Fiat Grande Punto Multijet Emotion PK

Amit COngretulations.

Me too Proud owner of Palio NV bought on 23rd Sept 2003, still running fine.

Enjoy your ride..

The car was delivered to me on a Sunday but within a few years I noticed that was some sound coming seemingly from the underbody of the car. It felt as if something was hitting the underbody of the car - probably a loose silencer muffler? Anyway, the next day the car was taken to Fortune, Nerul and the service guys immediately changed the link rods saying that certain batches had the problem of faulty link rods. However, when the car was taken for a test drive it was found that the sound still was present. The mechanics got to work immediately and a engine mount nut was found loose in the engine bay. It took all of 1 minute to tighten the offending loose nut that was left loose by some nut at Fiat's Ranjangaon plant and I was good to go.

Surrounding nuts were checked and all of them passed the test with flying colours.

I also noticed that the plastics surrounding the steering coloumn are very poorly finished.

Design defect? Rubber beading inside engine bay on passenger side gets cut within a fortnight of ownership.

Reason? There is constant pressure from the engine hood hold lever. Maybe something for Fiat to think about?

Somewhere around 2xxxkms the rear parcel tray broke during normal operation. Culprit was the cheap clip. I haven't complained yet to Fiat ASC about this as I want to wait for them to work a permanant solution.

Firs service was done at 3000kms with no issues to report. Clutch master cylinder was replaced at Fiat ASC initiative as they found a minor leak. Total bill amount was zero.

Besides these minor issues, there are no issues , rattles or niggles to report. Car has performed flawlessly and delighted me with his ride and handling. Highway drives have included a run from Mumbai to Gujarat and a couple of runs to Lonavala. Every time I drive her on the highway the high speed stability impresses and amazes me. So good is the Punto at high speeds that it almost makes my Palio S10 feel outdated. My other car, SX4, is simply blown away.

Engine sound is high specially post 2000rpm and rises dramatically at 2500rpm and beyond. However, below 2000rpm engine sound is barely audible and refinement levels have improved dramatically post running in. So drastic was the improvement in engine noise at idle and upto 2000rpm that even a female passenger asked me "Have you done something with the car today? It's so silent!"

As shown in the pictures, best mileage achieved is 21.3kmpl. This was over a total distance of about 755kms , 421kms of which were pure highway driving. Over the 421kms highway driving, mileage was 24.3kmpl.

My daily driving is almost 65% highway, ACC is on all the time and there are a maximum of 2 passengers in the car. Tyre pressure maintained at 29psi on all tyres. The mileage is hovering around 17.5 to 18.5kmpl. There is a dip in mileage ever since the running in was through. Time to exercise control over my right foot

More later.

Punto looks great in red.Very nice pics.

Amit thanks for the update, so the Linea is serving you quite well. The niggling issues are still a irritant(clutch cylinder,loose engine mount nut etc).

Are the FE figures from the on-board trip computer?

I thought its a Punto Thread. Boss

Hey Congrats Amit. I too have booked my Punto (1.2) through Fortune. I rejected the first piece as those nuts drove it all the way from their Ranjangaon Factory.  Now I'm waiting for the second piece.

The clutch master cylinder is a mystery. I didn't have any problems with it's functioning before and even after it was changed by Tata-Fiat ASC. Yes, loose engine mount nut was really silly to have on a brand new car but luckily it was solved in one day and I haven't had any further problems with anything after that. Till now I have just made two visits to the ASC - once for the loose engine mount nut and the next time for the first service.

Fuel efficiency figures are manual calculations on tank full to tank full basis. The MID overstates mileage by an average of about 5-6%. Pretty accurate I say! I will update with the last mileage I got:

Manual : 17.50kmpl.

MID: 18.50kmpl.

Error: 5.41%

Great deduction Amit

I heard about error in speedometer but not in MID

@Nitin -thanks for pointing out the typo.

@Amit-17+ FE seems to be right in the middle of the ballpark for the class of car(was this in the city and what about the % AC use?)

Binoy, my daily driving pattern is (those in Mumbai will know this better)

Chembur - MIDC Thane-Belapur Road - Vashi sec 17 - Vashi railway station - Kharghar - Chembur. Roughly 70-80kms per day. This route is about 65% highway driving.

ACC on all the time. Temperature set at 18 deg C currently.

Tyre pressure 29psi all 4 tyres.

Max 2 adults in the car. No cargo at all unless you consider a laptop and lunch box as cargo .

As I said, I have realised that the mileage has fallen after the running period  and I put that on my heavier right foot (I drove a Palio S10 for almost 6 years!). In the running in phase the manual mileage was consistantly around 18 - 18.50kmpl.