General Thinking of buying a punto...advice from the experts? (styling/tuning)

[r1ze]

firstly, hello to everyone

ill jump right in to it.

Its almost time to make that all important purchase of....a new car. Now I've been shopping around and due to my age (22) and only 2 weeks ago taking out insurance in my own name I'm veryyyyyyyy limited to what car I can get (no NCB's). So I've pretty much narrowed it down to a few cars and a Punto is at the top of my list but theres a few things I'm curious about.

So another car I'm thinking of getting is a clio 182 but the insurance is alot more compared to a punto and the build quality just seems abit...cheap n' nasty on the clio. I love the styling and the cost of the new punto's but it certainly doesnt have as much power as the clio so I was wondering (as chav-ish as it may sound) what things could be changed to give the car a nice performance boost bearing in mind im a complete crayon when it comes to cars and I'm not looking to spend crazy money nor am i looking for an unrealistic improvement in performance. So I'm just looking for an estimate on how much money would have to go into it and what sort of gains i could expect, or if attempting something like that would be down right stupid

Secondly I've seen 1 or 2 adverts on ebay advertising punto's with the Linea body kit. Absolutely love the styling of the kit but I've done abit of a search and can't really find anywhere that stocks the full kit (alloys as well) and I'm clueless on how much the kit would cost to install and be sprayed to match the car colour..

any help/advice would be HUGELY appreciated. Thanks

 

[missey]

Hi and welcome to the forum

I take it you are refering to the Grande Punto, which has it's own section, this area is for mk1 + 2 puntos

So I will move it to relevant section for you, but don't expect many to recommend a renault over a fiat lol

 

[Vimto Rolf]

know the feeling well. when my parents bought my punto i was (just about) able to afford a 182 now driving a 1.2 grande punto against a 182 clio i know which id have. but that is a personal opinion as mad as it may seem. and frankly id rather arrive late in style than arrive early in a bag of crap (not an insult to the clio as i do like them). thing to look at is (doesnt matter whether this applies in this case or not) do you waant just go or just style or a balance between the two. whether you prefer the looks of a clio or gp can only be decide by you same goes performance wise (whether you buy abarth or are prepared to mod) as a grande can be quicker than a clio. but a clio can be quicker than a grande. this all depends on money.

unbiased perspecive: id say look at the specs and a few pics as well as budget and decide.

biased perspective: id say go clio (balance of already achieved performance, price, looks, and modding capability.)

looks only: id say grande

performance only: id say clio


i hope that helps (knowing me it wont) and good luck

 

[adamcot]

Hi! it all depends on which engine you want in a Grande, if you buy a 1.9 Multijet diesel (like mine) you can have as much power as the clio with a simple £200 ECU remap

 

[punto_matt]

Back to your usual crap carl. Could afford a 182? At 17? insurance would be as much as the car and your Ma wouldnt be very happy with that now would she? You say you had the money to buy one so why didnt you then and why are you always saying you have no money to mod as surely if you could afford a 182 then this means you have 5k lying around doing nothing.

You cannot compare a grande to a 182 they are completely different. If you cannot afford to insure/dont want to pay that much then doing engine modifications to a slower car and declaring them isnt really the way to go tbh as this is likely to be more expensive for you.

After reading carls post again i would ignore everything in it. From what i know he doesnt have any experience of 172s or 182s. If he did he would be reccomending a 172 cup to go for as this is the best one out the lot. The only time a GP will be quicker than an RS is when rolling and then this would only be true if you were in a modded T or M jet.


Linea kit is silly expensive from Fiat and with spraying i would say it probably comes in at over 1k.

 

[Tris Harris]

The clio goes better and handles better than the GP, but i would have a T-jet over one personally as the clio looks like a piece of sh!t

 

[punto_matt]

I wouldnt, clio is a much better car in every way. Shame its NA and french though.

 

[Tris Harris]

you could have had a used 172 with some warranty left for what you paid for yours though matt?

 

[punto_matt]

Too expensive to insure at the time and i didnt have the choice to go 2nd hand.

 

[Tris Harris]

yours still looks better, and forced induction is cool.

 

[punto_matt]

I like my car(sometimes) and i wouldnt swap it for a 182 but a 182/172 is a better car if you are after performance. I like forced induction too much anyway so i couldnt go across to one.

 

[beany_bot]

know the feeling well. when my parents bought my punto i was (just about) able to afford a 182 now driving a 1.2 grande punto against a 182 clio i know which id have. but that is a personal opinion as mad as it may seem. and frankly id rather arrive late in style than arrive early in a bag of crap (not an insult to the clio as i do like them). thing to look at is (doesnt matter whether this applies in this case or not) do you waant just go or just style or a balance between the two. whether you prefer the looks of a clio or gp can only be decide by you same goes performance wise (whether you buy abarth or are prepared to mod) as a grande can be quicker than a clio. but a clio can be quicker than a grande. this all depends on money.

unbiased perspecive: id say look at the specs and a few pics as well as budget and decide.

biased perspective: id say go clio (balance of already achieved performance, price, looks, and modding capability.)

looks only: id say grande

performance only: id say clio


i hope that helps (knowing me it wont) and good luck

Rolf, what is that all about words fail me

 

[adamcot]

182/172 is a better car if you are after performance. I like forced induction too much anyway so i couldnt go across to one.

:yeahthat: but as the OP says, insurance is too much for young people. GP is cheap to insure, and does look better than just a Clio

 

[Tris Harris]

the clio makes jade goody look pretty

 

[punto_matt]

GP is better than a clio looks wise but thats it.

 

[r1ze]

Wow thanks for the replies lads last time I posted on a car forum they pretty much called me a retard n told me to p!ss off

anyway back to the subject. I was thinking of just getting a remap but I wasn't sure if there was anything else I'd need to take into consideration as I've read very mixed oppinions on going for just a remap without upgrading any of the engine as some people say it puts to much 'strain' on the engine. Is that true or would a remap on it's own do the job just fine?

As far as styling is concerned. I certainly love the looks of a punto and I'm not into all these over the top body kits. However when I saw the linea body kit I just had to see how much in total I'd be looking and £1000+ sounds like abit too much money

 

[Tris Harris]

Wow thanks for the replies lads last time I posted on a car forum they pretty much called me a retard n told me to p!ss off

anyway back to the subject. I was thinking of just getting a remap but I wasn't sure if there was anything else I'd need to take into consideration as I've read very mixed oppinions on going for just a remap without upgrading any of the engine as some people say it puts to much 'strain' on the engine. Is that true or would a remap on it's own do the job just fine?

As far as styling is concerned. I certainly love the looks of a punto and I'm not into all these over the top body kits. However when I saw the linea body kit I just had to see how much in total I'd be looking and £1000+ sounds like abit too much money

what engine are you looking at?

1.4 turbo
1.9 turbo diesel

or one of the n/a engines?

remap will see you about an extra 50bhp on the diesel for £200 and so long as you dont rag it anywhere, wont do any damage.

the 1.4 turbo doesnt gain that much from a remap as the turbo is at its limit anyway it seems (due to pushing out 140bhp standard ratehr than the stated 120bhp)

the n/a engines dont see much from a remap really

 

[punto_matt]

You havent said what GP you are looking at so cant really say if a remap is worth it or not.

 

[adamcot]

remap will see you about an extra 50bhp on the diesel for £200 and so long as you dont rag it anywhere, wont do any damage.

Had mine for 13,000 miles now and not a problem :woot:

 

[punto_matt]

I got mine done at 4k im now on near enough 20k