Fiat Grande Punto 1.4 8v Eleganza

For me personally, the best car on this planet, lol! Beautiful styling inside and out, ridiculously comfortable, plush seats, very well equipped: excellent dual-zone climate control, Bluetooth with built in USB socket, electric mirrors, parking sensors, a brilliant stereo. Everything as standard. Feels very reassuringly safe, with 6 airbags, ABS with EBD, and the knowledge of a 5 star Euro NCAP rating. Great to drive, with a good gearchange, excellent brakes, excellent handling, and a lovely engine. It feels like a little rocket, lol!

I consider meself very lucky to own this, and I intend to keep it as many years as possible!

Gavv8 said:

This car actually makes me feel angry, its as though it was designed simply to appeal to people who supersize everything they buy.. as long as its big that's all that matters.
Every time I see one it has one spacesaver spare wheel fitted and the other three are some god awful Halfords multi fit rubbish... nasty nasty ebay led running lights and about ten kids in the back... the driver is always wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and his partner is wearing a Lonsdale tracksuit and a Croydon facelift.
I know people who own them and they have had problems that I've never even experienced on 70's british Leyland junk that I've owned.
Its a style free wasteland of a car and I'd rather crawl than ever have to be transported anywhere in one of these criminal waste of metal and plastic..... how dare Vauxhall foist this crap on the public..how bloody dare they!!!

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I feel as though vauxhall is what happens when people who have no interest in cars are forced against their will to design cars.

There are the odd signs that maybe one or two don't spend their days clock watching and watching videos on YouTube. The astra sport hatch perhaps and the Corsa nurburgring strike me as examples of when the engineers turned up to work but the majority of the company appears to be made up of clock watching accountants.

It's not that they just make ordinary cars it's that they don't even seem to try, at least a mondeo or a focus will handle well, a vw will have excellent percieved quality, a mazda will be oddly sporty for no particular reason, a vauxhall will be beige.

All French cars should be burnt at the docks. Apalling build quality, cheap plastics everywhere and electrics that make Fiat look quite good.

StevenRB45 said:

I feel as though vauxhall is what happens when people who have no interest in cars are forced against their will to design cars.

There are the odd signs that maybe one or two don't spend their days clock watching and watching videos on YouTube. The astra sport hatch perhaps and the Corsa nurburgring strike me as examples of when the engineers turned up to work but the majority of the company appears to be made up of clock watching accountants.

It's not that they just make ordinary cars it's that they don't even seem to try, at least a mondeo or a focus will handle well, a vw will have excellent percieved quality, a mazda will be oddly sporty for no particular reason, a vauxhall will be beige.

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I would take a Vauxhall over a ford or a Peugeot any day, lol!

puntofan01 said:

I would take a Vauxhall over a ford or a Peugeot any day, lol!

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Other than "Low rate finance" name one thing vauxhalls do better than anyone else....please.

StevenRB45 said:

Other than "Low rate finance" name one thing vauxhalls do better than anyone else....please.

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Look good on council estates..

The Mk3 Corsa and Mk5 Astra are still very good looking cars. I haven't driven an Astra, but I remember the Corsa being good to drive.

Corsa 1.3 CDTI 93ps S Eco Flex - 12,62 plates.

I drive these often at work and I have to question as to why people genuinely would spend money on it.

Plus points - performance is sufficient and erm.. Well not a lot else.

The engine continuously sounds like it's got ball bearings firing around and that you will get some repetitive injury from the vibrations coming into the cabin from the steering wheel, pedals and gear stick.

The suspension is so ill conceived. It constantly scrapes the ground on curbs as its lowered for Eco reasons. At the same time the springs are soft and dampers to hard so you get this strange up and down movement 3 or 4 times after going over a bump.

The steering is to light and the rack is to quick fooling you into thinking its a sharp handler until you realise it's lurching around and wobbly. The back end of the car goes light when braking causing the ABS to quick in.

Door locks creak, the gear change is like a stick in a bucket of pebbles setting in concrete, seats are shapeless and flat, dash is bland and still uses the dot matrix display from early 90's Corsa's, road noise is frightful.

Everything about the car is horrid.

puntofan01 said:

The Mk3 Corsa and Mk5 Astra are still very good looking cars. I haven't driven an Astra, but I remember the Corsa being good to drive.

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The Astra is a definite step up from the Corsa - I have driven of the current model 1.6 petrol vvti and 1.7cdti.

Recently been driving an Insignia 2.0cdti automatic. I quite liked it and was surprised it's fairly decent to drive however fuel economy is dire and engine noise van like at all revs.

JimbbobW1977 said:

The Astra is a definite step up from the Corsa - I have driven of the current model 1.6 petrol vvti and 1.7cdti.

Recently been driving an Insignia 2.0cdti automatic. I quite liked it and was surprised it's fairly decent to drive however fuel economy is dire and engine noise van like at all revs.

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From memory, the Corsas weren't as good to drive as my Grande Punto, but a huge amount better than the Peugeot 206 I drove, lol!

puntofan01 said:

From memory, the Corsas weren't as good to drive as my Grande Punto, but a huge amount better than the Peugeot 206 I drove, lol!

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The Grande Punto had better sorted suspension. The 207 a dreadful car also had a few 1.48v courtesy cars. About on par with performance as the 1.2 GP ie bordering on dangerous!

