Another Punto Story --- Diesel Emotion Pack

sridharp77 · 28th July 2009, 13:29

So after a long time I am posting the details of my new car. Took delivery of my Italian beauty Fiat Punto Emotion Pack Diesel (Electric Blue) on 2nd July. It was our wedding anniversary as well so I had specifically instructed the dealer that I wanted the delivery on that day itself. There were some problems about the delivery of the car on the morning of 2nd July but both Manjunath and Hemanth of Concorde made sure that I get the delivery on that day itself. The main reason for the problems was that the car arrived at their yard only on 2nd July morning. This is my fourth car from Fiat. Previously my father had fiat Padmini and 118NE. We still have the Padmini at home in Kerala and have no plans to sell it even though we are not using it that often. I had previously owned the Palio 1.2 sports nv and my brother in law has the Palio Multijet SDX. And for the last 6-7 years of my ownership of Palio I absolutely had no problems with the car. So when the Linea was launched I was very much inclined to buy it but thought let me wait for Punto to be launched and then make the final decision. Primary reason was that we did not want a sedan and was happy with the hatchback. So when the news was out that Punto was getting launched on 17th June, I was very happy. I went to the showroom on 15th June and had a look at the Punto though did not get a chance to drive the car on that day. But we were pretty much decided that this is going to replace my 5 year old Palio. Was totally confused about which color to choose because the car looked good in all of the cars. I wanted to avoid the red color since I was pretty sure that would be the color that majority of the folks prefer. Hence left the final decision to my wife. She liked the electric blue color very much and hence decided on that. This time I wanted to go with the diesel variant and not the petrol one. My old Palio is in the safe hands of my brother and he will continue to use it. So far I have completed 2100 kms in my Punto and I absolutely loved each and every moment of my drive so far. I did two long trips one to Virajpet and another one to my home town Palakkad, Kerala. The trip to Virajpet was wonderful. For those who are familiar with the roads will understand and the road condition has further deteriorated because of the recent rains. We covered the distance (to and fro) in little less than 8 hrs and overall got a mileage of 19.6 km/l. The drive back to Bangalore (via mettur) yesterday was done in little less that 6 hrs (nonstop).Another trip to Palakkad and then from there to Sabarimala is planned in the month of August.

Lot has been said about the positives of the car and so I will begin with the negatives.

1)The sound of the engine is very much there once the car crosses 120 km on the speedometer. I actually wanted to check if it only audible inside the cabin, so me and my friend in his car went out for a drive. He told me the engine noise is not that much outside at high speeds than compared to inside the car. So I plan to put some damping material and see if it makes a difference? Having said that the engine noise is not at all there when the car is idle.

2)The plastic quality could have been better, but it is not all that bad either.

3)I also have the problem of my driver seat going down automatically. In fact while I was driving back to Bangalore yesterday I found that it has gone down by one notch. So I need to get that sorted out.

The top speed that I touched so far was 150 km/hr. I did that while I was driving back to Bangalore yesterday. The engine has freed up considerably. When the car was new it felt as if it had great difficulties to move and the RPM needle took ages to move. I have been very careful not to push the car during the first 1000 kms. For majority of the period I ensured the rpm needle never crossed more than 2.5k.

Modifications Planed:

1)Adding the pete’s kit. I am planning to pete it soon if there are no restrictions that we need to wait till the car crosses 10 k kms.

2)Also thinking if it would look good if I put the chrome strips on the car like that of Linea.

3)I have already put the sun films. I choose the Llumar platinum series. Got 5 years warranty as well. It costed me 4500 for all four windows and the back.

4)Also want to put some damping on the bonnet and inside the car below the dashboard and see if it helps to reduce the engine noise at high speed.

Here are some photos if my car that i have already posted in a different thread.

arun1100 · 28th July 2009, 13:43

Congrats on purchasing a new life partner

MAS · 28th July 2009, 13:59

Congrats on the purchase of the heart-throbbing Punto. It is raining Puntos in Team Bhp.

One question... As you have done a lot of highways already, how did you find the headlights. Were they adequate for highway driving? Would suggest you upgrade to 100/90 for comfortable highway driving.

KuttappanAbhi · 28th July 2009, 14:23

Sridhar,

How was your experiences with the Concorde ? One of my friend who wanted to buy Punto was not happy with them, and had gone to the other one Prerana. They had promised him basic accessories and some discounts on the sun films.

