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-   -   Beautifully cute Red point! (Fiat Punto ) (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/63678-beautifully-cute-red-point-fiat-punto.html)

Caution: Dramatised contents ahead!!!
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Off course by now least of Spanish that most us know is
Grande (Great) and Punto (Point).

Well this post is all about buying my dream machine!

Till Booking:
Upcoming transfer to Cochin from Bangalore, was eyeing a swift VDi.
Transfer was always just a reason :) always wanted to get behind a diesel swift’s steering!!!

On the 17th June heard about a car named, Punto! Grande Punto!! FIAT Grande Punto!!!
Sigh! Awesome car!!! But FIAT!!! Stay away, said my brain (which is rarely reliable)
The heart said “This is it you dumb head! This is the car. Get your transfer ASAP”

20th July: A post appears on TBHP: Fiat Grande Punto : Test Drive & Review
Well, that pretty cemented it.
“Sorry Swiftie all of a sudden you seemed pushed to the back seat of my mind!”

No other cars were even considered.
20th July: Reported to Kochi office.

For the entire month took test drives at various showrooms:
Concorde, Prerana (Bangalore)
RF motors, Concorde ( Kochi )

RF sales person appeared very friendly, but never bothered to pursue the matter.

27th July at 8.30 demo at my door step!
Approval from Dad and relatives, with a warning! It’s a FIAT dude!

The booking and further:
28th July: Booking amount paid to Concorde, Cochin! Thank you dad!
Booked a GP Red MJD, emotion! Off course, the ever-non-helpful brain said
“Dude!, why Airbags? Why Blue n Me? Just upgrade the tyres to Emotion pack stock” so booked that model.

Did the PDI of the vehicle allotted. All well. Concorde very helpful.

At the showroom:
While I was at the showroom waiting to be accompanied to the stockyard for the PDI, the executive introduces me to a fellow BHPian. Turned out to be a colleague in my own company!
He offered to drop by, was very happy. At that time my membership was still not approved.

Unfortunately, He could not give me company, as he had to complete the formalities of a Vista! How he wished he could buy Punto! He said he was buying Vista for his parents.
All the best dude, if you are reading this! I hope you buy your dream car very soon.

Then were the days of impatience and n number of calls to the executives for the loan and that and this.

Emotion pack or emotion? Million dollar question, kept haunting my heart more than the brain! A decent upgrade of tyres meant 35k. Thanks to FIAT, the alloys of Emotion pack not available till date at Concorde at least. Hence started searching outside and kept spending hours on TBHP.

Called up various tyre shops. Finally, thanks to my heart. Called up Concorde and asked them to upgrade my booking to Emotion pack! Man! Sweat! Sweat!

The waiting:
Thanks to SBI. The loan process seemed to take for ever to complete! 2 weeks I suppose.

Finally the Bold new drive is getting ready. Getting registered tomorrow.
The D day: 18th August

Primary inspirations: GTO’s review and review’s of the owners.
Primary Consultants: Partha, Fareedh and Kowshik (Friends)

PS: Buying a car is exciting! To say the least! Which better place to share this!
I often hear my dad saying “It’s a Punto in his head”

Shall post delivery experiences of my baby, with pics (lol, sounds weird when I say that) and thank you for your forbearance for reading through.

Heartiest congratulations buddy! Waiting to see the pics. Drive safe. What are the accessories planned?

Hey man!... CONGRATS!. Have a great time with your baby!.

Congrats Hrishi,
Now with the Emotion Pack ... there are absolutely no extra expenditures needed. (well, seat covers & tints thats it). The car is loaded and future-proof!

And regarding the Fiat-boogey-man .... well, let's see we will all prove those naysayers wrong.
Fiat has done all the right things this time: cheap spares, wide service network.
Hope the TASS guys learn the Fiat technology fast enough for a 100% satisfactory service.

@ Ajay.

Thank you. With the upgrade to Emotion pack, I am not left with much money.

But wish-list is as follows:

1) Reverse sensors
2) Sunfilm [3M or VKool, on all sides except Frontwinshield for the moment]
3) Tyre upgrade to Primacy LC [very doubtful, as I am not Mr.Columbus on road! :) just city travel and very occasional long drives]

@ neotraveller

Thank you. I completely agree with you.

My clarifications, if Punto Gurus could kindly answer this:

Many owners seem to do the under-body 3M treatment, anti-rust and all that. Read is some other thread on the FIAT manual that it will void warranty as it is already treated at FIAT plants. I'm just confused to the core!

Congrats man. Enjoy the bold new drive :)

Thank you cbzire and Phamilyman.

Congrats on your purchase of the red Italian beauty.Enjoy the Drive.

Thank you sir.

:(

Just got an update that the SBI delayed giving the DD and hence the vehicle will be registered only tomorrow and delivered the day after!

Thank you SBI, you guys literally teach us patience!

Uh-oh. Don't worry Hrishiz, your Punto will be worth the wait :)

Congrats Hrishiz,

Awaiting for a new car delivery is like waiting for GF to come ontime.
Once GF comes, you get exited with her beauty.
Surely the same thing happen while you taking delivery RED GF aka Punto
nail-biting moments i say :)

Hi Hrishiz, Congrats for your new beautyclap:

I wish if I was there in Kochi for this ONAM! No leaves:Frustrati.

Keep Puntoing.

Cheers!

Thank you for all those kind words guys.

@ aks_karthik: Liked the analogy! :)

Can someone help me with my query, i.e:
Whether doing an Anti-rust under-body 3M treament would void warranty?
Also I was told by Concorde that they are yet to get "orders" to fit accesories on Punto! How wierd is that? This was when I inquired about fitting the reverse parking sensors!

@Hrishiz, I am reasonably sure that doing under-body rust treatment wouldn't void warranty. The 3M treatment was recommended by the dealer itself for my Palio and I had done it with thim. For the Punto, I have done DuPont under-body rust treatment.

Regarding accessories, the dealer here (Prerana Motors) mentioned no such thing about "orders". In fact I got them to install Autocop reverse sensors, although they goofed up big time. Seems that 2 out of the 4 sensors are not working, the Autocop guy has promised replacement under warranty.

In one of the threads, there was scanned copy of a manual. There it was clearly mentioned it would void the warranty.

Shall update the link when I get it. But good that you got it from the dealer.