Fiat Punto [2011-2014] User Reviews

Exterior Wonderful design. Nice looks. Smooth contours. 

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) I am associated with the Indian auto industry over 35 years and can give a decent review of the product. Punto is an excellent car with interior good for the money you pay.

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox Engine is super and silent. I was using a Honda city earlier and while riding on highways i could not find any difference in noise levels. i get a fuel average of about 20 to 21 in highway drive and 15 in city, with AC always on. Gear shifting is easy.Clutch is very easy to operate.

Ride Quality & Handling Super. i like every small bit of comfort while driving. easy access to switches, wiper.

Final Words Please buy this car if you are looking for an excellent car. I have driven over 11000 Kms in the last 7 months. No issue what so ever. In fact I enjoy driving this car and it has become smoother than the initial days. Enough power available to overtake effortlessly. It take the speed breakers very easily with four persons in the car. I had to negotiate speed breakers with lots of care in my earlier car. 

Areas of improvement FIAT should market this car better.

Good build, good look, wonderful drive, spacious, silent, fuel efficientWonder why this good car can not be sold in large numbers byFIAT

I had initially booked the Fiat Punto on the day of the launch itself but I have now cancelled the booking after a lot of unforeseen events that happened.

1.The Fiat Trade Certificate for punto wasnt ready with RTO for more than 20 days after the launch.The fiat and the dealer knew this and still they accepted bookings and didn't let their customers know about this.

2.At the delivery inspection, some of the parts of the Punto were really rusted and the Fiat guys its very normal.Whats more, Fiat has not even provided training to Tata service and they didnt know a thing about PDI.My vehicle passed the PDI wven when it had like 7 problems.

3.The rear window goes down only half and the internal beading on the door is pathetic.

4.So, now after all the features that the Fiat Punto promised , I am very scared of the quality of the features provided at a low cost.Just dont want to buy a hollow chunk of heavy steel with low grade parts inside.

5.The fuel economy of the MJD is real low since the weight of the car is higher and the car has wider tires.Also, the refinement is not as good as Maruti MJD.

And after a lot of deliberation with the Tata dealer, finally decided, Fiat has a long way to go before it can handle customers who buy cars in the range of 6-10 Rs lacs, the customer service is pathetic. Hyundai and Maruti really score 10/10 for me.

I really want to buy some piece of mind with maruti/fiat even if they are a bit costlier and Fiat is still in the experimenting stage with Punto.

They need to really pull up their socks.

Regards

Piyush

Excellent Looks, Build and DesignBad Interiors, Bad use of parts

Guys tried the grand punto tdy...in terms of interiors, looks & style no match with any other Hatchback its outstanding...BUT found that its gear shifting was not as smooth as SWIFT Diesel, engine a bit noisy & a bit sluggish during acclreation which might be bcoz that car was only 200km old....probably i need to wait fr some more time to get convinced abt this carInteriors, style, space & looksgear shift, a bit sluggish during pick up

 

I Just wish to put these remarks to caution other buyers before buying a fiat. I heard it from many people that service standards of Tata and Fiat are poor but still bought this car as it had good features. I bought the car from Swan motors Sonipat on 7th july.Problem started with the delivery itself when they did not provide me the bill,that they eventually did when I had to talk to senior tata company managers, after 4 days. Worse still, they did not disclose the full scheme prevailing at the time and even did not give me the free gifts they committed while I was finalising the car. I also hear the stories that spare parts are normally not available for this car, and that the service staff are not fully trained. Given my harrowing experience with this company I just wish to warn my fellow car buyers to be doubly cautious before buying any car of this company.

Car featuresDealer and company's very poor response against customer problem

 

Exterior Beautiful exteriors. Critical driver to impress a buyer.

 

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) Best in space. Very good suspension.

 

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox

 1. Underpowered engine. Should be ok for folks that doesnot drive beyond 135 km/h.

2. Poor mileage. Dont buy this car if u dont have NORMAL roads in ur area. I get hardly 7 - 8 kmpl.

3. I am not satisfied with Gearbox. It is little tough.

 

Ride Quality & Handling  Sucks. I never know when I will crash on the vehicle going in front of me. Brakes go rigid in slow speeds. And Fiat knows the large number of complaints on this. I had 3 embarrassing situations within 2 weeks of purchase. My first drive with my family was a minor crash becos of brake failure. This is a fatal issue in this car.

 

Final Words This car has an under powered engine and has no adequate power required for "power brakes". and results in minor accidents in slow speeds, Every forum has a complaint on this variant. Still, no action seen from Fiat.

 

Areas of improvement Fiat MUST STOP THIS CAR, if they really want to save their brand, I am planning to switch to Punto Diesel which gives all that I get in the petrol version plus good mileage, better power and PROPER BRAKES.

 

Spacious, Good suspension, Nice exteriors and interiorsLousy brakes. Unpredictable brake performance in slow speeds

Dear All!

After a year's research, finally i bought FIAT PUNTO 1.3 Active (minimal grey).

Actually, my research started in december 2008 considering either palio 1.3 MJD or Swift VDI. I postponed my puchase to 2009. By that time, I got news that PUNTO and I20 diesel are going to be lauched. Again I postponed my purchase. After the launch of these vehicles, i kept myself busy in reading articles and user reviews for the first 6 months.

