Anyone own a grande punto …. views please … looking at replacing my nissan primera with something alot smaller as the kids are leaving home now 😀
Max budget 3k

Good cars. The 1.2 and 1.4 are good and carried over through the ranges.

Just make sure its not exdriving school or teenager (skimped on services) owned.

Pretty good. We have the diesel 1.3 version with a 6 speed box, so it’s like having a proper grown ups car in a small package. Quite a lot of turbo-lag below 2500rpm, but not a problem once you are used to it. I’ve put it through 3 MOT’s now and only had 1 broken coil spring on the first one as a fail, and that’s more likely due to the state of the roads. Only real issues with it have been an ECU/injector programming problem when a duff battery went proper flat in the very cold winter a couple of years ago, but that was only a 45 quid repair on the Fiat diagnoistic thing.

Solid build, decent interior, (apart from the colour, but we didn’t choose that) We had a mk2 punto before this one, which was also ace and I’d buy another Fiat on the strength of these.

Only negative comment is, if you live in the North West, don’t use Mangolettsi near Knutsford for service. Wouldn’t give them the steam off my p…

Fix It Again Tomorrow…

The previous gen Punto had problems with the electronic power steering failing, the cars were still driveable but you needed arms like Schwarzenegger. The current (Grande) Punto has reports of the same problem, plus various other issues.

Best thing to do is take a look at the Grande Punto forum.

Show me any secondhand car that doesnt have occassional bill outside service.

Fiats can be negligected as people tend to see it as cheap transport so skip services.. but then arent Fix Or Repair Daily

Read a forum for ANY car and you get to see all the problems. People only post there for help when they have a breakdown don’t they, never, ‘well it got me to the shops fine today’.

Granted the 1.2 engine in the mk2 did have a proper issue with the head gasket at 40k miles, I’d assume they’ve sorted that more recently though.

I’ve got a 07 plate 1.2 Grande Punto, which I downsized to from a 1.8L Mondeo.

Not quite as roomy inside as the Mondeo. But comfy enough for my 6’2″ frame with size 13 feet!

When I bought it a few months ago the garage replaced a rear spring which was gone. Just last week a spring on the front went! That’s probably due to the state of today’s roads more than anything to do with it being a Fiat.

For bike carrying purposes, if I take the wheels and seatpost off the mtb, it will fit in the back with the rear seats folded down. However for convenience I opted for a Saris Bones 2 rack, which fits the rear hatch quite well.

The car is a bit on the slow side going uphill on a motorway compared to my 1.8L mondeo, however it’s a lot cheaper to run!

Pleased with mine!

Fix Or Repair Daily

F***ing Old Rusty Dustbin, I think you’ll find. 🙂

Take a look at Molgrips’ Passat if you REALLY want to see how to throw money away on a car.

Don’t like the wife’s 1.2. Underpowered, cripplingly unconfortable on long journeys, massive blindspots, loads of elictrical gremlins, knackered first gearbox at 20k miles…etc, etc.

Is pretty good on fuel though-easy 50 mpg.

briani looking at your stats. Are you hung like a Shire Horse? 😆

Ms S has a 1.2 08.
Replaced a mk2 which died at 100,000 miles plus (yep, head gasket/warped head).

Comfy, cheap to run, handles well, plenty of space, best looking small hatch ever. 🙂

Downsides?
Brake servo a bit strong, noisy at speed, slow.

at least their engines turn off, unlike some passats…

The sidlow alfa garage was part of several franchises, and the guy there reckoned it was the passats and not the relatively new 156s that were giving them the most trouble.

And the electric powered steering issue is I believe on a general recall across the ranges for a software update (the daughters Fiat 500 threw up steering fault not long after she had it at 2 years old). I dont think that they are any worse now than any other modern car with too many electrical bits and bobs on them. Give me manual windey windows and simple electrics over modern flakey stuff!

i had a mk2 punto with the 1.3diesel engine, did 65000 miles in it, no problems at all, the engine is superb, smooth, quiet, plenty of oomph, rest of the car was good rather than superb, with a fair bit of road noise.
best thing i can say, i would buy another.