Hi everyone,

I'm a bit of a newbie here, and I have a couple of Q's. I am a heavily indebted student for whom it has become necessary to buy a cheap car. I have a budget of under a grand (cheaper the better), so i'm looking at J,K,L regish Polos AX's and fiestas, which really have no soul. So a fiat is my choice (punto or Cinq sporting), and I have a few Q's:

1) can i get a nice punto for around bout 500-700 quid? I know I can get a cinq sporting for that.
2) is the cinq's smallness ever a problem?
3)equally on the cinq; the power issue, is it a problem? this car will have to regularly go from manchester to london, cruising at 70-80ish
4) the punto 55 - has the same engine as the cinq sporting right? and is there much difference in performance between the two?
5) reliablity - i'm poor, and don't have much money to spend on bits falling off and breaking-any issues with either?
6) is the 60 with a 1.2 so much better than a 55?, is it thirstier etc?

Cheers very much,

MrBlonde said:

1) can i get a nice punto for around bout 500-700 quid? I know I can get a cinq sporting for that.

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No idea...but wouldnt be surprised if it is about right

MrBlonde said:

2) is the cinq's smallness ever a problem?

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No. well, I dont think it is..although back-seat action may be a bit hard / impossible. Depends mainly on what you'll be carrying.

MrBlonde said:

3)equally on the cinq; the power issue, is it a problem? this car will have to regularly go from manchester to london, cruising at 70-80ish

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Nah, definately. The Sporting definately not. The 899cc will happily whine along at 80mph on a long motorway run (mine did Manc to Lancaster every week for just under a year before I got bored), the Sporting's fine...cruises at 80mph, but wind noise can get bad....it'll oblige overtaking at 95mph too, which is fun on the M62 at 5pm...

MrBlonde said:

4) the punto 55 - has the same engine as the cinq sporting right? and is there much difference in performance between the two?

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The Punt's a bigger, heavier car. The Cinq's small and lighter. Its a very different drive

MrBlonde said:

5) reliablity - i'm poor, and don't have much money to spend on bits falling off and breaking-any issues with either?

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Engines tend to like killing head gaskets after a while -they get quite hot in traffic, so fitting a fan override is definately a good idea . Both my Cinq's have been reliable - the Sporting less so because Ive started doing my own maintenence on it..

MrBlonde said:

6) is the 60 with a 1.2 so much better than a 55?, is it thirstier etc?

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The engine's got much more torque, so it makes the Punt drive better. That engine's brill in a Cinq , but costs more to insure as its non-standard.

As for Fuel economy, when I switched from the 55 (1108cc) to the 60 (1242cc), my fuel economy was actually better. I think its because the engine was clean...