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Punto (Mk1) My exploit yellow 75 elx

Introduction

Hi.
My name is Simon and I haven't been on here in ages.
I'm a fiat nut who has owned fiats all my life as have my family. I work in a fiat dealership in dundee and have treated myself to a new car, as it's the first time in my life I have been without a fiat.

I bought the following car off ebay for 4 reasons

1. I had one as my first car
2. I just bought a house and have somewhere to keep it
3. My mum had a brand new exploit yellow 55 sx back in '95
4. Have plenty fiat techs to fix it when it breaks

So, I'm in dundee, the car was in Yorkshire, so my dad and I left 5:30am Saturday morning in his 500L to pick it up. I was worried about bringing a near 20 year old fiat 260 mile up the road, but it didn't miss a beat. It drives like a new car.

History- we'll it was sold new to a mrs crappe, at carnell fiat, she had the car garaged from new, done 70,000 miles in it. It had its original dealer plates on it which I changed, as they were tatty. Full years mot with no advisories, and a full service history. She specced it up with a drivers airbag!

The car come with a few parking dings, original scuffed wheel trims, and a couple of light scratches, otherwise it's mint.
Luckily working in a fiat dealer, I can get parts, a workshop with a 40 years served fiat technician, a dent man and body shop.

Took the car into work today to get all the dents removed, was up on the ramps for a health check- solid underneath, just needs new discs and pads and a rocker cover gasket. Underneath is solid, clean and all present and correct. It also needs a new cam belt cover as mine is burst. Then that's it mint.
Turns out the rear tyres are the factory originals, made 3rd week of 1995, so it will be getting a full set of brand new Goodyear duragrips I have in my garage.
Surprisingly every single thing works on the car, even the remote locking and being an elx it has an electric sunroof!!!

It's quite funny because all the fiat techs were all over it today, donating parts. One of them had an exploit yellow touch up pen that's been in his toolbox for 15 years, got handbrake cables and a rocker cover gasket, with more bits offered. They also went on e-sigi and printed out the complete history of my car, showing recalls for brake pipes, airbag ecu etc which is nice to keep.

Work so far done-

New genuine wheel trims
New genuine punto mats
Original fiat tape deck
Genuine fiat lineaccessorie front and rear mudflaps
General tidy up
Clay, wet sand, machine polish bodywork
New numberplates
Dents removed
Brand new badges
Full valet

I love this car, I can't believe how mint it is. Taking bad with no power steering though.
I put it in the showroom and took some piccies.
Anyway the pictures.......

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And my main/ daily car

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Oh yeh! That's not going anywhere. I was in the garage last night tinkering with it.

Just got a new toy at the moment to play with- which btw is a fantastic wee thing.
Ordered an ST rear spoiler for it


I suspect an ecoboost fiesta gets pretty close to "all the car you'll actually ever need".

Modern superminis (of which the mk1 punto was one of the first) are so capable compared to the old stuff it's hard to recognise them as the same style of car.
 
I actually prefer the fiesta to drive over my kuga. It's crazy because the fiesta was parked next to the punto the other day and even though they are physically a similar size, the punto had much more space inside it.

Very good car though, very high spec for a runabout also.
Assuming the titanium fiesta is similar to what my punto elx would have been back in 1995
 
I actually prefer the fiesta to drive over my kuga. It's crazy because the fiesta was parked next to the punto the other day and even though they are physically a similar size, the punto had much more space inside it.

Very good car though, very high spec for a runabout also.
Assuming the titanium fiesta is similar to what my punto elx would have been back in 1995

The Elx was a good car (mine had a six CD changer and the 16v) in its day also the lack of crash structure makes old cars so much bigger inside.

If I'd been picking our new car it would probably have been either a fiesta ecoboost or a Mazda 2 gt..I wasn't so it's a turbo C3..but yes amazing how far things have come.
 
I suspect an ecoboost fiesta gets pretty close to "all the car you'll actually ever need".

Modern superminis (of which the mk1 punto was one of the first) are so capable compared to the old stuff it's hard to recognise them as the same style of car.

My now relatively old supermini still leaves me immensely impressed with its capabilities, and I do think that it's all the car I will ever need tbh.
 
the lack of crash structure makes old cars so much bigger inside.



