Having just sold my humongous Mondeo Estate I'm looking to downsize to a Punto.

I'm about to view a 04 plate 16v Dynamic, 5dr, 30k. Its being sold by a mechanic on behalf of a friend/client, so obviously I'm a little suspicious seeing as he could easily cover up a major fault.

What obvious faults should I look for? Have been advised the 18mth old exhaust has a small blow on the centre section, other than that no issues. Is there any likelihood of rust on the Punto? Its spent the last few years living on the coast.

Also, is there an easy way to identify if it has ABS without smacking the sellers forehead on the windscreen, and also how to identify its a 16v? The seller is claiming both…I'm a little suprised about the ABS as according to Parkers, the spec was updated during 04 to add a passenger airbag at the expense of ABS, so either Parkers is wrong or one was ordered as an extra.

Finally, I'm assuming you can get a couple of bikes in with the seats folded and wheels off?

16v? Open the bonnet and look at the engine. If it's got a nice wide head with the spark plugs coming out of the middle, it's probably a 16v. Or it might have 16v written on it!
Most cars are 16vs these days and have been for some time 🙂

ABS? Turn the ignition on but don't start the car and have a good look at all the red lights on the dash. I think there should be an ABS warning light.

Otherwise, check the tyres carefully for general condition and uneven wear that could indicate suspension problems. Whip the dipstick out and look at the colour of the oil. At that age/milage it should be pretty clean. Sight down the body panels and look for ripples or 'different' paint finishes that could indicate crash damage.
If you can get the reg in advance, you can check out the MOT history online, too…….

More when I think of it! 🙂

electrics electrics electrics.

get some one to operate lots of lights whilst you check them for the outsdie – blown bulbs not a problem but brake lights flashing with indicators – reversing lights with brake lights – dashboard lights with brakes/ indicators/fogs etc are all issues – mostly due to damp behind the rear cluster!

it's a Fiat – what will be right with it??!

Stick your fingers through the wheels and have a good feel of the brake discs. I'd expect a bit of wear, but again at those miles, they should be pretty decent and free from scoring. Worn discs = lots of town driving @ 30k
Have a look underneath and check that blowing exhaust. Hopefully toy won't be needing a new CAT. Get a price for all the seperate bits of the exhaust before you go, and haggle the price for the bit you need off the purchase price.
Check the going rate (Parkers and what they are selling for on Autotrader) for that car at that spec. It might not be as cheap as you think it is, possibly.
Check the spare tyre and jack/toolkit are in place.
Have a good look at the wheels – Marked/chipped alloys indicate careless driving (I hate to say this, but having come from the coast, with those miles, it might have been driven by an old person who can't park!)

MoT check here, it's very useful

http://www.motinfo.gov.uk/

what should you look out for? Rain.

Thanks all. Its on for £2795 but will accept £2500. I just stuck the reg into a data check and it came up as an Active 8v (basic model). If its an Active that means it won't have the aircon or electric mirrors, these are listed but Autotrader auto fills these details based on the model you select.

Exhaust still has 6mths warranty so hopefully can be fixed free.

If its an Active 8v then it no longer stands out from the rest so probably won't bother viewing it as there are loads around…

If its an Active 8v then it no longer stands out from the rest so probably won't bother viewing it as there are loads around…

That's called having your head screwed on the right way round! Well done.
Do the groundwork on the interweb, before wasting time and fuel looking at millions of cars you don't want.
😀

My missus always had Puntos when she was nursing, she used to do lots of miles driving from village to village. None have been in the garage apart for services until recently when a wire came loose rendering the electrics useless.
Shes always had the basic models, her current one is the 1.2.
I use it now and again for getting to races and I'll often have two bikes and kit in it.
Two blokes two bikes last weekend on a trip from Bedfordshire to Blenheim Palace and back averaged 56MPG.
I don't really like driving it much though, my cars a Discovery. But common sense tells you it's all you need.

