[Ricky_63]

@rahulmd

Very well worded, thorough, well researched & unbiased comparison. Many future buyers may use this as a reference for purchases.

One question. Has Fiat / Tata not improved on the A.S.S aspect ?? I was under the impression that after the success of the Linea & Punto, they had pulled up their socks right upto their knees. No first hand experience, just hearsay, what's your POV ?

Congratulations on your new car.




Cheers

[Jimmy_u]

Excellent Review i must say.

for first time buyers or for ppl who are upgrading to a new car this is the kind of info that would inspire one to make up his mind.

after reading this even a novice would be prompted to run his own comparisons btween multiple car vendors.

end results we get more feedback from the common man and more benefits to all forum members.

Cheers !

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Maintenance cost will be significantly higher for a 63k run Skoda, compared to a new Figo. If your friend is ok with that, Octavia is a very good car for the same price.

Is 63k mileage too much on an Octy? I thought these are capable of trouble free running upto at least 2 lakh Kms.

[sdp1975]

Rahul, that's a very factual , unbiased and well written review for both cars. You have brought out the pros and cons of the Punto and Figo very well.

Wishing you many happy miles of driving in your Figo !

[aditya116]

A very accurate write up i must say.Congrats on getting the most vfm diesel hatch at the moment.
However i beg to differ over a few points.Having cancelled my figo TDCi titanium at the eleventh hour, I got myself a punto MJD emotion.The price difference on road in kerala was 40k but more on that later.
Regarding some differences-
(I bought the car after back to back TDs of Punto,I20,Figo each car TD covering near 50 kms so, i could be as un biased as possible)

However, I found the seats on the Figo slightly better with better under thigh, lower back, and head support. Figo also had better side bolsters. The fabric on the Figo seats seemed to be slightly more hard wearing than the one in the Punto. While the Figo did not have tilt adjust steering, the default position felt quite comfortable.

On the contrary front seats of punto are far better with lots of bolstering,the fabric is also well finished.At rear however figo wins it.head room is noting to write for both but punto has 5cm more for front passengers.Ingress and egress is lot easier in punto.only the positioning of pedals is sore point in punto.

Once you start the engine, in terms of engine NVH, I found the Figo more refined. This could be because of the engine or because of the insulation. But the Figo engine was quieter at idle. Even at cruising speeds, I thought the Figo engine was less audible, with the Punto MJD making a booming sound.

If your test drive puntos were 2009 models then you should try out the improved 2010 version.its a lot more muted now,still boomy under heavy acceleration.in cabin noise is less,you hear very less of outside commotion,horns.It is way better than my fiesta in this aspect except for some tyre noise at speed.(the fiesta in turn is 20% more well insulated than figo in this regard.so you get the idea.

Quality of work done during service at ford's and fiat's authorized dealers are equally bad. I would rather find some independent mechanic who is doing this kind of work out of passion

Ford has improved by miles and their service would be definitely better.

Rounding off you are ending up comparing two cars half a segment apart.even then overall figo comes across as a better package.But if you are insistent on having a car that you will love to bits(interior,Service experience excluded) the fiat figures in a big way.
Case point-I make my routine monthly 300km highway trip to my native place,the route having excellent twisties and long straights.After having driven punto for more than 1000k,I think the punto is the best handling chassis south of 10 lac.Ahead of fiesta in straight line stability,braking composure,and even at cornering.
If you had a budget of 7.5 lacs then i20 magna would have nicely fitted the bill considering your 30k highway running and its excellent mileage(now 6 speed tranny),amazing acceleration,better interiors.frankly neither punto nor figo have grunt to do 130kph all day long.
Regarding the 40k difference I mentioned at start of post, i personally think the premium over figo is justified.

[vishnurp99]

I have found the figo seats/driving position very comfortable in comparison to the punto. The dash somehow hits my knees in the punto and if i pull the seats back then the driving position is not as good. I had a palio previously and i somehow didn't feel the punto's driving seat/interior space was as good as the palio's.

The other big plus of the figo is it's extremely good to drive in the city and not too bad on the highway. I have covered 1750 k on my figo and things have been good till now in terms of performance and FE. I agree the figo is not as refined as the fiesta(it's close enough and maybe it will become better with more kms) but the puntos that i have travelled were not close too. Fiat/Dealership only has itself to blame if it gave me a 2009 punto to testdrive in april 2010 when i had taken testdrives of these cars in the chennai traffic+GST road. I won't be surprised by the way in which the sales guys/managers were trying to convince me to go for the manza(interestingly it happened in both the chennai and kerala dealership). Maybe they did give me an old punto to TD.

[SinghBHP]

@RHULMD : WOW man , simply awesome, wonderful what a writeup , what a comparison, simply put in perfect words. I am a fan of GTOs reviews however your was nothing less and it really floored me. Keep it up and Congrats in Advance for your New Purchase.
@GTO : As always you are the best in summing up things , I completely agree with you - " FIGO is VFM "

[Deep Blue]

Excellent comparision. I felt justified for having chosen the Figo!. I was in the same dilemma, but the 1 lakh price difference made my head to win over the heart. But each time, I see the Punto my heart is well, achy breaky heart!. My only consolation is my father-in-law has the Punto, so can always exchange with him whenever my heart demands it.
Aside from that, since you have a heavy highway usage, maybe the Punto would have been better choice.
My grouse with Figo is, it has absolutely no road presence, feels like a puny little old zen.

[johnjojo08]

After going a long trip in punto and a short trip in Figo, I feel Figo has got much better ergnomics and interior comfort than Punto..

[1000bhp]

Wonderful write up Rahul. Really liked the way you penned down everything.

Even I am planning to buy a new hatch and since past couple of months I had punto, punto & punto in my mind/heart. But after viewing your post and couple of others (like Raj's), I guess its time for me to test drive Figo as well...

[drrajasaravanan]

Hi,
Nice review. I have test driven the fiat punto. Neat vehicle but the space was not acceptable to me. I have not driven the figo yet. Anyway congratulations on your buy and cheers to you to add many more trouble free miles on your new buy.
Cheers.

[Utopian]

Certainly interesting review, rahulmd. With a deluge of modern hatchbacks in the Indian automobile sector this was but expected. The heart goes for the Punto while the head screeches Figo.
As someone else pointed out if you have a budget of 7.5 why not wait for Punto Sports with 90bhp on tap. Punto would then be able to take even i20 CRDi hands down.

[Brix]

Wow - very nicely written. I wish I had done so much research, I just went with the flow.

But end result is the same and its a happy ending.

Congratulations. More than saying well spent, I'd say well saved. 1 lakh is a lot of money.

[headers]

The Punto is sexy man, whichever angle you look at it. Take her for a date and you'll fall in love once again.

The Figo dissapoints with its uninterrested dealers as well as the LLLOng waiting period. Period.

The Punto Sports sounds interesting.

[teefosi]

Great comparison rahul. Even I am a big fan of Fiat cars and simply love the punto, its the typical italian flair. Nobody can beat italians when it comes to designing. But Figo no doubt is a great VFM proposition.

Also why dont you try the Race dynamics tuning box instead of Petes plus its cheaper as well.