General General feelings on owning a Punto

[cara8]

Ok so I have a white 1997 fiat punto. I cant say I love the car at the moment. It has had its fair share of problems since I have had it that being nearly 2 years. The steering lock got stuck and i had the ignition dismantled which is currently being fixed. I think the head gasket is going or gone as a few times last summer it over heated and when I refilled it with water it didnt always retain it, didnt leak though? have a feeling I will need to bleed the radiator, well I say me my dad will lol. though it did go for a few months with out doing it?!?
Anyway, I have had 2 previous cars in a mazda 121 and a peugeot 306 then I got frankie fiat. I always wanted a punto. Now i am not so sure. My brother in law always laughed and said fiat stands for Fix It Again Tomorrow, which I think I am tending to agree on. so is it worth me puttin time and money (which is tight having a 8 month old) to get frankie back to his glory days? or should I just give up?

 

[lampy]

personally i would fix it as your not likely to get any good money for a car with head problems plus you will end up spending more money buying a new car than it would cost to repair your punto.

also if you do fix it you can tick it off your list of things likely to fail lol

 

[cara8]

I guess so. Just this bitterness with this car as I need it more than ever having a baby and i return to work next week. a case or rotten timing and bad luck i guess

 

[fiatlady]

My husband had a stilo to about 2 years ago and his head gasket went and it cost a lot of money to fix. It wasnt driveable with the head gasket gone so he had to get it repaired. Ive got a punto and had a few problems over the 10 years ive had it but nothing major has happened and it still runs well. touch wood

 

[RaulCarnahan]

Ok so I have a white 1997 fiat punto. I cant say I love the car at the moment. It has had its fair share of problems since I have had it that being nearly 2 years. The steering lock got stuck and i had the ignition dismantled which is currently being fixed. I think the head gasket is going or gone as a few times last summer it over heated and when I refilled it with water it didnt always retain it, didnt leak though? have a feeling I will need to bleed the radiator, well I say me my dad will lol. though it did go for a few months with out doing it?!?
Anyway, I have had 2 previous cars in a mazda 121 and a peugeot 306 then I got frankie fiat. I always wanted a punto. Now i am not so sure. My brother in law always laughed and said fiat stands for Fix It Again Tomorrow, which I think I am tending to agree on. so is it worth me puttin time and money (which is tight having a 8 month old) to get frankie back to his glory days? or should I just give up?

When headgasket is going it doesnt always have an apparent leak.
I can't really say much for Mk1 Punto as I've never had one or driven one either.
I am very happy with my Mk2 though. Never had any major problems with it, other than some rust on the sills, but once that was sorted, it runs fine.
My friends also threw the odd 'fix it again tomorrow' joke at me but i've never had to. These things can be made up for any car but its true a lot of punto's get abused a lot and when sold the new owners get problems with it and therefore get a bad impression.

 

[Caravadossi]

Ok so I have a white 1997 fiat punto. I cant say I love the car at the moment. It has had its fair share of problems since I have had it that being nearly 2 years ... I always wanted a punto. Now i am not so sure. My brother in law always laughed and said fiat stands for Fix It Again Tomorrow, which I think I am tending to agree on. so is it worth me puttin time and money (which is tight having a 8 month old) to get frankie back to his glory days? or should I just give up?

It's a 15yo car ... with a life expectancy of 6 years. Generally (unless you're lucky) after 6 years a car becomes a `money pit'

120107

 

[sb18180]

i have an 02 punto which has become a money pit due to electrics

 

[dumbledore]

If your not planning to maintain the car yourself then 15yo car is a risky proposition. If it is a Fiat the risks are higher. The good thing is the Fiat is relative easy to fix and parts are cheap.

 

[Brendan W]

We bought ours used seven years ago. It was far superior to the 206 , Fiesta etc in terms of space, fun and nippiness. It was also £500 less to buy because of it's poor reputation. Unfortunately cheap cars get treated cheaply and many, not all, of the Punto's problems are due to poor maintenance. In many ways it's an old school Italian car - great package but high maintenance compared to the standards set by some eastern car makers. AA membership and extended warranty are no substitute for weekly checks - a dying art.Truthfully it helps a lot if there is a competent mechanic in the family circle as it's easily fixed and parts are cheap. In our time with the Punto the only problems have been clutch failing at 42k and headgaskets at 60 and 86k. It sails through it's nct on original suspension and steering bits and have replaced one bulb. Not bad.

