At the end of the day it doesn't matter what you get, all cars no matter what brand break down and will have problems at some point in their lives. Everyone has family members with stories of cars/brands they avoid as they had a bad experience with them. My family have had lots of problems with a BMW, a Porche, Renualt and Ford.
If money isn't a huge problem, go for anything you want! If you are a student and this is your first car that is probably not the case and you want to be a little more careful.
At the end of the day: If you buy a Fiat and it breaks down,.... parts are cheap! If you buy a VW and it breaks down,.... parts are very expensive! Also if you buy a modern car,.. parts often have to be imported or large units replaced,.. again expensive. If you buy a older/modern classic (like the punto) parts are easy to get from local scrap yards or online.
Something to take into consideration.
For my first car I had the choice,.. Fiat Punto 2004 or VW Golf 2005... same price... I preferred the look of the Punto,.. but people told me stories of Fiat quality, people also told me of that VW "german build quality"
However I looked up reviews of both,.. and parts for both and that quickly changed my mind as I was a starting student with a very tight budget.
Hope that helps!