[funkykar]

Welcome to Punters Club!

Somehow I was not confident of Fiat India at all. Today I saw the thread of Fiat India slowly making profits and some more New Fiat Threads here too.

Seeing these developments I feel the current situation of Fiat in India is something like this!

[gopikb]

Newpunter, Welcome to the Punto club. Always feel happy as we see more Puntos on Bangalore roads. Drive safe and crunch many miles with your beauty

[Newpunter]

So after a little more than 2 months of driving, what are the things that i like and what are things that i dont? ( I have already mentioned these in the Punto test drive thread, but it is better to have it in my own thread too )

What I don't like :
1. The Foot well is very cramped. Initially, my foot used to touch the dead clutch as well as the steering column regularly while pressing the clutch. Got used to it now and is no longer a problem, but this could have been better.

2. Turning radius is huuge and almost sedan like. I take care to take my bike out when I have to visit places that are likely to have cramped roads, but the turning radius is a problem when taking U-turns or small turns on narrow roads. Ofcourse, it is not a big deal if the traffic is light, but if there is a lot of oncoming traffic and you need to take a U- turn, get ready to get embarrassed.

3. The interiors and plastics are not the best around. The interiors aren't that bad. Infact, I think they are quite good, but they are not in the class of the I10 or the I20. There are gaps in the panels , but its not that big a deal. The plastics are of lower quality. The bonnet lever, boot lever, fuel lid lever, etc are very flimsy and feel like they might break with some force ( although it hasn't happened yet) . That said, I don't think it is that bad as people have made it to be, but it is something FIAT can look at improving.

4. Visibility is not the best around. The pillars are thick which means that the visibility is hindered both at the front as well as the back. The ORVMs are quite good though and do their job well.

5. No electrically retractable ORVMs. Although they can be adjusted electrically, it would have been better to retract them electrically, especially in the traffic chaos that we have. Again, no big deal though.

6. No ABS and Airbags. I could live with no Airbags ( although they are necessary too ) , but FIAT should have atleast provided ABS in this version, especially since the other Emotion variants have ABS in them.

7. Parking is quite difficult due to the turning radius and the heavy steering, especially if you need to park in small spaces.

8. The 2nd gear is very short. When i first drove the car, I couldn't believe how short the 2nd gear was. It was practically useless. You just change from 1st to 2nd and then immediately to the 3rd. With a little running however, the 2nd gear has opened a bit and now I can run a little in the 2nd gear too and its not that bad. However, it could have been better.

9. The interior light is useless. I think they could have provided a better light than the one they have provided right now. It doesn't provide too much visibility.

10. Ground clearance is not in the class of the Marutis, although it is not too bad. There have been 2 occasions where i was negotiating a bump and the bottom scraped the ground. I had negotiated one of those bumps without any problem in a Swift before.

11. Mileage wasn't a big consideration when i bought this car, but I think it could have been better than the 10.2 - 10.3 i keep getting consistently, considering that other cars with similarly sized engines generate more power and give better mileage.


Ok, here's what I like about my car :

1. Looks looks looks. I think i have already said this many times, but I am absolutely in love with the looks of the Punto. I think it can give cars costing twice or more , a run for their money in the looks department.

2. Ride and Handling. I have driven only a few cars ( 800, Swift, Wagon R, Indica ) but I found the Punto's handling to be superb. It just soaks in all the bad Bangalore roads without any problem. The ride is very comfortable and i don't feel tired after driving for a long time ( not that i have taken any long drives so far ) . The Steering feedback is also very good and i can take turns at speeds higher than i could dare with my friend's Wagon R or the Indica. The seats are also very comfortable.

3. The boot space is very good and you can take a lot of luggage without any problems. The foldable rear split seats is another advantage.

4. With the exception of ABS and Airbags, this car has got all the features necessary like front/ rear power windows, central locking, immobilizer with rolling code, follow me headlamps, front/ rear fog lamps, rear wiper, service reminder, speed warning, etc.

5. The service interval of 15K kms means that i wouldn't need to visit the service center very frequently for getting my car serviced.

Next up, various incidents and expenses since owning the car.

[Vik0728]

Awesome Acquisition Newpunter and many Congrats for the same buddy.

Black is arguably the Best of the Colours and hands down my All time Favourite. If there is one thing that can enhance this Drooly Colour, its gotta be the Punto!!

