General Punto Sporting Mk1 16v/85 VS Cinquecento Sporting ?

[ytareh]

Can any of you Mk1 Punto Sporting 1.2 guys help out .What sort of mpg do you get on the open road?Are these cars as unreliable as some people suggest?Anyone driven one as well as a Cinq.Sp.?Any replies appreciated.

Heres my Cinq forum post


Im quite tempted to trade up (?!) to a Punto Sporting Mk1 from my Cinq.
My car is a yellow 97 Cinq Sporting 57k miles needing a windscreen ,bumper,4 tyres ,seat repair (the usual place...)and front and maybe rear brake pads/shoes(handbrake is weak too)+??? for the NCT (Irish MOT).It also does the red injector/ecu stutter thing ,if only for a minute or less every few days,has had a clutch cable go in the last few months and is generally while a reliable car doing 80 miles a day for me, likely to require almost as much spending on it as I paid in January (800euro/GB£550)
How does the Punto compare in the handling and mpg department?I get low -mid 40s(mpg) in the Cinq.Sp. and its a joy on the very narrow country roads that make up hardly 5% of my daily route but which are so important to my driving enjoyment.I have driven bigger fancier machinery on these roads but the likes of a big,wide FTO or GTV is literally a chore on narrow practically single lane 'dual cabbageways'(I dont think these kind of roads really exist in much of Britain!)You know the sort of lanes where a pukka Mini Cooper would leave a Ferrari for dead...
Anyway talk me into or out of it anybody whos driven both cars !Thanks!

 

[faster4_tec]

well.
cinq sportings are fab, they handle very well, and as you say are ideal for back lane and road bashing, we have little lanes and seldom used single roads in cumbria in the lakedistrict, and my punto (a 1.2 8v mpi of 75bhp, sportings are 86, your cinq is 55bhp) is ideal, left many much more expensive and far more powerful cars for dead (mainly local knowledge and some balls!).

you will find a punto rides much better than a cinq, yet still has that playful ness, non power steered models are a total joy on lumpy uneven surfaces and wet/muddy conditions (if rural ireland is anything like rural england, you'll know you'll be dodging cow muck, dog walkers, random sheep+cows, and much road debris from recent floods and wind!) make it great for feeling your way along the roads.
sportings AFAIK get power steering which is good compared to the competition, but still, you loose the entertainment of the lower models.

TBH sportings and 85ELX's/sx's are the most reliable of the bunch, the 1242cc 16v engine is a stonker and not prone to overheating and headgasket problems like the 8v's.
however it does need to be serviced more regularly and is more reliant on good oil pumping thru it, so make sure it has good records and the engine isn't tapetty or get any crank rumble.
rear suspension is usually a back break on mk1 puntos.
jack the rear of the car and feel for any play in the rear trailing arm bushs, replacement is cheap and easy, but a pain, and more regular than it should be. if its bad you will be able to hear and feel the back of the car wobbling around when driving over uneven ground.

Hope you get one and join the punto section!
Going to visit ireland early next january, probably drive round and go and finis the costal trip we did (started in county antrim worked anticlockwise and gotround to donagal,) gonna start there and work right far south!

 

[BigJohnD]

TBH sportings and 85ELX's/sx's are the most reliable of the bunch, the 1242cc 16v engine is a stonker and not prone to overheating and headgasket problems like the 8v's.
however it does need to be serviced more regularly and is more reliant on good oil pumping thru it, so make sure it has good records and the engine isn't tapetty or get any crank rumble.
rear suspension is usually a back break on mk1 puntos.
jack the rear of the car and feel for any play in the rear trailing arm bushs, replacement is cheap and easy, but a pain, and more regular than it should be. if its bad you will be able to hear and feel the back of the car wobbling around when driving over uneven ground.

That's spot on.

The Mk1 85 twin cam 16v engine is superb, probably one of the best engines ever in its class. It revs freely right up to 6,000 rpm in standard tune and comes to life between about 3,500 and 5,500 rpm. Because it's efficient, 42mpg is a typical figure.

The rear suspension bearings are a weakness, and if it's been chucked about a bit, (highly likely as it's fun to drive and understeers quite easily, especially in the wet) the front struts could well be worn too, which is an MOT fail. An all wheel alignment check will show immediately how much wear/play there is, and it could easily be 4 or 5 cm at the edge of rear tyres.

The power steering is good, weighted according to speed. And the model was well spec'd too, including a foot rest by the clutch pedal.

I'm not sure when the last ones were made, but low mileage ones must be hard to find now.

 

[ytareh]

My Cinq.Sp. revs to at least 6700 if not 6750.Its got a McKrich chip fitted but I dont think that changes the limiter -in fact it gives more LOW revs torque.Is 6000rpm the absolute max in the Punto Sp?Thanks.

PS if rear arms are shot can you get away with just gettings bushes changed or is it as cheap to change the lot?£200+ish?

 

[beau]

no i think they do rev upto that, but he was saying at 6000 you still get good power as the smaller 8v engines it 'runs' out.

 

[EZ Tutty]

my punto sporting revs to nearly 7.5k lol, power dies at about 6k-6.5k though.

 

[faster4_tec]

cinq sporting = 1108cc 8v spi AFAIK.
rev limit is about 6500rpm
8v punto mk1 = rev limit = 6500rpm on all 8v models, except 1.6 8v they are weird. think 6k limit

mk1 sporting 1242cc 16v/85 16v = 7500rpm, but they run out at 6500rpm, inlet manifold, throttle body and exhaust manifold all kill it. as well as the timing really needing adjusting for such high revving usage.

If I had a chance to buy another mk1 punto, I'd get a 85ELX with all the kit (get a T or V reg model with a/c would be sweet! and all free body coloured handles etc!) low milage (can be had with under 50k still!) at about £1200 for a mint one!

TBH even if the arms need doing, its a fact of life with punto's, if you keep the bearings in check and don't let them get bad you can keep the original arms going for years with cheap replacement bush's.

Love to see if polybush will bring out some better ones in the near future, then I'd get them and be laughing!:devil:

 

[Dan_2587]

I have got a punto mk1 sporting 1242cc 16v and my brother had a 1108cc cinq sporting and i thought it drove like a go cart as it was lowered 40mm just on springs and was quicker than the punto in third gear on must have been chipped but could not prove it but my punto is lowered 40mm but the cinq can out handle the punto also the cinq could do about 85miles to ten pound at about 85-90pence a litre but my punto does about 70miles to ten pound on a push.

 

[karbineftw]

I have got a punto mk1 sporting 1242cc 16v and my brother had a 1108cc cinq sporting and i thought it drove like a go cart as it was lowered 40mm just on springs and was quicker than the punto in third gear on must have been chipped but could not prove it but my punto is lowered 40mm but the cinq can out handle the punto also the cinq could do about 85miles to ten pound at about 85-90pence a litre but my punto does about 70miles to ten pound on a push.

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