Grande Punto My Merengue Orange Punto Grande 1.4 8v Dualogic

The seats are in excellent condition but crying out for a wet-vacuum. We're getting some hot weather this weekend (27 degrees - in Autumn) so I should get out my Bissell tomorrow.

I like the orange dash really gives the interior a lift. I also love the orange fabric on the doors, as backing for the solid black plastic handles that look and feel great compared to the scratched rubbery coatings of my Alfa 159 that the Punto replaces.

Of course there isn't loads of power available from the 1.4 8v, but it's sufficient to get the car along at the speed limit, get up most hills without too much effort, run sweetly and smoothly at just 5.4L/100km, and I love not having that diesel noise

My 'new' car got a dismal reception among my friends, with most wondering why I'd bought a 'soccer Mom's' five-door shopping car, and several wondered how 77bhp was possibly enough. I'm also told the colour is "bronze".

I think it's just the right car for conditions - and it's nice having no rattles or creaks!

-Alex

First job was to remove the awful Japanese number plate holder, and install my own number plates instead (with a trip to the authorities to get it all registered correctly).

I can only seem to upload one photo at a time and usually it gets rotated... sorry about that!

The back end looked much neater

And the front end too.

Can't wait to give it a wash and a polish, and to do something about those wheel trims - fill the gouges and fix the cracks, a bit of sparkly silver and most people would never know.

Or, I can get new wheel trims for about $40 each, which has to be better than tediously refinishing alloy wheels again (have done that for my yellow Spider, my 166, my Stilo, and my 159). I might be persuaded to fit some alloy wheels IF they're lighter than the steel wheels.


-Alex