I was planning to go to Concorde in Kochin for my buy, but now confused.

arun1100 · 28th July 2009, 16:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by KuttappanAbhi

Sridhar,

How was your experiences with the Concorde ? One of my friend who wanted to buy Punto was not happy with them, and had gone to the other one Prerana. They had promised him basic accessories and some discounts on the sun films.

I was planning to go to Concorde in Kochin for my buy, but now confused.

Hey go to Prerana on Lalbagh Road. Excellent service is provided. And do mention that you are a member of Team Bhp!! All the sales guys knows about it.

humans · 28th July 2009, 17:28

Not sure whether in reality how many punto and lineas are selling but in this forum they are definetly raining. Congrats for blue beauty.

balajird · 28th July 2009, 18:17

Congrats on your new car Sridhar, please do post pics of internal beauty of your car.

aqualeo2040 · 28th July 2009, 18:20

Congrats.
Hope your B&M issues are sorted out?

How was the trip? Lets catch up some time.

Cheers

jayakumarkp · 28th July 2009, 18:28

Hi Sreedhar,
Congratulations!. . Blue color looks stunning..
Even i am from palakkad.

KuttappanAbhi · 28th July 2009, 18:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by arun1100

Hey go to Prerana on Lalbagh Road. Excellent service is provided. And do mention that you are a member of Team Bhp!! All the sales guys knows about it.

Arun, Thanks For the information. It was for my friend. He went to Prerana and it seems they even offered some corporate discounts, but unfortunately he is not working for the biggies. But he was skeptical since he had heard some complaints about Prerana. I will tell him this and boost his confidence.

And Sridhar, I forgot a Congratulations. Congrats Dude !! Take the best care of her

bejoy · 28th July 2009, 20:38

Congrats Sridhar on your new possession.. Hope you will enjoy the ride to the max...

Quote:

Originally Posted by sridharp77

The top speed that I touched so far was 150 km/hr. I did that while I was driving back to Bangalore yesterday. The engine has freed up considerably. When the car was new it felt as if it had great difficulties to move and the RPM needle took ages to move. I have been very careful not to push the car during the first 1000 kms. For majority of the period I ensured the rpm needle never crossed more than 2.5k.

I too felt while TD that the engine was not revving freely, when i pushed it.

NutsNBolts · 28th July 2009, 21:10

Congrats Sridhar. The true colors of Punto might get tested on leaving Coimbatore for Palakkad. I remember from my last drive to Ooty from Kochi, the roads are plain atrocious, but still my Uno was able to swallow them. By those estimates, I would say Punto should come out with flying colors in Electric Blue!

Sunilrj · 28th July 2009, 21:19

congrats on your Purchase! Punto in many ways is the little brother of the Linea! so all things which hold good for the Linea also hold good for the Punto to a large extent!

1945 Kms on my linea MJD she is as smooth as butter. the engine has freed up quite a bit and whenever i go for a refill the pump attendants always ask me if diesel is the right fuel as the diesel clatter isnt there! if anyone of you is travelling to mangalore PM me.. i will be glad to give u a first hand experience of the noise free cabin! most of the times its just me, the sound of the blower and the Pen drive playing!

For sound deadening and reducing the diesel clatter, do a hardwax coating for the underbody. the 3-4 mm thick black wax not only acts as a sound deadener but also protects against stone hits, scrapes etc. available products - waxoyl, wuerth and i guess 3M

sridharp77 · 28th July 2009, 22:50

Thanks Guys,

@ MAS, The headlight for the highway drive was just about OK. I forgot to mention that, i am planning to change it to 90/100 as i go for long drives quite often.

@KuttappanAbhi, For me the experience with Concorde was good. You need to push the guys a little bit for things to happen.

@aqualeo2040, Oh yeah the highway drive and trip was great. Yes all the blue & me problems have been sorted out. I am now able to receive and make calls using blue and me. Thanks to geeash for sorting out the problems and helping me out. We need to teach manjunath from concorde as how to use blue & me properly

@bejoys, There is a huge difference in the engine response now. I can really feel the difference. It is very smooth now.

@Sunilrj, The engine noise is only there when we cross 100 - 120 in the speedometer. Till then it is pretty much OK. It is absolutely silent when the engine is idle. No noise at all. Some one already mentioned in one of the thread that fiat has not put dampening material as compared to Linea in the Punto, probably it could be because of that. I am planning to use Dymat Xtreme in the bonnet first to see if it makes a difference and then in the area below the dashboard. I will also try the products mentioned by you.

