turboned said:

as you can tell from the sig i had my heart set on one for next year, the sporty mad turbo'd bad boy in black with attitude and fire

then i drove the new civic at the weekend

i'm not so sure anymore, theres a battle raging now, the passion of what could be the greatest hot hatch of all, which has all the baggage of past italian champs on it, vs the utter utter reliablity, competence and sheer awesome breadth of talent of the japanese champ



this next year saving the pennies driving the minicab better be worth it...

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look at it this way, chav or not chav

turboned said:

as you can tell from the sig i had my heart set on one for next year, the sporty mad turbo'd bad boy in black with attitude and fire

then i drove the new civic at the weekend

i'm not so sure anymore, theres a battle raging now, the passion of what could be the greatest hot hatch of all, which has all the baggage of past italian champs on it, vs the utter utter reliablity, competence and sheer awesome breadth of talent of the japanese champ



this next year saving the pennies driving the minicab better be worth it...

Click to expand...

Go Diesel and remap

When will Fiat figure it out? The sport version, which is the only way to get the 130HP (and later 150HP) diesel only comes as a 3 door and with some pretty wild colors, both inside and out. As an older person, I have no great need to drive around in something that attracts a lot of attention and lacks the convience of 5 doors. Fiat is not alone in this, almost all of the rest do the same thing. Have a look at the Focus ST. OK, it's a bigger car, but you CAN get a 5 door version and maybe later a wagon/break/estate as well. Wake up, Fiat!

But you cantget a 5door KA or a estate(wagon)KA can you? The punto is aimed at a particular market and you cant compare a focus to a punto,wait until the new stilo comes out early 2007 & compare it to that.
As for the colours the only way to tell the sporting/dynamic/active/eleganza puntos apart (from the outside) is by the colour of the mans head on the punto badge on the back of the car.

I just see the 1.4 8v dyanmic 3 door at fiat basingstoke and i love it

Better start saving the pennies

Did you notice the mans head(should be silver)? Yep they are nice,motor press(top gear etc)will no doubt slag it off cause its not powerful enough but it will still sell very well.Nice to drive aswell

Bob, can you PM me the address of Basingstoke Fiat please? I want to go and see my car in 2 years

T14086 said:

Did you notice the mans head(should be silver)? Yep they are nice,motor press(top gear etc)will no doubt slag it off cause its not powerful enough but it will still sell very well.Nice to drive aswell

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I wanna see and test drive the 1.9 mjtd sporting when it comes in as that be the one i'd be interested in :yum:

Bob in disguise said:

I wanna see and test drive the 1.9 mjtd sporting when it comes in as that be the one i'd be interested in :yum:

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:yeahthat: Wonder what that will be able to be remapped to :chin:

H2DaE said:

:yeahthat: Wonder what that will be able to be remapped to :chin:

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same engine as the orginal stilo jtd so 170bhp i expect

raton_laveur said:

When will Fiat figure it out? The sport version, which is the only way to get the 130HP (and later 150HP) diesel only comes as a 3 door and with some pretty wild colors, both inside and out. As an older person, I have no great need to drive around in something that attracts a lot of attention and lacks the convience of 5 doors. Fiat is not alone in this, almost all of the rest do the same thing. Have a look at the Focus ST. OK, it's a bigger car, but you CAN get a 5 door version and maybe later a wagon/break/estate as well. Wake up, Fiat!

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You can get 5 door Stilo Abarth's, which are the same sort of size as Focus's. Ford don't do the Fiesta ST as a 5 door, so Fiat are no different with the Punto. Although I agree they should do it as a 5 door.

The new punto got a pretty good review in Top Gear magazine, although I don't think they've tested a proper UK spec car as of yet. It does seem like one of the best cars in its class from what the press have said. Although how do you define what class it's in, is it seen as a smaller alternative to, say, an Astra, or a larger alternative to a Corsa? Seems to be inbetween those kind of sized cars.

please can no one bring some japa C**P in the equation. The italian stallion is a real beauty!!!
The japanese simply have no character simple. And in terms of reliability there is not much in it. So please stop talking about reliability. Nowadays they are so close. Use your instinct to choose a car.
Hopefully my next car when the finance finishes for my punto mk3

The engineering tolerances are tighter than most cars of similar value therefore in theory reliability should be better & panels etc should be of a better fit however as you say I feel as if Jap cars lack that certain something....soul if you like? Still each to their own & the build quality of the croma & punto grande do seem to be of a much higher level

activematt said:

hmmm still not keen on them

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I second that, they could've made them look just a little different from the new corsa, thats coming out in spring now

I'm going to seriously consider one when the Abarth petrolhead edition comes out.

IMHO there are Jap cars with soul out there, i.e. Honda NSX, Honda S2000, NEW Civic, I probably like these cars because of the engineering excellence behind them (eg. for being capable of being revved to 9000 rpm and not compromising on reliability). All Italian cars seem to have character though without really needinn to try, probably just because they're cool, and the New Punto is no exception.

If you want 5 door practicality, but like the 1.9mjtd, then why not get the Eleganza? so it looses 10bhp in standart tune, but it's the same engine, so will do the same with a remap. They're detuned anyway even the sporting, compared the same engine in the Alfa's and continental Stilo's...

When are the semi-auto's coming?

Gav said:

If you want 5 door practicality, but like the 1.9mjtd, then why not get the Eleganza? so it looses 10bhp in standart tune, but it's the same engine, so will do the same with a remap.

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Agreed. For the sake of 6mph off the top speed (academic) and 0.5s to 60mph (i.e. nothing) it makes little difference. And it's more economical. Likewise, it's exactly the same for torque so mid-range shove will be identical. Looking at the power/ torque curves, it's only over 3000rpm where you will be able to tell and even thne it's minute difference...

Gav said:

They're detuned anyway even the sporting, compared the same engine in the Alfa's and continental Stilo's...

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No there not. The 1.9 m-jet engines are all 8v. The 120bhp is the same as all the other 8v models in various Fiat/ Alfa/ GM/ Saab models. The 130bhp is actually a better-spec model than you can get in anything else.

Only the 1.3 models are 16v

Thoguht the multijets were 16v like the 150bhp one in the astra and the 140bhp one in the stilo. Even says 1.9 multijet 16v on fiats own websites.

The normal jtd's were 8v units though.

1.3 multijet 8v & 1.3 multijet 16v(latter kicks out 15 bhp more)