JimbbobW1977 said:

The Grande Punto had better sorted suspension. The 207 a dreadful car also had a few 1.48v courtesy cars. About on par with performance as the 1.2 GP ie bordering on dangerous!

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That engine was soo good it was replaced with a 3 cylinder 1.2...which develops 10% more power despite still developing less power than a 1.2 16v fiat managed in 1997...

I remember when I was younger when my neighbour past his test, he drove his parents MK1 Punto 1.2 16v sx I think it was 85bhp I thought that thing was rapid.

Mind you it was a light car and in old Fiat style an engines you revved.

Saying that though, when Ford released the 1.25 Yamaha engine in the mid 90s that was an amazing perky engine that was quick, drive one now in its current state in 59bhp tune in the current Fiesta it's awful.

JimbbobW1977 said:

I remember when I was younger when my neighbour past his test, he drove his parents MK1 Punto 1.2 16v sx I think it was 85bhp I thought that thing was rapid.

Mind you it was a light car and in old Fiat style an engines you revved.

Saying that though, when Ford released the 1.25 Yamaha engine in the mid 90s that was an amazing perky engine that was quick, drive one now in its current state in 59bhp tune in the current Fiesta it's awful.

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The one in the current base fiesta is detuned in original spec it was 73bhp in a lighter car. I actually had one as a courtesy car years ago when my 1.2 16v punto was being repaired after a crash. It felt a lot less "brawny" than the 86bhp fiat, longer gears, more weight less torque.

Euro stage emissions and extra saw the demise of the rorty small 16v engines that were fun to rev.

Though saying that, I do think the 1.0 Eco boost in the Fiesta now is a fun engine sounds good and is quick. Fuel economy isn't the best driven quickly though. I would the imagine the twin air is a lot of fun with the same low fuel economy though.

JimbbobW1977 said:

The Grande Punto had better sorted suspension. The 207 a dreadful car also had a few 1.48v courtesy cars. About on par with performance as the 1.2 GP ie bordering on dangerous!

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I'm sure their not that slow: my 1st car had 796cc engine, and that did the job just fine, lol!

JimbbobW1977 said:

Euro stage emissions and extra saw the demise of the rorty small 16v engines that were fun to rev.

Though saying that, I do think the 1.0 Eco boost in the Fiesta now is a fun engine sounds good and is quick. Fuel economy isn't the best driven quickly though. I would the imagine the twin air is a lot of fun with the same low fuel economy though.

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My Grande 1.4 8v is surprisingly nippy, given that it's a relatively low output for a relatively heavy car. Its actually a lovely engine to have: like my old mk2 Punto 1.2 8v, it's keen to rev, and makes a nice noise, and is capable of good economy.

I understand that your happy with your cars performance, however at the same time I also know that you have driven very few cars.

Having driven a wide range of different cars from various outputs of BHP - the most I think was a track day Lamborghini some car are very much lacking in movement of a safe margin such as joining motorways etc.

My first car was a 2001 Ford Fiesta 1.3 Flight with a 59bhp asmthhaic engine - I thought that was quick at the time!

JimbbobW1977 said:

I understand that your happy with your cars performance, however at the same time I also know that you have driven very few cars.

Having driven a wide range of different cars from various outputs of BHP - the most I think was a track day Lamborghini some car are very much lacking in movement of a safe margin such as joining motorways etc.

My first car was a 2001 Ford Fiesta 1.3 Flight with a 59bhp asmthhaic engine - I thought that was quick at the time!

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I must admit, I never found the Daewoo to be dangerously slow. After all, we are talking about modern superminis, not a Citroen 2CV or an early 1980s diesel, lol!!

With regards to your 1st car, you do have my sympathy, lol!!

JimbbobW1977 said:

Euro stage emissions and extra saw the demise of the rorty small 16v engines that were fun to rev.

Though saying that, I do think the 1.0 Eco boost in the Fiesta now is a fun engine sounds good and is quick. Fuel economy isn't the best driven quickly though. I would the imagine the twin air is a lot of fun with the same low fuel economy though.

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I've not had the benefit of a go in an ecoboost yet but I have driven a twin air. It was enough to make me think downsizing is not actually a good idea. If you discount the pie in the sky test figures for mpg and co2 are small turbos actually progress? They are very good at producing low figures on a treadmill but most people don't commute on a rolling road.

Real world the twin air and even the ecoboost seem to not compare particularly favourably to their predecessors. So the twin air real world mpg about 40-45 (although my day with it yielded 33mpg), 80bhp, a characterful/unpleasant noise depending on where you sit in that argument. Rather inflexible driving characteristics, it won't pull from low revs, can get caught off boost and only really pulls to 4k despite revving to 6. 1.2 16v from 1998, 86bhp, 40-50mpg, and is physically impossible to get it down to low 30s. Also will pull from 1k all the way to 6.5.

I'm failing to see the progress, most downsized engines seem to have the same real world economy or worse than a conventional engine if the same performance. I'm sure people will mention emissions but it's all lies anyway, most eco cars will produce multiple times their quoted emissions of various harmful gases if your daft enough to actually test them in a real world environment. I saw a program where they stuck an exhaust probe in a touran while it was driven normally it produced not only more than the quoted figures of nox it was 2 or 3 times the limit required to be legal for sale in the E.U.