Guys,

Couple of questions can i use the pete's kit right away or is it advisable to wait for the car to complete more kms. What about using the chrome strips similar to the one seen in Linea.

There are some areas where Fiat could have improved. But one statement that i would like to make is that no other car below 10 lakhs (currently available in India) can match the ride quality of Punto other than Linea.

anjan_c2007 · 28th July 2009, 22:53

Congratulations.Nice review for a fantastic car. Happy driving and do keep the posts and updates coming.

28th July 2009, 13:29	#1
sridharp77 BHPian Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 111 Thanked: 40 Times	Another Punto Story --- Diesel Emotion Pack So after a long time I am posting the details of my new car. Took delivery of my Italian beauty Fiat Punto Emotion Pack Diesel (Electric Blue) on 2nd July. It was our wedding anniversary as well so I had specifically instructed the dealer that I wanted the delivery on that day itself. There were some problems about the delivery of the car on the morning of 2nd July but both Manjunath and Hemanth of Concorde made sure that I get the delivery on that day itself. The main reason for the problems was that the car arrived at their yard only on 2nd July morning. This is my fourth car from Fiat. Previously my father had fiat Padmini and 118NE. We still have the Padmini at home in Kerala and have no plans to sell it even though we are not using it that often. I had previously owned the Palio 1.2 sports nv and my brother in law has the Palio Multijet SDX. And for the last 6-7 years of my ownership of Palio I absolutely had no problems with the car. So when the Linea was launched I was very much inclined to buy it but thought let me wait for Punto to be launched and then make the final decision. Primary reason was that we did not want a sedan and was happy with the hatchback. So when the news was out that Punto was getting launched on 17th June, I was very happy. I went to the showroom on 15th June and had a look at the Punto though did not get a chance to drive the car on that day. But we were pretty much decided that this is going to replace my 5 year old Palio. Was totally confused about which color to choose because the car looked good in all of the cars. I wanted to avoid the red color since I was pretty sure that would be the color that majority of the folks prefer. Hence left the final decision to my wife. She liked the electric blue color very much and hence decided on that. This time I wanted to go with the diesel variant and not the petrol one. My old Palio is in the safe hands of my brother and he will continue to use it. So far I have completed 2100 kms in my Punto and I absolutely loved each and every moment of my drive so far. I did two long trips one to Virajpet and another one to my home town Palakkad, Kerala. The trip to Virajpet was wonderful. For those who are familiar with the roads will understand and the road condition has further deteriorated because of the recent rains. We covered the distance (to and fro) in little less than 8 hrs and overall got a mileage of 19.6 km/l. The drive back to Bangalore (via mettur) yesterday was done in little less that 6 hrs (nonstop).Another trip to Palakkad and then from there to Sabarimala is planned in the month of August. Lot has been said about the positives of the car and so I will begin with the negatives. 1)The sound of the engine is very much there once the car crosses 120 km on the speedometer. I actually wanted to check if it only audible inside the cabin, so me and my friend in his car went out for a drive. He told me the engine noise is not that much outside at high speeds than compared to inside the car. So I plan to put some damping material and see if it makes a difference? Having said that the engine noise is not at all there when the car is idle. 2)The plastic quality could have been better, but it is not all that bad either. 3)I also have the problem of my driver seat going down automatically. In fact while I was driving back to Bangalore yesterday I found that it has gone down by one notch. So I need to get that sorted out. The top speed that I touched so far was 150 km/hr. I did that while I was driving back to Bangalore yesterday. The engine has freed up considerably. When the car was new it felt as if it had great difficulties to move and the RPM needle took ages to move. I have been very careful not to push the car during the first 1000 kms. For majority of the period I ensured the rpm needle never crossed more than 2.5k. Modifications Planed: 1)Adding the pete’s kit. I am planning to pete it soon if there are no restrictions that we need to wait till the car crosses 10 k kms. 2)Also thinking if it would look good if I put the chrome strips on the car like that of Linea. 3)I have already put the sun films. I choose the Llumar platinum series. Got 5 years warranty as well. It costed me 4500 for all four windows and the back. 4)Also want to put some damping on the bonnet and inside the car below the dashboard and see if it helps to reduce the engine noise at high speed. Here are some photos if my car that i have already posted in a different thread. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by sridharp77 : 28th July 2009 at 13:30.
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 13:43	#2
arun1100 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 2,087 Thanked: 5,577 Times View My Garage	Congrats on purchasing a new life partner
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 13:59	#3
