[Detroit-Dude]

I think all the excitement for the avventura launch does not make any sense. The punto evo is the facelift we were all waiting for sans an improved gearbox. Roof rails and rear mounted spare tire have no value to add to the excellent evo.
Fiat could have very well launched the tjet instead of the 1.4 NA. Perhaps they felt that it will cannibalize the linea petrol sales.
I doubt if any of the Fiat management read tbhp ;-)

[gr8guyme]

Originally Posted by JohnyBoy

I was not talking about follow-me lamps.

In my Old Punto, the headlights switches off automatically after few seconds/minutes after you switch off the car. So no worry on 'lights on' and battery draining. This is what I meant by Auto headlights. Forgive me if this is not the right name of the feature.

(And I found this as a very good feature. Had 2-3 experiences earlier of forgetting to switch off lights and ending up pushing and recharging the battery.)

This is what is called follow-me home headlamps. You can even set the time limit for the light to be on after you have removed the keys.

[s_pphilip]

Originally Posted by sanjeevskartha

Great review, thanks for sharing

Wonder if it is possible to retrofit the dashboard of a Punto Evo to the older versions of GP. The new dash (especially the all black one in the 90hp version) looks really good.

I don't think it is impossible, irrespective of the costs, whether our guys are up to the task, no one knows until the final outcome, where you probably cannot reverse engineer either.
Finally you don't want a nicer looking dashboard where everything creeks and rattles and the airbag light constantly stays on in the instrument cluster, no matter what, factory fit is factory fit, period.
I know of cases where they haven't been able to match paint or fit panels properly during accident repairs.

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by JohnyBoy

I was not talking about follow-me lamps.

In my Old Punto, the headlights switches off automatically after few seconds/minutes after you switch off the car. So no worry on 'lights on' and battery draining. This is what I meant by Auto headlights. Forgive me if this is not the right name of the feature.

(And I found this as a very good feature. Had 2-3 experiences earlier of forgetting to switch off lights and ending up pushing and recharging the battery.)

Originally Posted by gr8guyme

This is what is called follow-me home headlamps. You can even set the time limit for the light to be on after you have removed the keys.

Spot on. The car still has the follow me home headlamps on all variants. It would have been good to have included the Auto headlamps and rain sensing wipers.

Originally Posted by Detroit-Dude

I doubt if any of the Fiat management read tbhp ;-)

They do read, confirming this from personal experience. However, how much of it is put to use is for everybody to see

Originally Posted by s_pphilip

I don't think it is impossible, irrespective of the costs, whether our guys are up to the task, no one knows until the final outcome, where you probably cannot reverse engineer either.
Finally you don't want a nicer looking dashboard where everything creeks and rattles and the airbag light constantly stays on in the instrument cluster, no matter what, factory fit is factory fit, period.
I know of cases where they haven't been able to match paint or fit panels properly during accident repairs.

Spot on. Matching the paint itself is a task to most body shops of the service centers. With this level of expertise, retrofitting the dashboard will only give more headaches.

[isiv]

Thanks for the informative review, was waiting for this.

Maybe it's just me, but I find a few bits contradictory. Will be grateful if these could be clarified:

The keyhole console continues to be plagued with inconsistent finish. Saw three cars and all of them had different finish

The key hole now finally sports a better finsih

Is the keyhole finish better or same as before?

The 75HP now does 100 kmph at 2300 odd rpm on the speedo. However, the Torque app proved it otherwise, the true speed of 100 kmph comes close to 2490 rpm. The speedo has considerable error in terms of speed.

I suppose you mean the error is with the tacho due to difference in indicated vs. actual rpms. Is there a speedo error too?

The noise insulation is decent and feels intrusive when revved hard

Is the noise insulation low, adequate or good?



Not to nitpick, but some amount of proofreading and spell/grammar checks could improve the reading experience immensely.

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by isiv

Is the keyhole finish better or same as before?

The keyhole finish has improved than the outgoing model, but unfortunately though improved it is inconsistency on the production line. They ought to have uniform finish on all cars.

I suppose you mean the error is with the tacho due to difference in indicated vs. actual rpms. Is there a speedo error too?

It is not the tacho error, the tacho meter to OBD reading matched. However, the true speed (based on GPS) to odometer speed has a good percentage error.

Is the noise insulation low, adequate or good?

The noise insulation is good for the regular usage. One may find the engine note intrusive when revved hard in the 4000 rpm mark.

Hope this clarifies your queries.

