We took delivery of our new Punto Evo a couple of weeks ago. Driving was a complete nightmare. The acceleration was non existant and the brakes were so vicious that you were jolted forward at every stop. We returned it to the garage who took the keys and returned an hour or so later saying nothing was wrong and that we should get used to driving it. When we pulled away from the garage it was immediatly apparent that somthing was very different. The brakes were prgressive and acceleration was totally different. My question is this. Do Fiat have a factory set up that should be adjusted prior to delivery?

Sounds like your car simply need run, needs to loosen the engine abit (personally the 1.2 engine is simply not good enough for a car of this size) and the brakes need bedded in after all it's been sitting on a boat, docks, forecourt for a good while.

My brakes were the same, as said above just drive it and bed the brakes in and it will be fine.