FIAT is an abbreviation for Fix It Again Tomorrow

My brother owned a similar one from new. Put 65k miles on it over the 5 years, nothing went wrong with it (except being side-swiped by a lorry on the motorway). Replaced with a Grande Punto which he's very happy with.

My family has had a Fiat of one sort of another for 25+ years and they've been good for us. All the old pub-car-bore BS about electrics and the like is ancient history.

Fiat were one of the first manufacturers to fully galvanise and offer anti-perforation warranties. These days everyone does – I certainly wouldn't expect any 5 year old car to show any signs of rust, unless there's badly repaired damage or some design flaw that lets water collect.

Oh, and even my Cinquecento could take two people, two bikes and some kit so a Punto will be fine. iirc it's just a front-wheel-off job in the Punto, no need to take back wheel off too.

Thanks all. The guy called back and it is a Active 8v. No problem with that in itself, but combination of 40 minute drive, him a mechanic selling for someone else, lack of accuracy in advert etc has put me off.

Its surprising that even with a facelift and three years difference in age, prices only seem to vary by about £500. Its making it difficult to justify an older 2001 model!

Its hard to accept it but a Punto is definately all we need, reason for buying a smaller car is we have a 6 metre Iveco Daily nearly-campervan parked outside clogging up the street 🙂

And living up to expectations as ever, STW has come up with 12 replies whilst a seemingly active Fiat forum is completely silent!

Its a Punto. Why are you considering buying one? Its totally different to a Mondeo (Im no fan but understand they steer, feel and handle ok).

You can pop the door lock through into the door frame with a firm (but not that firm- its scary how little pressure you need) tap with a screwdriver to knock it out of its round housing. Then your in. Friend of mine gave up locking hers after it was done repeatdly. They are light- wouldnt like to see how they fair in a crash test either.

Why downsize soo far down from a mondeo!?!!

If it has to be a Fiat- get a Panda.

Hora,

We have on street parking, after 5pm you cannot park. We bought the Mondeo as we needed the space, but having a huge van now means that its redundant. We used to have a Citroen ZX which you could shoehorn into a space about 45 inches longer than the car, the Mondeo with its longer wheelbase needs much more. Even during the day, parking is tight and most people own small cars round here, so most spaces that are available are still shorter than a Mondeo!

Also, having £5000 of car sitting out there whilst people bounce off the bumpers all day isn't that great!

Suggestions for a small car with good safety rating, twin airbags, ABS and less than 7 years old for £2500 gratefully received. Punto fits the bill (4 star NCAP – Hora, the current/non facelift was several years ahead of all the other superminis in this respect), Fiesta is also a contender but I only like the current model which tends to be £3000 with high mileage. Clio and 206 are showing their age and have a crappy driving position

FIAT is an abbreviation for Fix It Again Tomorrow

FORD = F..king old rusty dustbin
LOTUS = Lots of trouble, usually serious

ETC….

🙂

FORD – Fix Or Repair Daily

Another reason we sold the Mondeo…the two faults that afflict the model year we had include injectors (minium £1k fix, and the dreaded dual mass flywheel…another big repair bill)

Do FIAT still sell their cars with a mysterious piece of grey plastic loose in the boot for which a purpose can never be found?

Might have to check for that.

😉

My Mrs used to have a 2001 8v Punto. You can easily get 2 bikes and people in. The 1.2 will do nearly 50mpg on a run. We had it when we lived on the coast in Cornwall, and sold it to my Mum 4 yrs ago (who also lives on the coast). It has never needed any work, has no signs of rust despite now having a nice scratch on the rear wing from Mum catching a granite post. I really likes it when we had it.

We once did a trip from Cornwall to the Lakes, 2 adults, 1 baby, all the kit for a week and my bike on the back. It was comfy for the journey, ticked alsong the motorway just fine and still returned 47mpg.

I had an 04 punto for a while as the mrs was learning. Problems with central locking. With regards
to the exhaust. If it's the original they are cheap one part exhausts. You will have to change the hole lot if it needs repair.