[JohnyBoy]

Originally Posted by gr8guyme

This is what is called follow-me home headlamps. You can even set the time limit for the light to be on after you have removed the keys.

Thanks for the clarification. Thank you gr8guyme and nkrishnap

So I think when you say auto head lamps, you mean 'light sensing' lamps which turns on automatically when it is dark. Is this right?

[Kratos453]

Got some snaps of the punto EVO when I was in the phoenix market city, chennai. It looked glittery and attractive under the lights and you immediately get a feel that the car has been made to appeal for the mass market. I am attaching the images below

[rohanjf]

Originally Posted by kaushal21fb

Going by the looks (and reports) this seems to be the same unit in the New Linea. So as per my New Linea, yes you can change tracks from the HU. The buttons inside the audio dial are for folder/album (based on the blu and me preference setting) selection. The 2 small buttons on each side of volume dial are for track selection.

A friend of mine is on a long drive in Punto Evo right now (he says it is a media test drive car, as the person driving the car is a journalist). He is not able to figure out how to change folders. I gave him this piece of information. But he says the buttons inside the audio do the same thing as the two small buttons on the sides: change the track. After the last song of the folder is played, it goes back to the first song of the same folder and not to the first song of next folder.

He said he found some option called 'Loop Off' and enabled it. Still no luck.

After I told him to check Blue&Me settings (based on Kaushal's post above), he is again struggling. He is not able find a way to change these settings!

Could any of us help him? He still has another 5 hours of journey left.

PS: I think whichever medium this journalist works for, will give a poor review to Punto Evo

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by rohanjf

A friend of mine is on a long drive in Punto Evo right now (he says it is a media test drive car, as the person driving the car is a journalist). He is not able to figure out how to change folders. I gave him this piece of information. But he says the buttons inside the audio do the same thing as the two small buttons on the sides: change the track. After the last song of the folder is played, it goes back to the first song of the same folder and not to the first song of next folder.



He said he found some option called 'Loop Off' and enabled it. Still no luck.



After I told him to check Blue&Me settings (based on Kaushal's post above), he is again struggling. He is not able find a way to change these settings!



Could any of us help him? He still has another 5 hours of journey left.



PS: I think whichever medium this journalist works for, will give a poor review to Punto Evo

Press the Blue&Me button and say 'Folders'. Then use the steering mounted controls to navigate to the required folder.

[suhas_raj]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

I might get 'Shot at' for saying this, but I personally still stand by this:

Old Punto Looks much better than Punto Evo.

I think Fiat could have probably:

- Retained the old shape and probably could have adopted the new Headlight & Tail light designs.

- I did not like the new design of the Fog lamp, reverse lamp assembly. The old one looked classy.

- Incorporated the New interiors along with the addition of Tilt & Telescopic steering column.

I could not have put across my thoughts any better. Completely agree.
Fiat just massacred the beautiful old Punto. All in the name of facelift

[Vdrive]

. That classic look is gone. The refreshed one is no more a beauty if not a beast. The old one really is a timeless beauty. But Fiat had to do something for the sake of a 'facelift'.

[rav11stars]

It's sort of sad that I have to jump in to ask your advice when I should have been drafting my initial experience.
I've taken the delivery of my Punto Evo Emotion yesterday and am having my fingers crossed hoping my registration number will arrive tomorrow.

I'm planning a "FIAT Confidence Drive" from Pune to my hometown(Rajahmundry) to prove to my critics that I was not wrong in choosing Fiat.

Coming to the actual issue at hand :

1. I've purchased OEM roof rails as an accessory at Rs.5700/-. I've checked them yesterday at the time of delivery and didn't find anything amiss.
I drove to work today and it was parked in the sun from 7am till 4pm. I noticed this.

Obviously I was worried. I called up customer care asking for advice who in turn asked me to talk to the dealer. The reason we buy OEM accessories is to avoid such things. So how do I tackle this?

2. I was promised a 3M body cover coat. How can I make out if it's coated or not? I know I was dumb enough not to ask for proof yesterday. I'm going to ask tomorrow when I go to get my number.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Never knew FIAT offered roof rails as an accessory!

Couldnt you have waited for the Avventura to launch and then got the aluminium roof rails instead? This one looks just a cosmetic add on.

[rav11stars]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Never knew FIAT offered roof rails as an accessory!

Couldnt you have waited for the Avventura to launch and then got the aluminium roof rails instead? This one looks just a cosmetic add on.

Yeah, I wanted to even wait for the Avventura. But I just wanted a cosmetic add-on; Not a fully functional rack