I finally zeroed down to VISTA LE or PUNTO 1.3Active. Both are in the same price range. (I have not considered maruti this time, as I am not impressed with the after sales service back up of maruti.)

Really it is tough to decide either vista or punto. Becos both are having equal plus and minus. Infact vista scores high in the cabin comfort, features etc., But the punto clearly emerged as our family choice when it comes to style and strong built body quality and neat paint finishes.

I got a good deal from CONCORDE CHENNAI, infact I have choice of colors like Black, Blue, Medium and minimal Grey. As my preferred color white is not available, i have selected minimal grey. But truly, all the available colors in punto are excellent.

The delivery process was very smooth and the executive completed his work in a smart way. We took delivery on 23rd as scheduled earlier.

Our first experience are as follows;

External looks: Beautiful

Internal : Comfortable for fron seats and could have been better for rear seats.

Performance: Classic

Build quality: Great

Plastics quality: Average only

The important information I would like to share with you all is that ACTIVE model is not equipped with central locking facility as on date, and the electrical warranty will be void if we install any other centrol locking arrangements. So far FIAT not approved any make for this. I really wonder why FIAT not considered this basic requirement, when they have gone for minute details like providing dead pedal, internally adjustable side mirrors etc.,

Except this out-dated arrangement of locking the doors, everything is above normal for the price we are paying.

Will update after some long drives in January 2010

Wish you all very safe & pleasent motoring

Regards

Ravishankar

Chennai

 

Second review on 25.01.10

Hi,

I took my punto for a pleasent trip to my hometown(200km from chennai).

After crossing tambaram city limits, i just want to show the power of my car to the scorpio (driving zig-zag) preceding me. I just shift down the gear and zooooooomed up, not only the scorpio, but also the other fellow cars in the highway astonished the displacement of my car. The scorpio tried upto 90km stretch in the highway NH45, able to cross me only when i have halted for a tea-break.

Real driving pleasure of PUNTO lies on the highway. The powerful response aligned with solid road grip(even in turns I was at 80kmph) and tired-less driving position, makes not only u alone the happy person, also the co-passengers. The most enjoyed is my daughter.

With very aggressive driving I got 15-16kmpl in diesel version.

Back-at-home, everybody loved the style of the car. And interestingly, the Motor Vehicle Inspector who did the registration, asked details about this car and wished me that my choice was best as on date.

I took 'n' number of test rides with all my friends and relatives there, as everybody couldn't resist the temptation of travelling in this car.

At the end of the day, I was very happy. All the mechanical means are subject to maintenance and related issues. Instead of fearing the possible problems, I have selected this car to satisfy my self than anything else. Ultimately our satisfaction is more important to us than anything else. Isn't it?

Excellent styleNo central locking as on date

 

Exterior A very soild and robust built car. Excellent & very impressive looks. Wide tyres with alloy wheels.

 

Interior (Features, Space & Comfort) Very well designed interiors very convenient to use. Comes with lot of excellent features like Blue & Me which is a very well thought feature that makes your life easy while driving and attending your mobile calls. Tilt adjustable steering & height adjustable driving seat & a decent music system. Electrically adjustable side mirrors are very convenient to use. 

 

Engine Performance, Fuel Economy and Gearbox 90BHP engine is very powerful and can zoom in high ways and even in city driving needs very min gear changes. Very silent and refined engine and smooth gear shifting all these features definitly makes this car driving a pleasure.

 

Ride Quality & Handling Takes on rough roads and handling is execllent. You really feel safe in this car even driving at high speeds.

 

Final Words Its a value for money and I strongly recommend to go for this beauty without any negative thoughts.

 

Areas of improvement Plastic quality of the dash board can stil be improved.

 

Excellent looks, Well finished interiors, Solid build QualitySpace at the rear little cramped

The car is really cool. The looks are awesome. Complete airodynamic shape. It inherits its looks from Linea. As somebody wrote in one of the reviews, "Linea without boot". This title suits. The name Grande Punto in itself gives feel of owning a royal car. I had to wait for an hour for test drive due to customer rush on a busy Pune Weekend. But the wait was worth doing. I testdrove Punto and Vista. Vista is a pathetci indica given by Tata. Punto gives ample of space for front seats as well as for rear seats. If a guys with 6+ height sit on the rear sits, they will fill little uncomfortable. But that case is true with all the hatchbacks available in market. The driving experience was smooth. The pickup for 1.3 and 1.4 was awesome. If given 6.5L, emotion pack gives all the features given by a sedan. Blue and Me gives unbeatable feature over all competitiors present in market. Fiat should have a better partner in India. Tata service sucks. If given 6-7 lacs, I would love to buy the car. It's majestic.Good looks, great styling, aerodynamic shape, best in its class, gear shift is maskaLittle expensive, 1.2 lack variants

Hi Some Time back I visited (Before taking delivery my Ritz)the local Tata/Fiat showroom, The car is Good in most aspects(Better than Ritz honestly). The only issue is for driver space, if you are 6+feet tall this is not the car for you, even if you move little bit front to see the road your head will hit the roof, in indian road condition and traffics you need to often move forward for a better road view or to avoid pothholes. The quality,style,safety and VFM it is surely better than any hatchback available in India... Inside the cabin it is sporty, hot and you can think yourself sitting inside one of the distance cousin of Ferrari... :) You can't avoid thinking of Indica for rear view...Style, Build performanceRear is like Indica's brother, no comfort for 6+feet persons