New Punto

[Ralf S.]

I saw a new Fiesta the other day...

And I got a special offer email from Fiat telling me of deals on the Punto...

Punto really looks good still... but obviously it's getting on a bit. Equipment/options are not competitive any more and mechanically I suppose that Punto's age would show up as a lack of sophistication vs. the Fiesta and others.

Fiat understandably seems to be running it down, continually de-speccing it to keep prices down. Now there are just 5-doors available and the 1.4 petrol engine with the decent horsepower is a distant memory..

I had to wonder how much longer the beast is likely to stay on sale, and when there might be a replacement?

The current Punto was never replaced because Sergio was busy (skint) at the time buying Chrysler.. and in those economically dismal days, European sales had tanked.... but everything is a bit more rosy now.

Where's the next Punto? Any sniff of it?

One extra stumbling block was that there was no platform share option (500 was too small, 500L/Tipo too large) and the current car's trick of also prtending to be an Alfa (Mito) or even a Vauxhall (Corsa) is no longer an option.

But has Sergio had a change of heart? What's going on with it?

And when it turns up, Fiat, please stuff a 1.4 with 135bhp in it..

Ralf S.

 

[Mustang99]

I am also curious how it's gonna look like, but more important, if what improvements they will make for engine and safety..

 

[simon_16vpunto]

I have a brand spanking new one next to my desk at work. Only available in 1.2 or 1.4, in easy or easy+ trim.
Finally after 12 years they have fitted a built in sat nav to the dash on this 1.4 easy+.

Also has privacy glass, dual zone climate and b/tooth standard

 

[varesecrazy]

Not moved on much from my 2012 TA...

I Suspect the 'furure'of the platform will be gauged by the fitting of the 3cylinder and 4 cylinder new generation engines.

No option : no future

Ps the ride quality is lousy in mine..

You'd assume it should've been sorted in a chassis thats now been on UK roads for 11 years..

Hope they can salvage it..

 

[Goudrons]

I seem to think the Punto and Panda are up for a revision in 2018.

It seems likely the Panda's revisions will be more trim and engine based.
There were some spy shots of it's cold weather testing floating about and it didn't look to dissimilar to the current one.

The Fiat Argo appears to have superseded the Punto in Brasil so it's new FCA MP1 platform looks favourite to form a new Punto base, it's already available there with different versions on the Firefly engine.

Question is, will it be still called a Punto?
I have a feeling Fiat might drop the name, but a stronger one that says it won't be an Argo here either, can you imagine all those Argos parked up outside Argos!

You've seen the Tipo reborn, it is time for the new (european) Uno?

 

[Mustang99]

I have a brand spanking new one next to my desk at work. Only available in 1.2 or 1.4, in easy or easy+ trim.
Finally after 12 years they have fitted a built in sat nav to the dash on this 1.4 easy+.

Also has privacy glass, dual zone climate and b/tooth standard

It actually looks cool. The standards are going up and hopefully Fiat will keep up with them. :worship:

 

[Garree001]

It's a shame really as FIAT's big strength was always small, fun hatchbacks. Now that's all pretty much forgotten.

I got rid of my Grand Punto in around 2008. It was an '06 Sporting model. Then when I recently had a MiTo courtesy car and saw that the switch gear was identical to what I had basically 10 years ago, it was a bit of a shock. It hasn't aged well in some areas. And whilst I get that the MiTo is a different car to the Punto, it's basically the same in many areas.

The difficulty FIAT have now is that they have paired with an American car maker who has literally no decent history in small cars. So the company has been pulled into doing things to make it in the American market which is why it has focused on the Renegade/500x as this is the most promising American market. Next up was the 124 (probably to try and steal some of Ford's smash hit with the new Mustang) and the Tipo (probably because it should be an easy sell in the US budget sector. There's even a new massive Jeep which I saw today and thought it was rather handsome.

Shockingly, even the 500 seems to be somewhat sidelined.

This account may be inaccurate in the eyes of some, but it's just what I have perceived. I am sure the smaller cars will follow - but not immediately. A 500x refresh is on the cars before anything else it seems!

 

[AndyRKett]

It's a shame really as FIAT's big strength was always small, fun hatchbacks. Now that's all pretty much forgotten.

I got rid of my Grand Punto in around 2008. It was an '06 Sporting model. Then when I recently had a MiTo courtesy car and saw that the switch gear was identical to what I had basically 10 years ago, it was a bit of a shock. It hasn't aged well in some areas. And whilst I get that the MiTo is a different car to the Punto, it's basically the same in many areas.

The difficulty FIAT have now is that they have paired with an American car maker who has literally no decent history in small cars. So the company has been pulled into doing things to make it in the American market which is why it has focused on the Renegade/500x as this is the most promising American market. Next up was the 124 (probably to try and steal some of Ford's smash hit with the new Mustang) and the Tipo (probably because it should be an easy sell in the US budget sector. There's even a new massive Jeep which I saw today and thought it was rather handsome.

