Fiat Punto Review

Fiat Punto belongs to the hatchback car segment, most ideal for the middle classes section of the consumers. The Italian carmaker Fiat introduced the Punto in India in 2009. In fact, much before that the car maker unveiled Punto at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2005, so one would wonder why the delay for its launch in India.

Fiat actually followed a definite strategy that of strengthening their dealer network all over the country and the success of this variant in rest of the world motivated the company to unveil the Punto in India as well.

New Features
Fiat Punto is the product designed by the famous Giorgetto Guigiaro in coordination with Fiat Style Center. The third generation Punto follows its predecessor Linea in quite a few ways and the bold hatch looks very Italian, which scores better than other hatchback variants available in the market. Most of the switches and controls are inspired by the Linea to make Punto cost-effective and suit the competitive pricing. The sporty seats and leather enabled steering wheel offer great comfort while driving on long journeys. The dash is well laid out and is rather simple in terms of design. The almost perfectly designed car truly represents the Italian style by offering great space, comfort and of course great visibility.

Interior and Exterior styling
The Fiat Punto follows most of the interior styling from the Linea, the grey and black combination interiors reminds of its sibling. The plastic finish is neat and you can see the Punto logo imprinted on the seat covers and the mats. The CD Blackpunkt music system is enabled with six speakers. The adjustable driver seat ensures the driver to be sit comfortable and the tilt enabled steering wheel makes driving much more hassle-free.

The Punto basically is designed over the SCCS platform, which a joint venture of Fiat and Opel engineers in Turin. The car fascia has a prominent chrome finish front grille with Fiat logo right in the center in red and silver. The headlamps are in leaf shape and extend until the front fenders. The external features of the Fiat Punto are bold and stunning that make up for an impressive design.

Engine
The Fiat Punto has a small line-up of variants and the two petrol versions come with a 1.2 litre and 1.4 litre enabled engines and the diesel engine version car can hold 1.3 litre of diesel, which are all based on the multijet technology.



The 1.2L petrol engine Punto is available in the Active model that gives a power output of 68bhp at 6500 rpm with a torque of 96 Nm at 2500 rpm, 1.4 L petrol engine variants are Dynamic, Emotion and Emotion Pack that generates 90 bhp at 6000 rpm with torque of 115Nm at 4500 rpm and the diesel variants are available in Active, Dynamic, Emotion and Emotion Pack that gives a power of 76bhp at 4000 rpm with maximum torque of 197 Nm at 1750 rpm.

At 90bhp Punto is billed as the most powerful hatchback among the current crop of same segment cars.

Instrumentation
The instrument cluster of the Fiat Punto consists of four dials that features digital odometer & trip meter, which shows you the two trip time. The wide windshield offers great visibility but the rear windshield is smaller that could cause problems while parking in narrow areas.


Variants, colors, price
The Fiat Punto has a line-up of ten variants that are available in the following colors: Bossa Nova White, Exotica Red, Minimal Grey, Hip Hop Black, Medium Grey, Electric Blue, Tuscan White and Fox trote Azure. The following will give you price of each variant. These are; however, ex-showroom prices of Delhi.

- Grand Punto 1.2 Active: Rs 4,36,189
- Grande Punto 1.2 Dynamic: Rs 4,68, 015
- Grande Punto 1.2 Emotion: Rs 4,98,953
- Grande Punto 1.3 Active: Rs 5,20,517
- Grande Punto 1.4 Emotion: Rs 5,49,444
- Grande Punto 1.3 Dynamic: Rs 5,54,473
- Grande Punto 1.3 Emotion: Rs 5,98,154
- Grande Punto 1.4 Emotion Pack: Rs 6,08,879
- Grande Punto 1.3 Emotion Pack: Rs 6,55,232
- Grande Punto 1.3 Emotion Pack 90 bhp: Rs 6,89,411

Opinion
The fiat model cars have definitely come of age and Linea did pretty well for the company though the engine performance of the Fiat cars are not really up to the mark but Punto seems to be quite a tough competition to other brands in the hatchback segment in terms of style, comfort and value for the money.