The extra weight of the cabriolet made the torquelss 1.2 struggle most of the time. The Punto 75 five door was quicker and it weighed roughly the same. The 16V Cabriolet is the only Fiat I have ever had to use a crawler lane in. Including my Panda 1000 with a spare engine in the back.
I can appreciate and understand that emission laws dictated the end of the 128 based 1.6 engine but they could have waited and fitted the 1.6 16V from the Bravo/Brava or even the 1.8 HGT (Bravo/Brava HLX).
My 1.6 Sporting was superb. On my commute I'd pull away from traffic lights in second, short shift to fifth and stay there for the rest of the drive home. 30, 40, 50, 40, 50, 60, 70, 60, 40, 60, 40, 30 the only time I would need to brake or change gear was if I had to overtake someone. Best of all because I didn't have to down shift or "rev' the guts out of it" I managed near fifty mpg consistently.
My neighbor had a MkII 16V six speed and it was a joke. The older 1.6 Sporting would walk away from it while the MkII would make a lot more noise and went a lot slower. An unfair comparison as the MkII Punto handles terribly compared to the MkI (a good 5-10mph slower per corner) but I didn't know anyone with a MkI 16V at the time.
The 1.6 engine was great and I wish I'd stuck to the plan and fitted it to my X1/9 as because the best engine in the best handling chassis would have been unbeatable.