Shockingly, even the 500 seems to be somewhat sidelined.

This account may be inaccurate in the eyes of some, but it's just what I have perceived. I am sure the smaller cars will follow - but not immediately. A 500x refresh is on the cars before anything else it seems!

Quite a fair summary and if you read between the lines it seems very much like fiat, don’t want to make fiats anymore.

The original mk1 punto had a run of just under 6 years then the mk2 4 years, the face lifted mk2b went for only 2 years (in the uk market at least) then the grande 4 year the evo only 3 years, and in 2012 came the current ‘punto’ sales have been dropping pretty much since the launch of the grande, as it was very much style over substance and fiat made little effort to fix the problems (the handling as mentioned above being one of the worst)

Now the current punto despite no major face lift or revamp and in the face of dropping sales, continues to plod on longer than any other model.

It’s gone beyond lost interest, Fiat seem to have distain for the current punto and would sooner kill and bury it than make another one.

It’s a shame because the original punto probably saved fiat in the 90s and the mk2 was loved by nearly all the motoring press, they totally lost focus with the grande and then couldn’t be arsed to fix it it seems

 

[Goudrons]

To be fair to Fiat, after they acquired Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep they realised they now have far too many platforms and engines on it's books and they are all being built it different factories around the world and all for different markets.

They said they would sort all their models and engines out and the news of their GSE and GME (global small and medium engines) is already out and running and recently mentioned news of a 48v mild hybrid system to accompany them.

With their models, they announced they will split them in two groups.
Rational and Emotional.

One group that you buy with your head and one you buy with your heart (or hopefully a more dangley organ).

Rational products will get perhaps 4 colours, 2 engines and 2 trims choices and Fiat actually want these models to be seen as a step up from similar Dacia products.

Emotional will end up with lots of options (and lots of extra costs).

You can already see the Emotional line up taking shape.
The various different 500 models, the 124, the Doblo (only kidding).
These will end up in virtually all markets.

The Rational line up is taking shape, but a bit slower.
Yes, the Doblo or Dodge Ram Promaster City (better or worse than the Doblo name??) as it's called in the US is likely to make this line up.

The trouble is, they have lots of these models and they aren't all designed or built for a universal market.

More trouble comes when we here in the UK and other RHD countries start to consider what is FCA's idea of a universal market?

We'll no doubt get most of the high earning Emotional range, though what we get from the Rational range will probably depend on other RHD markets, particularly India, which brings us back to the similarities with Dacia again.

We only started getting some of their models once they started production for India, so it seems likely we'll get the same Rational line up as perhaps India gets. (come on India, I want a Dirty Dacia Dokker!)

It's more than likely though we'll get most of the various model sectors, so there's good hope of a "B" sized, Puntoish model.

Just keep an eye out what Fiat's doing in India and their Argo model.

 

[PandaEleganza]

Rumour has it that the next 'Punto' will actually be called the 'Primo' and will be based on the Brazilian 'Argo' model. There are one or two nice renders floating around the internet which improve on the Argo styling, though whether it will look like that in practice is anyone's guess.

How much does the Punto sell in Italy? I guess that if it is doing OK there it might explain why it seems to have been left in production so long. That said, if you count on the Mk2/2b being an update on the original Mk1, the first Punto was effectively also in production for 12 years. The difference with the Grande Punto is that the 2012 update wasn't a full rebody as was the case for the Mk2 Punto in the late 90s.

 

[AndyRKett]

That said, if you count on the Mk2/2b being an update on the original Mk1, the first Punto was effectively also in production for 12 years. The difference with the Grande Punto is that the 2012 update wasn't a full rebody as was the case for the Mk2 Punto in the late 90s.

The mk1 and the mk2 were completely different cars.

The mk2 was a redesign from the ground up, so you can’t say that it was the same car in production for that period. The mk2 and mk2b were essentially the same car but most of the electronics were updated. The grande was a complete redesign again and the subsequent evo and then the ‘punto’ were tweaked and fettled along the way without any major redesign. The 2017 car above is no difference in appearance to the same car you could buy at the beginning of 2012.

 

[PandaEleganza]

Interesting - I'd always assumed that the mk2 was a re-body of the mk 1 with the same platform/chassis, but I stand corrected!

 

[Didge3]

If you ever drove both you'd know, very different cars to drive IMO! Unfortunately I think the mk1 drove better

 

[AndyRKett]

If you ever drove both you'd know, very different cars to drive IMO! Unfortunately I think the mk1 drove better

The mk1 definitely waste better drive, better rear suspension setup than the beam axles that fiat now seem obsessed with.

The 90s was a golden era for fiat imo