Newpunter, Unlike many here, I probably would be visiting this post only for PICS of the Black Stud now ! Coz I probably don't need convincing on how good a Punto is.

[ancientmariner]

Originally Posted by Newpunter

Then i checked T-BHP and found out that this was a feature with FIAT and that i had to turn the key back completely before trying to restart the car. Phew.

I ran into the same issue at the same place !!. But thankfully i was doing a TD of the Punto and the sales guy mentioned that this is a 'crank protection' feature and that you had to turn the key all the way back. In my initial days of driving the Punto, I kept forgetting this but now used to it

[motor spirit]

hey new Punter ..congrats again ..great write up !
waiting to read more

[Newpunter]

Ok I think i have stretched this thread long enough without posting any pics. So before people start kicking me, here come the pics :




























If anyone wants any other specific images, please inform me in the comments so that i can take those pics and post them ( will take some time as wifey is away and has taken the camera with her . Also explains how i got the time to create this thread ) .

Also, could only find one image of the interiors and that was when I hadn't still removed the plastic covers . Will remember to take more pics of the interiors of the car, the next time.

[PaddleShifter]

Ownership thread without pics= Cake without cream
Nice review and congrats on buying a "Tank". I love this car. I too have this "tank" in White color. Planning to come up with my own thread soon. Do post some pics.

[AvonA7]

Congratulations Newpunter!
Recently I bought my first car and 1.2 emotion pack Punto was also in my list and almost went for it but finally opted for another car.
Would just like to say onething, twice, daily I see Punto in my apartment garage for the last 6 months but I never get tired of her looks, daily I`ll look at her once while going to office, I like the looks of Punto as much as the car I own, especially the 3rd pic from last - the best looks if not the best presently.
Wish you many many happy miles and pleasant ownership

[Newpunter]

Now that i have got the pics out of my way, here are a few incidents that happened since i bought the car.

24th July 2010
My wife woke up in the morning and told me that she had a dream that our car had an incident where it got a few scratches. Being the rational guy like always, I shushed her and told her nothing was going to happen. We were going to watch "Inception" on that day at Fame Cinemas , Forum Value Mall. The movie was for 10 AM, so we had to start early. The whole journey was without incident. We watched the movie and picked up a Biryani at Biryani Zone while returning. When we reached home, there was a Swift parked near the place where i normally take a turn to go into the parking place. This is an approximate diagram of how it looked.



Instead of asking the guys to remove the car, i thought that i could squeeze the car into the gap, forgetting about the turning radius of the car. The problem was that there was another car parked just ahead of the gate , inside the parking area. I was trying to squeeze the car in the gap and was looking at the car ahead and completely forgot about the wall. Before I knew, my car was had contact with the wall. The CD player was running and I couldn't hear my wife shouting from the outside to stop. By the time i realised, the damage was already done.

The car was stuck and the Swift guy came and removed his car , before i reversed the car and checked the damage. There were around 4 scratches on the rear door, upto 50 cms in length and a small dent on the rear quarter panel. My heart sank. My wife was almost in tears. I had to console her that i would get this repaired soon. She was sad for the whole day. I couldn't see the car in this state either and enquired at Carnation and KHT motors for the cost of repainting. Both gave a quote of around 5K and finally, I got the job done at Carnation as I felt they had better facilities for doing the painting. The cost came to around 4500 Rs and the car was good as new. The dent was gone and the whole rear door and quarter panel had been repainted.

However, there was one more issue to be resolved and this pre dated the scratches. I park my car in an open area, as can be seen from the pics. One of the houses surrounding this area, was recently repainted with a pink colour paint . I had removed my car from that place when they were doing the painting to be safe, but later during the day, it rained hard and as a result, there were paint spots all over my car. It looked so ugly after that. I didn't get the time to clean it up immediately and as a result, when i tried to clean the spots about a week later, they wouldn't go.

So when i went to Carnation to get the door repainted, I asked them if they could remove those spots. They told me to go for the 3M paint protection treatment which would remove all those spots. However, I was not ready to spend another 3K so soon. So i enquired at the Car Spa at Total Sarjapur Road. They said they could apply polish and make the paint spots go away and asked for 1K and a full day to complete the job. Finally, I convinced myself to go for the 3M paint treatment.

