According to JD survey UK buyers dubbed the GP among the 10 least satisfying to own and to avoid like the plague......

Fiat Grande Punto

"We can only assume that Fiat customers were initially very pleased with their purchase until they hopped in a friend's Ford Fiesta and completely regretted shelling out for the Italian hatchback. It's lack of onboard tech and lifeless driving experience sent it straight to the bottom of the pile."

citroen c1, smart fortwo, ford fusion, citroen c4, ford ka (fiat chassis/engine), bmw x1, citroen c3, alfa mito (fiat chassis/engine), chevolet spark, grande punto.

Oh dear

Don't care. I like mine

Ditto!

All cars have faults, nothing is perfect! I worked at land rover for a number of years and even a 60 grand range rover has common faults

Glad I brought an extended warranty for mine and got good use of the 3 year warranty. It must of had repairs in excess of £4k done it.

JimbbobW1977 said:

Glad I brought an extended warranty for mine and got good use of the 3 year warranty. It must of had repairs in excess of £4k done it.

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how much was the extended warranty?

Love my GP its looks and design are not dated happy to own a Fiat and even more happy to be a GP owner.

Regardless of make or model every car on the road has its own faults.

Everyone seems to but germans cars up on a pedestal but when driving down the motorway and you look on the hard shoulder you see quite a few of them.

JD Survey shouldnt assume anything and certainly shouldnt build roadblocks out of assumptions and as for hopping into a freinds ford fiesta I would rather push my GP!

Regards
Stephen

SJB1985 said:

Love my GP its looks and design are not dated happy to own a Fiat and even more happy to be a GP owner.

Regardless of make or model every car on the road has its own faults.

Everyone seems to but germans cars up on a pedestal but when driving down the motorway and you look on the hard shoulder you see quite a few of them.

JD Survey shouldnt assume anything and certainly shouldnt build roadblocks out of assumptions and as for hopping into a freinds ford fiesta I would rather push my GP!

Regards
Stephen

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up here, you tend to see broken down (in roughly this order)

Renault's
Vw's
Audi's
BMW's
Vauxhall's
Fords
Citroens

Off the top of my head, i've only really seen a couple of Fiats broken down or on low loaders

Both mine, but i reckon my point still stands

My GP was and still is the favourite car I've owned. (Though My Bravo is a very close 2nd)

These useless polls and opinion articles are usually gilded by whoever come top in the articles. Reviews of your own experiences owning a car are one thing. To openly write an article where by you slander an entire range of cars for the sake of a few web hits is annoying.

The phrase "each to their own" is very relevant here. One person may want a comfortable estate car that gets them 300 mile a day very happily but looks like dog ****, others may not care much for how the car feels but want the best looking car they can buy as they only to a 3 mile commute to work and back.

I will argue with anyone that thinks they can throw FIAT's reputation at me. I won't tell them it's better than their car, I won't slander a brand that I know nothing about. (Though I admit I dislike Renault a lot but have owned a Renault car and had many experiences with renaukts through friends and family that also believe them to be hell on wheels), A FIAT is what I like, I'm owning my second one now as I like them that much. I don't need a biased, horrible article telling me my car is worse than another.

I kind of agree on the tech side if I'm going to be honest... Bland interior clocks and a disappointing radio...
But I do actually like my car. The looks, how it drives and it goes like stink so I don't regret buying mine most of the engines are bulletproof not really that much to go wrong.

The survey clearly didn't make their way onto this forum.

Reuuk said:

I kind of agree on the tech side if I'm going to be honest...

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Go back to 2006 when the GP was launched, tech was ahead of the Fiesta for example which didn't even have a major trip computer, only done Mileage trip, no MPG etc.

I agree when the GP came out in 06 it was the first of the design and ahead of the pack.

I still like the shape of them and on the technical side, the bluetooth is the most intuitive system I've come across. All the others I have encountered are very "clunky" compared with the Fiat system.

My experiences show the car is let down badly by the dealer network - as the garages to avoid thread tends to highlight.

When I had the Tjet I was badly bitten by the depreciation after 21mths and vowed never to have another GP. However the one we have now was bought on the basis that it will stay with us until it falls apart, so depreciation means nothing.

And yes I would buy another.

I normally do not share many thoughts in this corner, just being a quiet GP owner enjoying it.

