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Punto 2012+ 2013 Unplugged Green Punto Twinair

Introduction

So I've returned to the Fiat fold again after some brief encounters with French, Swedish and German cars.

I picked up a Punto Twinair just shy of 2 weeks ago mostly based on the colour alone.

Personally I absolutely love the colour and was the only reason I went to look at the car as I'd virtually chosen to disregard a Twinair car. After test driving though I really enjoyed the TA and so here we are.

I've covered just over 500 miles so far, the first tank about 60% motorway, 20% mixture of dual and single carriage way A roads and another 20% of town work. The onboard computer spat out 47mpg, after brimming the car again fuelly calculated 44mpg so not miles out.

Good bits;
  • Its similar to the Grande Punto, my first car, so things are quite familiar just with a refreshed look. Makes it easy to drive if un-envolving.
  • Noise. The thing most ordinary 4 banger superminis don't have is much of an exhaust note. The TA sounds great IMO.
  • Comfortable, did a 6 hour journey at the weekend, no numb bum at the end of it so a big plus.
  • Nobody seemed to buy the last gen of Punto so its suitably rare especially in this colour.

The Bad;
  • Twinair is weird to drive, I totally understand the people who don't like the engine. It can be too noisy especially in 1st and 2nd gears when road noise is low. You cant really drive it below 1500rpm and I like to keep it above 2000 to avoid labouring it.
  • This might be Punto specific rather than all TA's but the 6 speed box has very short gears, not the sort of thing you expect from an engine that creates its grunt in the middle of the rev range. You have to go up and down those gears a lot to maintain good progress.
  • Gearbox, following on from above its not got a positive engagment, I quite often find myself glancing down at the gearstick to check what gear I've selected. Reverse doesn't ever feel like its 'gone in'.
  • Bodyroll, I don't remember my Grande rolling this much but maybe its because I've had much stiffer cars since then. It leans and wobbles if you take a roundabout quickly. It doesn't feel like it'd understeer unless prodded harder but the bodyroll is comical.
  • It feels quite quick at lower speeds (sub 50mph) that its easy to forget on the motorway its not a fast car and in the outside lane it can get a bit out of breath.
  • Somehow Fiat have managed to design alloy wheels which look like hubcaps. At some point if a nicer set come up for a reasonable price I may look to change these.

TL;DR - I like it despite its foibles, which it certainly has plenty. The TA engine is fun but I understand people who dislike it.
Hi again..was wondering which way you had jumped.

BRAKE FEEL is the normal complaint..

How many miles on it?

Gearchange sounds wrong.

Mpg is fair.. pretty sure the green was another edition.. like my 5dr 'twinair' spec.

Yours got cruise?

Ps. 1800 to 2200 is the best
for progress : econony

3000: 70mph

Charlie
 
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I remember this colour being the colour they used on the Relaunch cars back in 2012 with Vicky Butler Henderson driving around a race track ( I think these videos are still on the Fiat UK facebook page.

The wheels are a but ugly but the car looks great in that colour.
 
I remember this colour being the colour they used on the Relaunch cars back in 2012 with Vicky Butler Henderson driving around a race track ( I think these videos are still on the Fiat UK facebook page.

The wheels are a but ugly but the car looks great in that colour.

I've had numerous comments on the colour, all in its favour so I see why Fiat went with it on press cars.
I really have no idea what they were thinking with the wheels!


Plugged an OBD into it this evening to see what the turbo is doing. Seems to hang around the 7-8psi range in eco and shoots up to 16-18psi in normal.
For reference my 2.3 Saab made 240hp ish on 18psi Ahhhh
 
Unsurprisingly Fiat have plonked a plastic insert with tools to change a wheel in the spare wheel well but no wheel, just a can of gunk. Deliberating buying a steely, found a new one for £32.

Is it likely my insurance might see this as a 'mod'? They have a lofty £30 admin fee to make any change to your policy (n)
I could just phone them but that takes about half an hour, wondered if anybody has had experience with it already?
 
I remember this colour being the colour they used on the Relaunch cars back in 2012 with Vicky Butler H

The wheels are a but ugly but the car looks great in that colour.