I was watching one of those "real A&E" type programs the other day, there was an old escort in an accident with a new super mini and the escort was demolished, the escort had to be cut to bits to get the poor chap out who had broken both thigh bones and ankles. The owner of the super mini got out and walked away, in a different segment there was an old micra with a mother father and son in the back, the front passenger seat ended up collapsed on to the lads leg trapping him in the back till they had cut out both parents.

Years ago people would buy a 'big car' to be safe when now even very modest little cars are like tanks.

My old mk3 fiesta was something like 700kg where as an equivalent new car would be well over a ton
 
I was watching one of those "real A&E" type programs the other day, there was an old escort in an accident with a new super mini and the escort was demolished, the escort had to be cut to bits to get the poor chap out who had broken both thigh bones and ankles. The owner of the super mini got out and walked away, in a different segment there was an old micra with a mother father and son in the back, the front passenger seat ended up collapsed on to the lads leg trapping him in the back till they had cut out both parents.

Years ago people would buy a 'big car' to be safe when now even very modest little cars are like tanks.

My old mk3 fiesta was something like 700kg where as an equivalent new car would be well over a ton
I love classic cars, but it is truly terrifying how unsafe they are in a crash.
You need to try something a bit more modern ;)
Why though? There's absolutely nothing wrong with the car I've got already, lol!
 
I love classic cars, but it is truly terrifying how unsafe they are in a crash.

Why though? There's absolutely nothing wrong with the car I've got already, lol!



There is a difference between a 'classic car' and an rep mobile old escort.


Many years ago people said there was nothing wrong with the broom till someone invented the hoover, then people said there was nothing wrong with the hoover, till James dyson joined the scene.

Progress is not a bad thing. The grande is now a 12 year old design.
 
Cars from the 90s are gradually being seen as classics now. Look at the mk1 this thread is about: that's what's considered to be a modern classic.

And I know my Grande was designed 12 years ago: that honestly doesn't bother me. It still looks great, is nice to drive, and has a few creature comforts.
 
Cars from the 90s are gradually being seen as classics now. Look at the mk1 this thread is about: that's what's considered to be a modern classic.

And I know my Grande was designed 12 years ago: that honestly doesn't bother me. It still looks great, is nice to drive, and has a few creature comforts.

Look at it this way I was perfectly happy with how my mk1 85sx went and drove and how safe it was..then it blew up and I bought something else.

While I like to see Simon's punto, I'm very glad I don't have to use it to Commute to work.
 
But I'm perfectly happy with how my Grande drives, plus imo, it's far better looking than a fiesta too. I must admit though, I wouldn't mind a Punto TwinAir 1 day: that's the only downsized turbo engine that actually appeals to me.

And that's fair enough, not that many people do use classics everyday. Saying that, there's a guy where I work who gets around in a 1982 Vauxhall Chevette saloon, lol!
 
I'm a fiat man. Always have been, I work in a dealership which is fiat ford and Kia, and have driven ecoboost's, had a 500 twin air as my demo as well as a punto twin air as a demo.
As good as the twin air is in the punto, that didn't even cross my mind when buying the wife a car for her. In my opinion there is no comparison, and that pains me to say.

We're not saying you have to go and buy one- you should just have a drive in one- you'll be surprised
 
I don't mind some of the newer Kias and Hyundais actually.



He's just saying you need to go a drive some of these cars and not specifically what you like.

The point being 'You can't claim to have the best car in the world unless you've driven every other car in the world.'

How do you know you're 100% satisfied with your current car if you don't know how it stacks up against newer cars?
 
I'm a fiat man. Always have been, I work in a dealership which is fiat ford and Kia, and have driven ecoboost's, had a 500 twin air as my demo as well as a punto twin air as a demo.
As good as the twin air is in the punto, that didn't even cross my mind when buying the wife a car for her. In my opinion there is no comparison, and that pains me to say.

We're not saying you have to go and buy one- you should just have a drive in one- you'll be surprised

TBH I'd rather have the mk1 1.7TD SX punto ,
than my TA , but I need cruise so I can drive for more than 40 mins.. :eek:

the ride in the TA is shocking.., and build quality isn't fantastic,

but the level of kit for a £12k new car and FREE VED / TAX isn't a bad thing.

KIA,
my in laws have had a few.. 1st one was "unfixable" at 5 years / 40k..
+ loss of equivalent = 2 months wages..

so I won't be buying one anytime soon.;)
 
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