I bought a Punto Grande Active new in late 2010. It has not been a success story! I have found the car cheaply made and often suffers from poor design. ...just try changing a headlamp bulb! I had a clutch thrust washer issue not long after purchase, poorly fitting doors, rear door handles that you feel will come off in your hand, engine breather hoses failing (so fumes come inside the car) and recently both rear window 'regulators' (or winders as we would call them) have failed and Fiat's quote to replace them? £525!!! The owner's manual is incredibly poorly written (English version) and hard to follow. The car has probably lost 70% of its re-sale value in 4.5 years so one good feature of the Punto might be that it should be easy to pick up a cheap one! I quite like the styling and ride but wouldn't buy another! The VW Polo was just out of my budget when I bought my Punto but really wish it was the car that I owned now! ...stick with your 500, at least they look cool!
I've had a 2010 Grande Punto for two and a half years now, and fair enough there have been a couple of electrical issues but for the most part it's never missed a beat: the interior's great, it's really comfortable, stunning to look at, fun to drive, pretty nippy, very well-equipped for its spec, spacious, robust, incredibly safe, really practical with a big boot and low fuel consumption, plus the insurance is very well priced and the running costs are low, which should be the single fundamental attraction for a first-car buyer; plus it's easy to drive, and the clutch, brakes and steering are comfortably light.
The GP doesn't necessarily have the build quality of a Volkswagen Jetta, but when you consider it's in the same kind of price range as a lower-spec Citroen C1, you would genuinely have to be mad to buy something else. Personally I've found the general design to be quite inspired (with a few daft Italian features like the scuttle draining on the alternator - a simple fix) and I've never struggled to change a light bulb on mine - frankly if you have, you probably shouldn't be driving anything larger and more powerful than a golf cart
People forget that the good significantly outweighs the bad
Engine breather hoses are a serviceable item like your exhaust, and a cheap and easy swap. If you happen to be unlucky and get a car with dodgey rear window winders, the solution is about £30 worth of parts and a couple of hours work. I've never even used the manual, but it's hardly a good reason for not buying a car. They do depreciate quite quickly to a point, which as you said is probably a very good thing for a first-car buyer.
Best first car out there in my opinion, just make sure you buy a good 1.4 8V and don't overspend. Of course people on a car forum are going to congregate and whine about their problems, it's not a very good representative of the entire population - they should've checked the car out more thoroughly in the first place. The GP is much better looking than a 500, more practical, plus if you choose one over the other they'll probably have the same (if not worse) problem set. Go for as late a model as possible, as they'll have tweaks that weren't on the earliest Grande Puntos, and aside from that stick to the general rules for buying used cars.
Rant over, sorry about that
I'd regard the opinions of those who are satisfied with their cars in better light myself, although don't ignore the others of course - just learn from them
Make absolutely sure you buy a good car though, as the lemons can be bad (like, really bad, as we've seen). Look after it and it'll look after you
