Fiat Grande Punto Test Driven

Visited the nearest showroom of Grande Punto today. Checked out the diesel 'Emotion Pack' Version on display which was 'Exotica Red' in colour. This colour is really a head turner, beautiful Ferrari Red, which makes this car look even more gorgeous. Even the alloy design is nicely paired to the meaty 195/60 R15 tyres. Sad that this tyre size is available only in 'Emotion Pack'. The 'Emotion' model gets 175/70 R14 tyres with steel discs, with 165/80 R14 Tyres fitted to base 'Active' & middle versioned 'Dynamic'. As for prices - on road mumbai are as follows:-
Petrol : Active 1.2 - 468574/-, Dynamic 1.4 - 544662/-, Emotion 1.4 - 590093 & Emotion Pacl 1.4 - 652554/-
Diesel 1.3 : Active - 566242/-, Dynamic - 601449/-, Emotion - 646874, Emotion Pack - 709337/-

Observed following about the car - The front end is really very captivating with head lamps, protuding nose & grille making a strong impression. Metal Guage of body panels feels heavy duty & reassuring as far as safety is concerned. 'Bosch' Wipers are really works of art by themselves which also work perfectly as i experienced during my test drive. Interiors quality is better finished than that of the linea with controls & switches of good quality. Steering Wheel is sporty & good to grip, espcially with leather wrap. Gear Lever felt tall & shift action is typically fiat 'notchy' which owners of Fiat cars will be very well aware of. Instrumentation is old fashioned & not very modern to look at. Front Bucket seats are comfortable with height adjustment for drivers seat. Rear Seats are not so great comfort wise & seating 3 well built passengers will not be very comfortable. Boot space is very good with the exception of rear suspension mounts coming in the way. Parcel tray was found in this version, which looked very flimsy & weak. Rear tail lamps are cleverly integrated into the body. Found the reverse lamp to be single & oddly located in the rear left side of the bumper with fog lamp on the right side.
Since only diesel 'Emotion' version was available for TD, had a good go at it. It was a Silver colour which is the same as Linea. Just as i got in the car it started raining heavily, which let me have an idea of how those beautiful works of art (Wipers) would perform. They did so brilliantly with water been channeled out quickly & effortlessly with deathly silence. As i had experienced earlier with the diesel linea, the very same irritating turbo-lag was very much present, which really kills the mood & driving pleasure. The car seems well sorted on the suspension side & the tyres gave excellent grip given it was really pouring & i was doing 120 comfortably which i stretched to 140 & then discretion took over coupled with the anxiety of the dealers sales rep & his trembling voice telling me to take a 'U' turn & head back to the showroom. On turning back decided to let him drive while i took the back seat to find the rear seat comfort with the drivers seat adjusted to my liking & as per my height (6'2"). Found leg room very compromised in this position & was uncomfortable for me to sit. Even whilst getting out from the rear door my feet fouled with the front seat frame mounts & trims of the 'B' pillar. Space is a constraint for tall people to get in & out from the rear. Got into the front passenger seat & found my right knee banging against the centre console of the dashboard! Had a little listen to the ICE provided with 6 speakers which sounded very good with adequate bass & clarity. All in all keeping the pricing in mind, i think this car will sell very well, especially the diesel version, with the 'Emotion' version being the most sought after. This car for sure will steal the thunder from the Honda Jazz & from Indica/Palio too.
The dealer also informed me that all versions are available within a period of 3 weeks, with diesel versions being available sooner.

Mixed reactions on diesel really confuses me. How would you rate the acceleration vlad? compare with Swift.

I feel Emotion pack is priced high.

The engine is good but you have to wait for that surge in power which kicks in post 2200 rpm. Other than that its a decent motor. Swift diesel is geared differently which makes the difference. If you call 'Emotion' priced high, what about the Jazz, which i find ridiculous!

Threads Split.