I think articles and polls like this must lobbied by somebody that wants to push some brand or technology up. It is a personal taste what people like about cars. The lack of tech (or I rather like to think about it as properly balanced tech) is what I like about mine, I've been driving other modern cars and their persistance of telling me when to change gears and having to look at a startrek cocpit just annoys me. Not to mention the persistent lack of power in most of them. Actually, we bought a GP mostly because we had two constraints to meet - couple of years old because of oure budget and with enough low-end tourque, but gasoline engine (tax reasons here in NL). I was looking for a long time and only t-jets seemed to do it for us. (At around the same time a friend bought a Honda Civic, seemingly much better, but (a) 50% more expensive, (b) you should now hear him complain about some things).

And it does not only apply to cars, had a similar experience buying a tablet for home use recently. The reviews I read about the one I was set to buy were - too expensive for what you get, too slow, can do much better for this money. Actually, no I could not, I tried, all other models where lacking crucial features. I concluded that the reviews are written by spoiled tech freaks that need a little bit of reality check. I got it and I like it. And my positive reaction to what I have bought was shared by a friend of mine that I do consider a tech freak, only a reasonable one

To finish this off, I was just parking my GP in front of the office, in the row of 10 parked cars mine was a third GP to arrive

The GP at the time of its launch did have good equipment and tech, it was and still is a good looking car.

However it is majorly let down on a number of things I have said on here before.

Design faults being a major attribution to a number faults on the GP which massively harms it's reputation. People on this forum are of problems with the GP, however the thousands out their who don't read this forum for example are not going to understand why their alternator keeps failing, because Fiat designed water to pour onto the back of it. I have never seen another car do this.

Water in the fusebox? Poor design

Splitting wiring loom in drivers door? Poor design

Washer hose splitting the boot? Poor design

Top mounts that have water sitting on them? Poor design

Water pouring onto the brake servo and rusting through potentially causing bulkhead failure? Poor design

Steering rack failures that really should of been sorted after the MK2 Punto again is poor design.

The list could go on for a long time, and most people on here have experienced faults on their cars that you just would not get on other cars so soon.

On top of that the GP is decidedly average to drive. These surveys will tend to be completed by people with lower to mid spec cars equipped with the underpowered 1.2 or 1.4 with no equipment on them. Combined with all the faults average driving dynamics I'm not surprised that it scores so low.

I would much rather be driving a dull looking car that's fantastic to drive and is reliable then standing their late for work or at the side of the road looking at a nice looking car going no where because the alternator failed.

On a side note, I read the other day that the M32 gearbox that is so awful and notchy can trace it's design back to the seventies. No wonder they keep failing also!!!

The GP would of been so much better had more time been spent on it then trying to rush it to launch before the chassis sharing Corsa came out, which incidentally is better made, better to drive and less faulty.

T14086 said:

how much was the extended warranty?

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I think it was £350 from warranty direct. They paid out in total in the year £2500 for repairs and were very good.

I have a 58 plate t jet n a 09 plate fiesta i think tha gp is miles better nicer drive more gadgets tha new fiesta might be better bit my gp is better than a fiesta of roughly tha same age

yes every cars gets faults etc but i got to say the grande punto is the worst car i have ever owned ..& will glad to see the back of it

kingdean1 said:

I have a 58 plate t jet n a 09 plate fiesta i think tha gp is miles better nicer drive more gadgets tha new fiesta might be better bit my gp is better than a fiesta of roughly tha same age

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It always depends on the models. A 1.4 t jet is going to better specced and faster than say a poverty spec 1.25 59bhp fiesta style.

A 1.0 Eco boost Fiesta is a fantastic car to drive.

JimbbobW1977 said:

A 1.0 Eco boost Fiesta is a fantastic car to drive.

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That may be true but god it is a munter to look at, they facelifted the wrong end of that car. The old front end was ok but the rear is a mess (and looks like the old Kia rio). I would say that doesn't matter when you're driving it, but the dash is even worse.


I think the comments in the original post about the tech are unfair. Sure the gp doesn't have satnav, autonomous braking or radar activated cruise control but no super minis of that era did. For a car launched in 2005 I think esp, 6 airbags and Bluetooth is good going.

I really hate the Ford stereo dash layout. I don't know why (it may be the many buttons), I just hate it.

scout said:

I really hate the Ford stereo dash layout. I don't know why (it may be the many buttons), I just hate it.

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Lol