So i left the car at Carnation on a monday morning and went again in the afternoon to check the progress. The guys were polishing the car by the time i went and almost all the paint spots were gone. When i returned again an hour or so later to take delivery, the car was shining like brand new .
The 3M treatment cost me about 3K and this entitles me to another 2 free polish after 5 months and 9 months respectively. But the best thing was that my car was back to looking great.

[avishar]

Firstly a hearty congrats for your Punto,looks stunning in black!(Do you have any intentions of getting alloys later?If so what about black ones )
A very interesting read,the portrayal of your emotions and your wifes regarding the car was heartfelt and i can feel the love you have for your punto!In fact i was immediately disheartened on hearing about the incident at the parking gate.However alls well that ends well.Throughly enjoyed reading your thread,do keep writing more.

A few questions,do you feel the 1.2l is underpowered in anyway?
When evaluating the other cars did you check out the Figo,Micra,Vista,Beat?Because they fall in your budget.

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by avishar

Firstly a hearty congrats for your Punto,looks stunning in black!(Do you have any intentions of getting alloys later?If so what about black ones )

A few questions,do you feel the 1.2l is underpowered in anyway?
When evaluating the other cars did you check out the Figo,Micra,Vista,Beat?Because they fall in your budget.

Thanks. I don't think i will be getting Alloys anytime soon. One of the reasons for getting the Emotion variant was that it came pre loaded with most of the things that i needed. If i go for any mods, it will probably be after i transfer the car back to my name at the end of the lease period.

Regarding the engine, I don't think it is underpowered, but it is not the most powerful I have driven either. You will never be able to win a traffic light grand prix in this car, that is for sure. It is slow to get off the block, probably due to heavy weight. But once it is off and you are into the 3rd or 4th gears, it is no slouch and pulls away quite well. Another thing that most people haven't talked about in this car is the driveability. It is very comfortable to drive in the city due to the short gearing. You can drive in the 3rd or 4th gears for most of the time without downshifting. Having got used to this, i tried the same on my friend's Wagon R and it stalled .

Regarding the other cars, I think the Micra wasn't launched yet when i booked my car , or i would have definitely given it a serious thought. Vista, I didn't consider at all coz it still looks like an Indica and I didn't want my car to be associated to a Taxi brand. But after having sat in my friend's Vista, I have to say that it is a great car and is very VFM. Beat, I did research it, but after I saw it on the roads, i gave up on the idea coz both me and my wife didn't like the looks at all. Figo was one car that was well within my budget and I did give a serious thought about it. But the lack of a few features that i wanted, even in the top variant and the quite bland looks meant that I stuck with the Punto and so far, I am not regretting my decision at all .

[Vik0728]

hey Newpunter, I was just going through the post and realized that the temple in one of the pics looks very familiar.
Is this the Ram Mandir at Jayanagar 2 Block by any chance ? If so, would be great to meet you and your Black Stud in person on one of the weekends!!

[Newpunter]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

hey Newpunter, I was just going through the post and realized that the temple in one of the pics looks very familiar.
Is this the Ram Mandir at Jayanagar 2 Block by any chance ? If so, would be great to meet you and your Black Stud in person on one of the weekends!!

Hi Vik. The temple is a Ganesh temple near the KHT Motors showroom in Kundalahalli. I went there as the traffic is light around it and it was spacious too. I stay in Marathahalli, but we can surely meet sometime .

[sandeepmohan]

Congratulations. You have bought THE most beautiful car.

I am no Grande Punto owner but a colleague owns one, an Active 1.2 and each time we head out for lunch I insist that I want to drive. I have mentioned this same line a 100 times and I am going to say it again. I drive a Ford Ikon 1.6 which is a rocket in comparison to a Grande Punto 1.2 but the joy of driving a Punto gives is simply not matched by any car. And when I say joy its not just about power all the time, its the feel, the way the car looks at you and in fact even all the quirks like the next to dead engine. I found this really annoying but my colleagues car has improved a little after running some 5600km. The engine responds better and the next to dead 2nd gear feels much better. It is actually very use able now to the point that I sometimes slot in to 2nd immediately after the car has gained the slightest movement from 1st & the engine responds much better than when the car had clocked just 1000km. The refinement of the engine is just amazing. I too found the plastics and overall quality a let down but I can now live with it. The car gives so much driving satisfaction that you can forget about the not so great overall quality.

Cheers mayte