
Some says that TFASS is poor ,given they are not at par with maruti but then they are fast picking up.
Moreover the stories of overpriced spares of punto are cooked ones and this i came to know after my car met with an accident .
So hope that the sales of punto improve and many more people share our joy of riding arguably the best hatch on the Indian roads

Agree blueblooded, I too hope it happens but I rarely see any Punto on roads here in Jodhpur (it's rarer than a BMW here). On top of that, most of the people don't even know why they don't want to buy a Fiat or someone's friends' friend recommended against it, who himself never owned one.

12500 Km Update:
I went to Jaipur last morning to pick up my relatives from the airport and came back by evening (total 730 Kms). Average speed for going to Jaipur in morning time came out to be 73 KMPH and FE was 17 KMPL (most of the times I was doing more than 120). While coming back, the average speed was 63kmph and FE was 17.9 KMPL (as displayed on MFD).

Before that I got the wheel alignment and balancing done which made my pocket lighter by 800 bucks. One tire was losing air but there was no puncture in that.

The car drives beautifully on the highways but I really wish it had atleast 15-20 BHP more. I felt some issues in brake-bite which I plan to get checked in second service.

DJ

[blueblooded]

Well,I dont know the reasons but I often come across punto here in Varanasi ,and may be punto owners love to ride their baby more often .On the serious note the punto owners league is getting bigger .
Moreover the A.S.S also seems to be getting better

[dj_turbo]

It's been a month since I last seen my beauty and I am thousands of miles away from her in the land where gasoline is cheaper than the drinking water. Hope to see her again in 10 days time.
This time I will be asking a friend to get racechip from racechip.de, and I plan to test it once I complete 15K kms and after I get the 2nd service done. (right now the meter shows 12500 (s)miles). Does anyone have tested this racechip with GP 90HP; any information about the performance improvement and power delivery will really help.

Dj

[dj_turbo]

Hi People

Yesterday I returned back to India and after 22 days I was very happy to see the car happily waiting for me to be driven. Suddenly I felt that she wasn't so happy with being so far for long time and showed my anger by making some "chhiiirrr chiirrr" sound (something like old Indicas used to make, something like slipping of a loose belt) and she didn't want me to stay cool as the AC was not chilling as it used to, even on LO (lowest level) in FULL AUTO mode. In evening it was again like the good old days but today the issue returned back. I think nI will have to take her to TASS to get it checked.

I am really not amused to see this only after 20-25 days of being alone but now I remind myself that it was me who wanted a girlfriend and not a wife in her

Dj

[dj_turbo]

2 days ago I visited the Marudhara Motors to get the AC checked, same place where I got a big dent on the tailgate last time. Without saying anything, the person on front desk said something which meant, if you can leave the car for 2-3 days then say anything else don't utter a word.
I don't remember donating my organs or doing charity that day, but probably due to some other good work in my last birth, he agreed to have a look at my car. With thankful eyes the king and a soldier (a mechanic from TASS) obliged me and we went to the car. I started the car, hoping that sound should not be anything new to them as I heard it many times before from different cars, but they listened to it from inside, from outside, with doors open, closed and few other permutations. The mechanic looked puzzled but the SA was confident and declared that the sound is coming from a malfunctioning bearing in AC compressor and it would take 2-3 days minimum to correct it. I was shocked to hear that and explained that I come back only for few days and it is difficult to manage without car during that period and last time they gifted a big dent, he said, sometimes it happens, not a big deal. I looked at the mechanic for his opinion, who was looking more puzzled than me, he said, "dashboard khulega isme to" (Dashboard will have to be opened). as per him, the sound was coming because of some obstruction in airflow in blower. There was so much of dis-interest in touching a Fiat car and the guy kept on saying that he already has 40 cars with him and has no bandwidth for any other car. Possibly that was true and I realized that I should not again take chance with them, only to have more issues after the repair work and left the workshop immediately.
I think there will never be a satisfactory TASS visit without few mails to Mr. Mangesh.

Now coming back to the car, I am managing without using AC, even during afternoons and I plan to get it checked in Mumbai when I come back next month and take the car to Mumbai.

PS: A senior guy was speaking to another unfortunate Fiat owner, who was surprised that there were bends in all four rims, the TASS official told him that it is very normal in all Fiat cars to get bends in all wheels and he has seen this many times already. I wondered what it has to do with Fiat, but that sort of comment wasn't anything new in Tata managed workshops for Fiats.

[hiren.mistry]

Hey DJ,
Thanks for sharing your ownership experience here, loved reading it. I am looking to buy a new diesel hatch and am veering towards the 90HP Punto, took a test drive of a regular MJD yesterday and was sold on it.
Am holding on till the new year to see how the upgraded Punto looks and book it soon after that.

Do keep on updating the thread.

Best wishes

[dj_turbo]

Originally Posted by hiren.mistry

Hey DJ,
Thanks for sharing your ownership experience here, loved reading it. I am looking to buy a new diesel hatch and am veering towards the 90HP Punto, took a test drive of a regular MJD yesterday and was sold on it.
Am holding on till the new year to see how the upgraded Punto looks and book it soon after that.

Do keep on updating the thread.

Best wishes

Thanks Hiren. Good luck with your buying and owning experience, I wish many more enthusiasts chose to save the quality cars in India from Fiat

At the moment, The caAAar is again parked at home and I am waiting to get back there at the end of this month.

Cheers
Dj

[dj_turbo]

Hi Guys

It's been more than three months I have updated this thread and almost the same time for me to drive around in the beauty.
As I was not around, my dad got the second service done at Marudhara motors, Jodhpur.
I went when got to know that service center recommended against changing fuel filter and engine oil (as the odo was showing 13K mark). I have to get it done once I am back home.
Anyways, the AC issues is resolved, they refilled the compressor and changed some nozzles (don't have the full details yet), all under warrenty. So the service didn't cost anything but I have to get the oil replacement done soon.

There were mails from Fiat that few upgrades in power steering system has to be done but the local dealer says he hasn't got the information or parts from Fiat as yet, so that has to wait for some more time.

Has any of you got the ground clearance upgrade done in your Fiats? I am not going to get it done in near future as the car is heavily underutilized now a days (first six months, 12k kms and next six months <1K kms) but just eyeing the idea to get it done in Mumbai whenever I take my car there.



Happy Motoring
Dj