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Grande Punto iPunto90's Grande Punto 1.4 T-jet Sporting, Black!

Introduction

Hi everyone! :D

Here's my member motor thread on my Sporting, i'd been looking for a AGP (Abarth Grande Punto for you newbies) and having looked i couldnt find a nice example with reasonable mileage for less than £9000+ at the time so as cool as Abarth's are it was steep so i decided to get a Tjet and make it my own!! So basically heres the story and update!

I bought the car from TJ Vickers from Telford in June 2012 for £5000 with 37,000 miles on the clock! It's so much better than my previous Grande Punto (1.3 dynamic), It looks so much better and was the best looking Sporting i saw whilst looking around, the customer service at TJ Vickers was fantastic, having to travel 2.5 hours from blackpool to get there the salesman put sold signs on the car because of the travel and reserved the car for me! (plug over with).

It's so much better than my old car, insurance hasnt really gone up, it looks alot better being a Series2 with the dark headlights, the silver dashboard, carbon dash surround, new silver dials, the thicker steering wheel and gearstick and of course THE SEATS! It obviously sounds ALOT better than my diesel and the performance is AMAZING from a little 1.4, i've had the car 8 months now problem free and even today the performance amazes me and my friends!

Got BIG plans for it but for now.. Here how it was when i picked it up! (y)


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Here's a few pics of a few modifcations i've made!

Abarth alloys off my last GP which i've sprayed myself in white,
Abarth rear lights,
Abarth Backbox (£100 for 'box & fitted),
Sprayed mirror caps white,
lastly a BMC panel filter which is noticely nippier with!

It definately stands out from the crowd now and sounds awesome! I hope you all like it!! (y)


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Nice car mate, shame you couldn't get an Abarth. (best move i've ever made)
I may have to buck the trend and say I don't like the white wheels and mirror caps.
Personally if you kept the original T-Jet wheels on and lowered it a smidge with the Back 3 tinted it would look loads better.
Maybe even do the wheels in black for the full stealth look. :yum:
 
Quite a nice bargain that! It's hard to find a AGP with the right spec as there's very few about, I always think finding my AGP SS was fate, perfect spec and was for sale just down the road, was screaming my name! ;) If you still want an AGP after, it will still be a great jump in performance and looks (I came from a 08 T-Jet) (y)

Quite like white wheels on cars at the moment, of course i'm slightly biased :p surprised that the colour change seems to make them look a bit smaller, suppose it's a more 'obvious' colour! As said, lower it on some Eibachs will finish it off nicely! Lovely motor! I do miss those seats :(
 
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Thanks everyone! appreciate all the comments and feedback, i have some big plans for it but havent the money at the moment, later on in the year once i've got a job me and the g.f are looking at moving out and part of that is a loan as to which i've warned her half of it is going on the tjet! ;)

 
Stunning car mate I like your wheels they remind me of someone's :rolleyes:
Hello mate lovely looking GP love the white abarth alloys mate.
I cant think who jordan! and yeah i do too, i had them the original colour on my old dynamic but i decided with the tjet that it should stand out and i always wanted to try white, they looked alright on photoshop but never the same as on the car!


Nice car mate, shame you couldn't get an Abarth. (best move i've ever made)
I may have to buck the trend and say I don't like the white wheels and mirror caps.
Personally if you kept the original T-Jet wheels on and lowered it a smidge with the Back 3 tinted it would look loads better.
Maybe even do the wheels in black for the full stealth look. :yum:
It alright everyone is entitled to their own opinions and eibachs and tints are all part of the plan!

Quite a nice bargain that! If you still want an AGP after, it will still be a great jump in performance and looks (I came from a 08 T-Jet) (y)
I do miss those seats :(
Yeah it was cheap for the age and mileage and everything! I have thought about it but i'd rather keep to this and just make this my own and maybe get the latest abarth model down the line in the future like 2016/17! when im done and after chucking a few grand at it im hoping it will be around the 180bhp mark anyways with various parts and effort! :)

 
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Good news and bad news..

Lets begin with the bad which kind of leads to the good! :)
Took the punto for its very first MOT this week and went to HALFRAUDS autocentre as it was bar far the cheapest in my area and i knew it would fly through so i didnt expect any hassel, an hour later they ring to say its failed on a number of things;

  1. Handbrake isnt holding properly and 2. i have a faulty shock=absorber and they have also racked up £700 of 'advisory' items with includes all pads and discs, the shock and £40 for some antifreeze!!
Anyway having my suspisions and not paying for the work to be done i went straight to one of my independants in the area and they passed it FIRST time with the only advisory that one tyre has worn slightly on the outside but no big worries so anyway went back and got their head mechanic to check car over infront of me and said the shock absorber has nothing wrong with it and also put the car on a machine that automatically tests the handbrake and out of two times it 'passed' (even though my gf lives on a one in three hill and my car's never moved once, so it seems the machine is pot luck) anyhoo halfrauds wont refund me my MOT because i have to pay £56 to VOSA to get my car checked and head office are useless and wont do anything so im not paying £56 to get back £27.. :bang: moral of the story..
DONT TAKE IT TO HALFORDS AUTOCENTRE
as after looking on the internet many others have been 'stung' by these (as my dad calls them) bike fitters! :D

but some good news!
i've ordered some bits of ebay that should be here on monday so i can get some decent video recordings up of what my exhaust both stantionary and also when im driving normally and 'enthusiastically' sounds like! (y)

Sorry for the essay but although the local accessory store is good i just wanted to give some what of a warning of what their like!

 
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Yeah we could have told you about Halfrauds before now, you should know, and i bet you already did tbh but thought it would be ok. Oh well...

Each to their own, and its there to be used/chosen as you wish. But why oh why do you alter the size of your writing for each post. I have to zoom in on the screen just to read your posts, then zoom out again to read EVERYONE else's (which are regular size). Whats wrong with regular size :D
 
yeah i had heard about halfords being d*cks but here in blackpool the shop had always been great with everyone i know and with the autocentres being faily new i'd thought i'd save some money having loosing my job and take it to the cheapest and take it there but it obvisouly didnt pay off! (n)

Because i have to go into 'advanced' otherwise it puts it in size 3 if i just use the 'reply' button.. dunno why but i apologise!
 
Testing size 3...

Testing regular size....

Eh, ok i don't follow. Yours does something weird then. Atleast it explains it, no worries. I just wondered if it was a deliberate thing, and wondered why (y)
 
After some rubbish weather i decided it was time to clean the car and go for a drive and take some pictures around blackpool so here are some of the best ones! :)
 

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Thank you very much and oh yes! the trouble is i dont know where to start listing everything to be honest, im happy with the modifications that i have at the moment, looks great, sounds good! but im a big fan of subtle changes but there is a few major changes looming because i'm waiting for a decent few grand to come along when me and the g.f look at moving in together and then im gonna spend 2 weeks doing everything at once.. but watch this space over the next year hopefully! (y) what about you?
 
I'm confused, you say you have a 09 T-Jet, but all these pics are of a 58 reg T-Jet. Am I missing something?



Some people like to class a 5... plate as the newer year if they have one as the plate continues into the next year.

For example (08) plate came out on 1st March 2008. (58) came out 1st September 2008, meaning the next plate (09) wont be until 1st march 2009.
this means the (58) will run into 2009 for 2 months and because of this people say they have a 2009 car.

Basically the 0 then the year (e.g 08) are from first of March until 31st August and 5 then the year (e.g. 58) are from 1st September until 28th/29th February.

Same logic will apply to the new numberplate style.
 
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