Sold in 60 seconds on in the background, my attention is drawn when the presenter says, 'coming up, mk1 Fiat Punto. Not a pretty car!!!'

It gets funnier though, Chap he was buying the car for said, 'I am glad you didn't buy the punto, bit feminine!'

Ends up in a Toyota Starlet!

Feminine to feminine.

Would have been masculine if it was the Mk2 Punto though! :devil:

I Saw that one earlier today.

The Guy origanally asked for a 4 Door with a Hatch. E.G a five door so he could fit his big dog in the boot. you couldnt fit a dogs dinner in that woman car.

Befre that he chose a 02 Zafira Club with 15K and no extras for £8100 over a 03 Zafira with air con and 1000 miles on the clock for £8600. The woman had 10K to spend for that she could have even more.

He always gets it wrong...

mk 1 punto is crap. I know I have one.. All fiats are a bit naff, not a lot of thought goes into the design or build of any of the cars from this manufacturer I feel

Hang On What do you Drive LOL I think this one.

Looks Like a newer one but still.

N still its naff !! The problems you have with these cars due to poor build n design are unimaginable.. At least I'm honest it suxs that's why if you buy a car like this one you would virtually have to rebuild it like i am doing

True. I must admit I have seen dents on most fiats from people just leaning on there car to say dont i look good.

whilst the build quality can leave a lot to be desired, it appears to be better than before, certainly the panda i own is no worse than many of the horror stories i read of supposedly solid competitiors,

have to take a little issue with the design part of the arguement though, over the last 25 odd years fiat have taken more than their fair share of car of the year awards(8 since inception with the punto taking the 1995 award) as well as many others. the concepts of shorter, taller cars were heavily promoted, the uno being a major case in point, which combined good engines in a compact well conceived body, and with the arrival of the tipo, a genuinely outstanding approach to big car feel in a relatively small packaging, the punto on initial release was a fresh face, that admitedly may have suffered from carrying forward too much from the outgoing mk2 uno. the centos, fit the bill exactly as they should have, inexpensive motoring, taking over from that tough old girl, the original panda. the stilo, whilst not really my cup of tea, is a good looking car, and, after seeing pre-release photos of the g-punto that did it no justice, i'm very smitten with it......

each of these cars was a product of its time, and as such looking back to try and bring them into todays motoring context would be useless. no matter how much i love my 17 year old tub, its a 24 year old design, with a 30+ year old engine, it couldnt possibly take on a new clio sport and hope to survive!

whilst the production execution may not quite match the design priciple, fiat is no worse or better than most manufacturers in that if you were to take the badges of, most cars would be fairly indistinguishable from each other.

on a final note, if the punto, and fiat are so bad, why keep it? there are plenty of other choices out there, moaning about it when such choice is available is pretty pointless

I ain't moaning about any thing I am stating how I see things

I ain't moaning about any thing I am stating how I see things

gt3man said:

I ain't moaning about any thing

Click to expand...

gt3man said:

mk 1 punto is crap. I know I have one.. All fiats are a bit naff, not a lot of thought goes into the design or build of any of the cars from this manufacturer I feel

Click to expand...

gt3man said:

N still its naff !! The problems you have with these cars due to poor build n design are unimaginable.. At least I'm honest it suxs that's why if you buy a car like this one you would virtually have to rebuild it like i am doing

Click to expand...

thats a moan......but still no answer, why own it if theres so much better out there?

so much better is so much more expensive I suppose.

You will never have as much fun in a new, expencive, well built car as you will in an old, cheap, badly built car..

trust me

Bushboy said:

You will never have as much fun in a new, expencive, well built car as you will in an old, cheap, badly built car..

trust me

Click to expand...

Amen to that

2nd'd

what would you rather for a grand,
a perfect punto with full dealer history and not a mark or a scratch on it in perfect mechanical order
or a corsa that appears OK, but then you notic much much more, and then you've got to put up with driving a corsa too:devil:

when the mk1 came out in 1993 it wiped the floor with all the other manufacturers attempts, it had curves, style, a modern interior and driving position, more boot space than any rival, a zesty engine, fine economy a dazzling array of colours, a diesel version, a sporty version, and a turbo'd version.
DId vauxhall or ford do that with any of their mid nineties small cars. I think not.

faster4_tec said:

when the mk1 came out in 1993 it wiped the floor with all the other manufacturers attempts, it had curves, style, a modern interior and driving position, more boot space than any rival, a zesty engine, fine economy a dazzling array of colours, a diesel version, a sporty version, and a turbo'd version.
DId vauxhall or ford do that with any of their mid nineties small cars. I think not.

Click to expand...

well ford had a turbo before the punto (remember the 1.6 RS turbo? it would leave a GT for dead) but you're right there was no corsa turbo

both fiesta and corsa had sporty verions (1.6 Si and 1.6 GSi) and both had diesels (1.8 and 1.7),

and lots of colours, and very similar economy, and zesty engines (maybe not the mk3/4 fiesta, but they were more reliable and had timing chains)

boot space is about the same, the interior on the corsa (best dash) and fiesta (best seats, remember the Si recaro style winged seats) was better overall, unless you like the punto's grandad check patterns and the bare dash and the soft flat seats,

driving positon was best in fiesta for a man sized person, girls fit in corsa best (due to crappy small offset accelerator pedal) so i guess the punto was the best compromise, i can drive punto's comfortably

punto was better looking than the fiesta and corsa.

you really cant say the punto wiped the floor with them, i'd say the punto came 3rd over all out of the 3, compared to fiesta and corsa its only real strength is its looks.

and compared to all of them the micra was a far better car that also came out in 93. if the micra looked better it would win on every aspect.

which brings me to my point, if you dont like a punto because it has to many faults and drops to bits, yet you dont want to spend a fortune, why not get a micra. they aren't too common, and they're one of the most reliable cars ever built, the engines are great, the chassis dynamics are surprisingly good, the interiors arent great style wise but its well built with good quality plastic and things fit well and its easily improved with a few minor mods, the main problem is the exterior styling, but thats the best thing about them, if you get it looking good you'll really have a unique car that is very good all round. i'd recommend one over the other supermini competitors of that era.

the toyota starlet is similar in that it is well built, reliable and ugly, but it doesnt match the micra because they cost more to run, cost more to buy, and dont give as good a drive. i learnt to drive in a starlet 1.3sportif. it was ok, but no where near as much fun as a micra. i've had the joy of abusing 3 micra courtesy cars and can confirm that they make good field/rally cars, especially with no airfilter on

didnt the punto win car of the year in 94?

yes, but the bravo won car of the year in 1995 and it was no where near class leader. you win car of the year if you give the best gifts to the judges and take them golfing, not for designing the best car in its class.

1995. The Fiat Group have won it more times than any other manufacturer.

Are you joking? so Fiat won it two years in a row? have u got the website to see the winners & cars since then?

so its judged by italians, or fiat spend the most money on the judges. it doesnt mean they've produced the most class leaders, that should be obvious.