VT

Turbo kicks in post 2200 RPM? but the torque figure says that maximum torque is available at 1750RPM?

diesel GP really is not getting that perfect reactions nor review which makes it to buy, mixed ones as CC said.But again what was expected GP which would be spacious, but isnt so, now let me go and check in few days what really this car is for a person 6"1 like me and overall package.Vlad no pics.

Even I am getting confused about the diesel Punto's performance. Is it good or bad? Even I have to check it out. But CC, since you own and drive a Swift diesel, IMO you will be able to give the exact performance of the Punto. Why don't you go to the Fiat dealership and have a look..

165/80 r14?
it should have atlesast had 175/70 r14

Vijay, as it was pouring heavily, there was no way i could click some pics. Sorry mate! To top it off, after getting out of the car at the showroom premises my feet fell straight into a puddle of oil, which was really disgusting to say the least. Took me half hour to clean my feet thoroughly of the dirty burnt diesel oil which surely must have come outta some tata vehicle! Speaks volumes of the Tata Showroom, that they pour discarded oil straight onto the ground As for the confusion regarding the turbo-lag, if any one you has driven the linea 1.3 MJD, then you will know what i'm talking about. Yeah space is quite inadequate for 6' & over people to get in & out of the rear if the front seats are also occupied by tall people.

"165/80 r14?
it should have atlesast had 175/70 r14"
Naps, the 175's are available on the 'Emotion' Pack, read what i've written earlier.

i read that bro, but it should have been common for all the models, not only for the emotion pack, 175 to be common and 185 for the emotion pack, trust me, it gives the car great ability to perform as well as in its looks

Its always the case with the car manufacturers, they want to cut corners at any opportunity so thats what has happened here too with the tyres.

very bad that even fiat is doing such things..tata and all doing this is ok but fiat being such a good company and after making such a good car, it steppedback at tyres

its all about cost cuttings mate and profits, dont expect that too many from Fiat bro.

Reducing tire sizes for lower varients is a practice of almost every manufacturer in India. Though I don't understand how much cost can one save reducing the size of a tire.

not more than 1000-1500rs dude, in civic all the variants have same tyres, only alloys arent given in the base model

1000 rs a tyre is a lot for these companies.
With Honda city selling around 3-4000 units a month in India.
i.e. around 40k cars a year.
they save around 40,000 x 5 x 1000 = 20,00,00,000.

Who wouldn't want a saving of 20 Crores a year on one car only.
And not to forget they offer 5 different cars.

But then, they can increase the price slightly to offset their loss, which they wont do unfortunately.

me and vijay just checked out punto. we both liked the car. detailed review and pics coming soon.

Petrol or diesel? Waiting for it . Post As Soon as possible.

ok guys here we go, we went to check out new GP multijet top end model emotion pck, the colour we had was exotica red, looked stunning with superb paint finish.

Waiting for the review and pictures, bharat and vijay

Isnt it kind of unsafe to make cars with small tires, I mean scientifically it reduces tota surface area and that might affect the traction?

sorry for not updating on the review till now, my net connection was failed for these days, will do it today eve.Thanks.

Fiat Punto, typical fiat name which quite few people couldnt pronounce it rightly but this time the company is making market hotter with their launches, new hatchback which all were waiting to see from fiat after their much success from linea.


We were able to test multijet topend model with stunning exotica red is what the company calls it, looked superb and one of the best paint finish seen so far.Built quality is nothing to say for fiat cars as well as plastics which though werent of the best notch but admirable.
Start the vehicle and you do hear multijet making noise, not much but is heard as being diesel,gear shift is superb and easy to move, go past second gear and you start getting edible noise from the tyres inside the cabin, must say this vehicles incabin insulation isnt that great if expected, very much noise is heard inside the car, even its auto Cc controls if kept on higher side makes very hard noise which is noticable.
This multijet isnt tuned like swift which takes over and zooms pass everything, easy going diesel motor, which gives you a 76PS power is good enough to ride through city traffic as well as highways.

I was expecting a complete review like Jazz's. Post more pics if you have and give a detailed review, i f possible.