MAS Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Chennai Posts: 1,940 Thanked: 1,614 Times	Congrats on the purchase of the heart-throbbing Punto. It is raining Puntos in Team Bhp. One question... As you have done a lot of highways already, how did you find the headlights. Were they adequate for highway driving? Would suggest you upgrade to 100/90 for comfortable highway driving.
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 14:23	#4
KuttappanAbhi BHPian Join Date: May 2008 Location: Cochin Posts: 52 Thanked: 14 Times	Sridhar, How was your experiences with the Concorde ? One of my friend who wanted to buy Punto was not happy with them, and had gone to the other one Prerana. They had promised him basic accessories and some discounts on the sun films. I was planning to go to Concorde in Kochin for my buy, but now confused.
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 17:28	#6
humans BHPian Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Delhi Posts: 133 Thanked: 25 Times	Not sure whether in reality how many punto and lineas are selling but in this forum they are definetly raining. Congrats for blue beauty.
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 18:17	#7
balajird BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 460 Thanked: 63 Times	Congrats on your new car Sridhar, please do post pics of internal beauty of your car.
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 18:20	#8
aqualeo2040 BHPian Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Back 2 Bangy Posts: 458 Thanked: 465 Times View My Garage	Congrats. Hope your B&M issues are sorted out? How was the trip? Lets catch up some time. Cheers
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 18:28	#9
jayakumarkp BHPian Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Pune, Palakkad Posts: 207 Thanked: 103 Times	Hi Sreedhar, Congratulations!. . Blue color looks stunning.. Even i am from palakkad.
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 21:10	#12
NutsNBolts BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Jammu Posts: 817 Thanked: 41 Times View My Garage	Congrats Sridhar. The true colors of Punto might get tested on leaving Coimbatore for Palakkad. I remember from my last drive to Ooty from Kochi, the roads are plain atrocious, but still my Uno was able to swallow them. By those estimates, I would say Punto should come out with flying colors in Electric Blue!
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 21:19	#13
Sunilrj BHPian Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mangalore Posts: 773 Thanked: 589 Times	congrats on your Purchase! Punto in many ways is the little brother of the Linea! so all things which hold good for the Linea also hold good for the Punto to a large extent! 1945 Kms on my linea MJD she is as smooth as butter. the engine has freed up quite a bit and whenever i go for a refill the pump attendants always ask me if diesel is the right fuel as the diesel clatter isnt there! if anyone of you is travelling to mangalore PM me.. i will be glad to give u a first hand experience of the noise free cabin! most of the times its just me, the sound of the blower and the Pen drive playing! For sound deadening and reducing the diesel clatter, do a hardwax coating for the underbody. the 3-4 mm thick black wax not only acts as a sound deadener but also protects against stone hits, scrapes etc. available products - waxoyl, wuerth and i guess 3M
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 22:50	#14
sridharp77 BHPian Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 111 Thanked: 40 Times	Thanks Guys, @ MAS, The headlight for the highway drive was just about OK. I forgot to mention that, i am planning to change it to 90/100 as i go for long drives quite often. @KuttappanAbhi, For me the experience with Concorde was good. You need to push the guys a little bit for things to happen. @aqualeo2040, Oh yeah the highway drive and trip was great. Yes all the blue & me problems have been sorted out. I am now able to receive and make calls using blue and me. Thanks to geeash for sorting out the problems and helping me out. We need to teach manjunath from concorde as how to use blue & me properly @bejoys, There is a huge difference in the engine response now. I can really feel the difference. It is very smooth now. @Sunilrj, The engine noise is only there when we cross 100 - 120 in the speedometer. Till then it is pretty much OK. It is absolutely silent when the engine is idle. No noise at all. Some one already mentioned in one of the thread that fiat has not put dampening material as compared to Linea in the Punto, probably it could be because of that. I am planning to use Dymat Xtreme in the bonnet first to see if it makes a difference and then in the area below the dashboard. I will also try the products mentioned by you. Guys, Couple of questions can i use the pete's kit right away or is it advisable to wait for the car to complete more kms. What about using the chrome strips similar to the one seen in Linea. There are some areas where Fiat could have improved. But one statement that i would like to make is that no other car below 10 lakhs (currently available in India) can match the ride quality of Punto other than Linea.
	() Thanks

28th July 2009, 22:53	#15
anjan_c2007 Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: India Posts: 8,325 Thanked: 20,640 Times View My Garage	Congratulations.Nice review for a fantastic car. Happy driving and do keep the posts and updates coming.
	() Thanks