Wheels are the standard twinair spec.

Diamondcut.. and suffer the same water damage as the mazda ones of that era.

At £550 per alloy..pricey for Chinese made

Charlie
 
Start/Stop hasn't worked at any point unsurprisingly, I'm aware Fiats implementation is poor. Today it actually popped up for the first time 'Start Stop Unavailable' on the display. I expect the battery is the original and will be a little over 6 years old. It gives good voltage, 12.4v after sat overnight and 14.0v whilst running.

Short story long, worth replacing to get start/stop working? Or waste of money?

Today I discovered pressing the badge on the boot lid opens it, that was quite exciting :eek: (y)
 
Mine only worked after a 2 hour drive...

Slowly tailed to nothing..

Still original.. not worth it for my uses.


Are your alloys free of white spider marks.

All 4 of my originals were replaced under warranty.

Ride has been poor.. but not awful for roll..

Maybe your damping has failed?
 
Mine only worked after a 2 hour drive...

Slowly tailed to nothing..

Still original.. not worth it for my uses.


Are your alloys free of white spider marks.

All 4 of my originals were replaced under warranty.

Ride has been poor.. but not awful for roll..

Maybe your damping has failed?

Its been for a 6 hour drive so it certainly would've started working if it was ever going to. I'm going to leave it alone for now.

Alloys despite being ugly are in good condition.

The ride is pretty comfortable and doesn't feel like anything is wrong, its just more rolley than I'm used to, my Smart was pretty stiff, no hint of roll but also felt every bump in the road as a result.

I don't really have any concerns with it at the moment, everything feels as it should. The A/C needs a regas as its a little weak and theres no record of the pollen filter being replaced so I'll get on that soon. It has some paint chips that I'd like to touch up at some point but something I can do later on.
 
My A.C. is still cold but am going to regas it as it takes a while to chill after parking in the sun.

Pollen filter.. sure Andy did a guide for that.

Have done my gp.. but the later dash seems slightly different.

Got fsh so not done much by me.

2 bulbs 2 tyres in 45k is pretty good. :)

LOTS of oil changes though.. ( uses none)
 
Yes I've seen Andy's guide, looks nice and easy. This has FSH, main dealer up to 40k, third parties for the last 18k.

The dealership I purchased from, although they seem reputable and have slapped a warranty on, claim to have just serviced it but the oil doesn't look brand new,
its hard to tell with the twinair's dipstick being about as much use as a chocolate ashtray on a motorbike. Seriously who decided to use a textured brown piece of plastic as a dipstick?!

I'm planning on doing an oil change myself to be certain and to be sure it has the correct spec in it too.
Noticed its got a bloody undertray though, which never seem to come off easily in my experience and make the job 3x longer.
 
I've got a video on sorting out the weak air con as well, The Aircon is very good on these cars when charged up.

Given the lack of care given by garages to the Twinair system its well worth doing your own oil change. I think that there is a small separate little filter for the oil going to the valve system, might be worth changing that as well, just to cover all the bases.
 
Yes.

500 section has SOME good TA service info.

But if I ever get to do my servicing again.. I will document things like the panda stuff ..

My aircon has never been great.. but being a cheap FIAT owner..I have little to compare it to :eek:

Refridgeration experience:

2 fridge freezers struggling : puddles on the floor

Working Aircon : pluddles on the floor


Simples.. ;)
 
Noticed its got a bloody undertray though, which never seem to come off easily in my experience and make the job 3x longer.

Before you go to the effort of removing it have a good look underneath. The Mazda one has strategically placed windows/flaps in it for service items so you only take the whole thing off for major work.

You never know someone at Fiat might have considered the poor sod servicing it.
 
Before you go to the effort of removing it have a good look underneath. The Mazda one has strategically placed windows/flaps in it for service items so you only take the whole thing off for major work.

You never know someone at Fiat might have considered the poor sod servicing it.

In this case they don’t the whole undertray is one piece and it screws into the wheel arche liners, front bumper and back of subframe. With mine I also had to remove the wheel arch liner on the drivers side just to change the oil :rolleyes:
 
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