 

[jimboy]

As pointed out, a fifteen, year old car. A car this age will need some looking after, you need to keep on top of things. Some say the cooling system was a weak point, that's not strictly true, the lack of maintenance usually is the down fall of these wee cars. The good news is, the Mk1 is very easy to work on. If the car is pretty much rust free it's worth breathing a bit of new life into it.

Parts are cheap & can be sourced easily.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

I spent years running around in old cars, I had a mondo that you could guarantee would cost £500 in repairs for every MOT it ever had, a few years back I needed a much cheaper to run car as I was returning to full time education so opted for a 3 year old fiat punto and guess what? That's right it still had its faults.
In fact my brother is running around in a 2007 skoda Octavia and he just had a £1000 repair bill for that.

As the old saying goes "better the devil you know" people spend a fortune on their cars only to have to change the brake pads on a service deciding in that moment enough is enough "I'm selling it and buying a new one" except they've looked after that car for years and in buying a new one they are back to square one having to fix all the same problems again.

If you're still driving Frankie about without catastrophic over heating for every trip to the shops then there is a good chance the head gasket is ok, but take it as a warning and treat it to a new thermostat and Coolent, as it's 15 years old might even be worth a new water pump just to be on the safe side make sure you give the system a good flush out with a garden hose to get rid of 15 years of kak jamming up the Coolent system.

Ignition barrels can break but you've fixed it's now so its no longer a problem.

And finally.... Mazda 121 seriously?? What are you like 85?

 

[fingers99]

Old cars are cheaper to run only if you can do your own repairs. It's as simple as that.

 

[damorgue69]

had my 02 jtd for 2 years.....so far, shattered the front passenger side suspension (strut, spring, anti roll bar and the arm):bang:, the drivers side spring snapped, had the delicate rear brakes rebuilt twice, 1 set of tyres all round, and the normal servicing that goes with a 96k car and 12k a year!!!

all in, spent less than £300...scrappys a great place!!!:worship:

do i like the car? hell yeah!:slayer:
starts first time, every time, even when left for 8days in the snow. goes everywhere i want, scares some other drivers :devil: who don't expect a punto, especially a diesel to do those things (70ish )

would i buy another one? yes
fiat...fix it again tomorrow
ford...fix or repair daily

 

[blu73]

Old cars are cheaper to run only if you can do your own repairs. It's as simple as that.

:yeahthat:

Whether a mk1 punto is worth spending money on to keep going.. Well it depends on its overall condition really.. Many of them are now rotten underneath, even ones that look ok at a glance from the outside. I would have a good look around the car, if its in good shape then i don't see a reason not to keep it. As with most cars, take care of it and it'll do its job looking after you

 

[s and b]

As has been said its nigh 15 years old and made out of old dustbins so if you only have problems like a worn key in the ignition sortable easily if you look in the for sale section and a headgasket issue where its one of the easiest cars in the world to sort i think you are doing well.

A pewgot is a nightmare to fix and at this age would be well pushing up daisies and a fiesta would be rotten as a rotten pear that the rats ignored
head down pecker up its good cheap motoring and fiats are good cars,remember you only hear the problem stories anyway

 

[blu73]

I have owned 8 fiats ( i think its 8 lol ) - none of them have been unreliable, infact quite the opposite, i have broke down on the road once in all of them in 10 years! And even then i was able to bodge it and get home without needing rescuing by anyone - santa pod to york in 2nd gear :slayer:

 

[shaun200765]

:yeahthat:

As with most cars, take care of it and it'll do its job looking after you

Well said

 

[pippa2211]

Got a white Mk1 s60 (98), love my car, learnt to drive in her, past my test in her. Got a 'to do' list, who hasnt? But overall, want to get her up to top grade running, not interested in pimping her out, just want to get her up to top grade running standards and pamper her a bit. Must admit she did frighten the life out of me the other day tho, recycling the rubbish and on way out of tip (of all places) the rear brake pipe split on me and totally lost the brakes, thankfully was only going about 5 mph down a slope so managed to stop on hand brake (checked with fiat, she'd already been to her recall ), fixing her today with copper, so far replaced gearbox, clutch slave, clutch assembly, washer pump, wiper motor, only (touch wood) got minor things left like replacing the left side indicator cover as one of the clips broke. Thinking of giving her some redex, but worried it might remove the dirt thats holding her together...lol. Have got a friend that was trained as a mechanic and he is teaching me how to do the work, so unless something needs specialist tools, I am trying to do the work myself, got to admit, I now know far more of the internal workings of a gearbox than I ever wanted to.......

 

[Darth Odious]