(G) Am I too hard on my punto?

Thats why Ive been through 2 clutches, 2 gear boxes and a clutch slave cylinder in the time i owned a punto

Puntos never did idle well!

I see some conflicting information here.

On the one hand I'm told to change gear around 3500rpm to 5000rpm which would mean I'm doing somewhere closer to 20mph a gear rather than the slightly over 10ish (or 2500rpm) at the mo (at least for changes from 1st, 2nd and 3rd).

Then on the other hand, I read that one person that has been doing 20mph per gear has had to go thru a couple of clutch and gearbox changes because of it (or am I reading that wrong G.Moose?)

So, is my method (2500rpm) going to cause me to need repairs/replacements sooner than the 3500+rpm method?

( Taking into account that this is my first ever car, only had it about 2 months, I really don't know dick about this kind of stuff )

Looks like we all have differant driving styles and techniques! I have hit the rev limiter a couple of times in 1st, often if I don't rag the nuts off it when I go to 2nd its way too slow to pull out into moving traffic. But if I can get to 20ish in 1st then 30ish in 2nd I can at least get into moving traffic without causing a problem to the poor person behind me! Once I am at the speed limit of the road then I'll be in what the highest gear possible to keep revs down.

Hopefully once I have fitted the rev counter I'll have a better idea, I'll drive like I normally do for a day or two and see what revs I am doing, if I end up like this:



Then I guess I am expecting too much from my poor melvin!

The FIRE engines seem prerry robust, I had a 1.2 Punto for 2 years, covered about 17000 miles in it, no serious mechanical failures, and I ragged the nuts off it on a daily basis. Very very very good engine, it was the best thing about the car!

I took my punto 60 sx to bout 40 in second, and bout 60 in 3rd ( on a private road) and ever since my gear box has been getting really bad and now i need a new one!

I think the general theme here is rag punto bits break, looks after punto and rag it, when everything is warmed up, regular fluid changes etc and they can take a fair bit of abuse.

I had a N reg 55s. I did tend to drive hard and once managed to get 105mph whilst driving in France.

Very quick and hardy 1.1 engine, it seemed the more i thrashed it the more reliable it was

Im usually in 5th when i hit 40/45 mph.