I got a 2 litre tdi now. Happy days

Do FIAT still sell their cars with a mysterious piece of grey plastic loose in the boot for which a purpose can never be found?

Might have to check for that.

Enlighten me further 🙂

Enlighten me further

'Tis a bit of an urban myth thing with car enthusiasts, based on their 'variable' build quality.

The modern cars are much better than they were but they do still have quite a few Friday afternoon problems.

I used to do a bit of work on the side a few years back delivering new cars to people or picking them up from ports etc and I always found Puntos a little restrictive in the pedal box.

We have on street parking, after 5pm you cannot park. We bought the Mondeo as we needed the space, but having a huge van now means that its redundant. We used to have a Citroen ZX which you could shoehorn into a space about 45 inches longer than the car, the Mondeo with its longer wheelbase needs much more. Even during the day, parking is tight and most people own small cars round here, so most spaces that are available are still shorter than a Mondeo!

Also, having £5000 of car sitting out there whilst people bounce off the bumpers all day isn't that great!

Suggestions for a small car with good safety rating, twin airbags, ABS and less than 7 years old for £2500 gratefully received. Punto fits the bill (4 star NCAP – Hora, the current/non facelift was several years ahead of all the other superminis in this respect), Fiesta is also a contender but I only like the current model which tends to be £3000 with high mileage. Clio and 206 are showing their age and have a crappy driving position

I'd avoid the Ka. Not a fan.
Panda- Not sure on the NCAP rating- but its fun to drive
Yaris (Im not a fan) but I guess they are too expensive anyway

Ka, just that bit too small, and the Yaris and Panda are over budget. Need to keep some cash back to finish the camper!

Spooky if you are looking at FIATs then you may as well look at Citroens. Slightly (ever so) better build quality than FIATs but due to the manner at which Citroen sell them (lots of cashback offers etc) they initially depreciate quite badly which makes second-hand ones excellent value.

C3 is about the equivalent size-wise to a Punto but C4s are pretty good value at the mo too.

Ok Korean:

Daewoo Matiz
Kia
Or:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/200938341921902/sort/priceasc/search-target/usedcars/make/chevrolet/price-to/3000/maximum-mileage/up_to_60000_miles/maximum-age/up_to_5_years_old/engine-size-cars/1l_to_1-3l/page/1/radius/100/postcode/m32df?previous=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Fusedcars%2Fpostcode%2Fm32df%2Fradius%2F100%2Fmake%2Fchevrolet%2Fprice-to%2F3000%2Fmaximum-mileage%2Fup_to_60000_miles%2Fmaximum-age%2Fup_to_5_years_old%2Fengine-size-cars%2F1l_to_1-3l%2Fpage%2F1%2Fsort%2Fpriceasc&anchor=advert200938341921902&logcode=p

Or…
Suzuki Wagon R (yum)
Suzuki Alto

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/200937341488202/sort/priceasc/search-target/usedcars/make/suzuki/model/wagon_r/engine-size-cars/1l_to_1-3l/maximum-mileage/up_to_60000_miles/price-to/3000/maximum-age/up_to_5_years_old/page/1/postcode/m32df/radius/100?previous=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Fusedcars%2Fpostcode%2Fm32df%2Fradius%2F100%2Fmake%2Fsuzuki%2Fmodel%2Fwagon_r%2Fengine-size-cars%2F1l_to_1-3l%2Fmaximum-mileage%2Fup_to_60000_miles%2Fprice-to%2F3000%2Fmaximum-age%2Fup_to_5_years_old%2Fpage%2F1%2Fsort%2Fpriceasc&anchor=advert200937341488202&logcode=p

Another Punto owner here.

