Best Driver's Car!. Review on Fiat Grande Punto

Update at 32500 kms:

Second big service done at Mohandas Motors Trivandrum, good service and service engineer (Jayakumar) was very supportive and knowledgeable. Tried max speed of 165 kph without any probs the next day while driving from TVM to Bangalore. Took 11 hours to cover 732 kms, with 2 hours break! Overall 18.6 kpl ! Cost over all - Rs. 7850/-.

Car is very stable and  continues to keep all good points and clutch/gear is smoother now, pick up seems good enough as i'm used to the torquey-driving now. recent home trip and associated travels returned

ileage of 21.7 (Trip A for 330 kms) and 21.6 (Trip B for whole to and fro - 1380 kms) including my rough n spirited driving - it had returned 23.1 on my gently onward journey.

Recently a bike hit car from behind on high speeds(seems drunk!!) and the biker suffered some serious injuries too (luckily survived all) and Punto's just amazing; only a small scratch on bumper and minor dents on back of the car. the Yamaha bike got severely damaged. The crash-guard cracked my tyre's side-wall and cost me a new tyre though.!! Really impressed with strength of body!

Looked at various cars for couple of years or more and finally bought a Fiat GP Emotion Pack (Diesel) Nov 2009. Medium Grey. 30000 kms completed by Aug 2011. On road costs me below 6.9 L incl rev camera, anti glare sunscreen, upholstery upgrade.

I wanted a fun-to-drive, VFM car with decent interior space for 5, boot space and SAFETY. Initially thought on diesel Emotion for budget.But I felt the ride quality in E pack is better, weighted the cost differences (55k), and finalized to buy the Emo pack. For this 55k you get: wider & bigger (195xR60x15) ALLOY wheels, Auto Climate Control, Blue & Me, USB, steering mounted controls and of course Air Bags => sheer VFM above Emotion.

My concerns were on: (1) A S S (2) Spare parts costs& availability AND (3) Resale value.

1)After Sales Service experience till now goes fine for me: FIAT has separate team of service personnel in each TATA-FIAT centre.Also FIAT customer-care will gather feedback from owners regarding the quality of service post each service.

UPDATE on A S S:My car had a break-down at 9500 kms odometer reading due to oil leakage in clutch slave cylinder -> gear shift was not possible further. I called FIAT road side assistance & TAFE Access Coimbatore. Again TAFE Access played a wonderful role; 1) towed up my car to serv. stn, 2)parts replaced under warranty, 3) fluid levels topped up (where ever needed), and 3) even a vacuum cleaning upon request==> all these again at a ZERO cost!! I'm really satisfied with TAFE Access Coimbatore; My experience records with Kulathunkal is not so good- just average.

2nd service at 15k  done, costed Rs.6500 bucks replacing fuel/ac/oil filters etc; cost seems bit high (50% more) compared to Marutis?? not sure.  Now clutch has become lighter and gear became smoother and so is the ride bettered.

Spare parts costs seems to be reasonable and comparable- brought down by FIAT. Availability seems to be ok with TATA sales/show rooms all around. FIAT also offers care in the form of 24 x 7 support and  warranty of 50 months.

Resale value - FIAT India posted profit in 2010 first 6 months and if the case is continuing like this with Linea and Punto steadily moving up the value chain, I expect it to grow better further. (too early to think about selling my beauty, I wish to own it life long :-) )

Positives:

1. Drive quality is excellent - good Ride and handling, and cornering ability.

2.Comfortable front seats. Back seats also good though not to the same level as front ones, ample interior space for front and back seat compartmentsin my opinion, good boot (dickey) space for a week end outing (280 lts).

1. Hydraulic Power Steering feedback is confidence inspiring. it feels like it weights acccording to speed. gives good control & feedback. not as light as in HC.

   
   




2. Torque is useful to avoid frequent gear shifts, once you are used to that it isgood in cities. 197nm.

   
   




3. 1.3 CRDi engine is frugal as usual-> about 12-16 in city and 17.5 - 21.6 in highways.

   
   




4. Good brakes, decent head lights and fog lamps, good audio (blaupunkt).

   
   




5. Dead/False pedal support for left leg-good for long drives.

   
   




6. Apart from initial two gears, the car is not under powered (after 1700 rpm) even with 5people inside.

   
   




7. AC with Automatic Climate Control. All control knobs placed in easily accessible places. Electical ORVM (fine adjustments only) is nice.

   
   




8. Safety - EURO NCAP 5 star rating (top end) and even sides/front designed to minimize collision impact to pedestrians.Dual stage airbags usually found in high end cars only! Even seat belt releases in 3 stages! height adjustable seat belts. Fire prevention system(cut off fuel-supply in case of fire), Immobilizer etc. Note : Check euroncap site for details.

   
   

11.Decent sound insulation (i have tried upto 140 kmph) and stability at high speeds.

12.Gizmos/ Features: 'My Car' system -> gives useful information-like Which door/boot is open, alarm on crossing max speed set, Blue & Me - wow!, steering-mounted audio controls, speed volume (auto adjust volume accord to speed)->7 onboardECUs playing wonders in it, USB etc.

13.Solid body build quality & long service/ oil-change intervals. Feels the frontside/bonnet is longer and safer in the segment. 14. Adjustable high/low beam, good rear wiper. defogger etc. No rattling.

Negatives:

1. A pillar reduces visibility in city driving. 2.Turning radius big but not a problem after 2-3 weeks. 3. Could have utilized interior storage space in a better fashion for bottle holders; bad glove box design, awkward positioning of usb drive.

   
   




2. Clutch travel is bit high, in city drives your left leg will pain some times, could have bettered it - but I enquired, there is no scope for improvement on this as it is hydraulic. (Seems bit improved after the set is changed recently). Now after second service this is solved. also gear shift is smooth now.

   
   




3. Reversing the car is not easy thanks to visibility from driver seat! (fixed a reverse camera from Xenos - rs 5000 after disc.) - this was only during initial phase. Not a problem there after.

   
   




4. Dull interiors - could have given bright interiors and centre arm rest - not even in top end model. => Seat cover myself got it tailored to need with Beige color and compensates to an extent.

   
   

7.Plastic (interior) quality is a mix of average, gud &poor. Dashboard/door plastic quality is good.

1. From past few months I feel a small rubbing sound when running over humps, and clearly I feel it is not the under-belly, but a very slight plastic-kind of sound comes out,  guessing this is related to sump-guard or! but not a scaring rub, you feel kind of a soft brushing, only some times.

I'm overall satisfied and happy with this wonderful car.

All new (Mar 10 onwards) variants of Grande Punto cars are BS IV emission norm compliant and the first batch from June '09 are BS stage-III. The two new colours Tuscon Wine and Foxtrot Azure are really nice (rs. 5000 extra) and so is the White Punto - my personal opinion :-)!

My rating of GP : 8.5/10