Clutches can start to judder after about 35K+ miles, especially if the car has done a lot of town driving. (£400 to replace)
Power steering motors are also a bit dodgy. Owners on the Fiat forums have complained of power steering failures on cold (winter) days when full left lock is applied. Thankfully full lock is almost always used at low speed so this isn't a potentially catastrophic hazard and a restart of the car resets the PS motor. Apparantly the fault lies with the fairly inexpensive sensors not the whole steering column that some Fiat dealers will try to replace for you while relieving you of £600.
My local Desira dealer once returned the car to me after a full service with the air cleaned hanging askew. They'd broken one of the plastic mounts that's actually part of the carburetor casing. (A siezed bolt, I found.) They wouldn't acknowlege responsibility but would be happy to take £450 to replace the carb with an intact mounting. I declined and made my own spring clip which works perfectly.

Other than that the car has been great… but I'll never buy another.

old Seat Ibiza.

essentially a Polo underneath. i had one (1.9d, very economical), mate's got one (1ltr petrol, bit gut less but goes) and his sister has one too (not sure on engine).

amongst all three the in the last four years the most expensive thing to go wrong was me sticking petrol in mine; and that only cost me £70 to fix.

solid little cars. cheap to run.

mine didn't have split rear seats, my mates did which meant you could get three bikes, three people plus kit inside.

picked mine up in good nick for £1200. used to get around 60mpg on the motorway.

Second Alpin, check out some Ibizas. I've had ours ex-demo since 2003, still going strong, never had a single problem with it. They drive much better (firmer suspension) then Corsas, Fiestas, Micras, etc. I've tried.

We've got the wee sewing-machine engined one (1.2l, 3-cylinder!) and it's still great (easily cruises at 80mph on the motorway and hoons up and down the BIG hills round here).

stevemcd – Have you seen that old style Seat Ibiza (pre-VAG) in the Bourg area that is painted up like the Starsky and Hutch mobile?

My Punto is shite.

As already mentioned,the power steering is prone to failure.

Fiats don't have the best rep but getting better.

Review here:

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/index.htm?md=95

12th place in 100 cars for reliability and we're not talking the good side of the 100!

Mondeo mk3 has 1-3 main faults including the inlet manifold but the mk2 is excellent.

We've got the wee sewing-machine engined one (1.2l, 3-cylinder!)

Does it have a 'thrumm' to it though- abit of character? 🙂

meh – I've had a 2001 Punto for 4 years, it sits outside my flat most of the time and doesn't get the regular running that would do it good, but I've not had a single unexpected problem. The exhaust went a couple of years back, but I got a KwikFit number on it; and each winter the battery starts to struggle a bit due to the aftermarket alarm, but I'd recommend buying one. They're surprisingly spacious inside, too!

had a v reg punto (so older model) for about 9 years – sounded like tractor, but 1.7 diesel engine was pretty much bombproof. No rust or majopr problems other than the clutch slave cylinder had a failed seal at one point.

Things to watch out for:
rear bushes – common for them to fail – was easy to get replaced on mine

sticky solenoid on the brakes when you first started it, meant that for about 30secs after starting the brake pedal was very stiff – made for interesting starting of a morning

was sad to see it go. but arrival of doc jr put paid to a small car

could get 2 bikes in the back with the wheels off and seats down easily

I'm not really interested in cars and have a two door punto its red and i think a w reg.I've had it about six years and find it takes two bikes and kit for two easily.
It's been fine for reliability and is easy and fun to drive .I've just done a thousand miles in a week from motorways to single track highland roads.

The cold weather full lock power stearing failure is real but you learn to anticipate it and it only happens infrequently.

Possibly be careful of the radiator. Major design fault on the engine of the more recent punto was that the drain point on the radiator doesnt allow the system to drain properly. This leads to air locks and the head gasket warping. Have a friend whos gasket just had to be skimmed cause of this, she was lucky it wasnt a new engine. That was on a 2000 model though so may have been fixed by 2004, might not. Worth checking that out before you buy one!!

I'd recommend a Yaris, even if it is a slightly older one, it will no doubt be cheaper to run. The thing I always think with second hand cars, is that if it is cheap, it is for a reason. That is why Yaris' and Fiestas cost more, as they are better cars.