Looking for a bit of advice for past and present owners and people who have worked on Punto's.
My mum is 80% down the road to buying a '99 1.2 60SX, 59k FSH, £3000 Punto. Had a good look on the C by C B'down and various threads on the forum. We are in the process of grilling the garage owner to see what has and hasn't been done e.g. cylinder head gasket, rear suspension problems etc. Assuming none of these problems have ocurred previously is she letting herself in for trouble in the next 10-15000 miles. The garage has offered 12 month gaurantee for £100, my advice was to check every item highlighted in the C by C breakdown was covered on the warranty and take a chance.
Any advice greatfully received, thanks in advance.
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Ellis- you seem to have answered your own question !
The only possible problems as far as I'm aware are the rear trailing arms that knock out the bearings, and rusting sumps.Read the warranty extremely carefully they're not usually worth the money or the paper they're written on. BTW the rear sus. arms are approx £60 direct from Fiat and the labour time to fit 1 hr approx.
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I had two old shape fiat punto's that were reliable and fun to drive. Only problems were self inflicted. I would certainly recommend them as long as they have full dealer service history. Even the 1.2 is fairly nippy and economical and the bodies are galvanised so no rusting wrecks like fiats of old.
New shape is not as good as I have had various problems with the engine and annoying squeaks from rear suspension and problems with the heater. Wouldn't recommend them.
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I once had the car you describe, a Punto SX, from new to 45k miles. Apart from a sticking electric window sorted under warranty, it never gave any trouble. That said, it wasn't a patch on the Clio dci that replaced it. Setting aside equipment levels, the refinement of the Clio was well ahead of the Punto, and that's comparing a diesel to a petrol. Plus I found the Punto extremely uncomfortable over long journeys - either my arms were stretched to the limit or my legs were too cramped. The accelerator pedal was too offset to the left and my right ankle still gets a twinge in it from time to time - haven't driven the car in a year and a half! However, my wife is smaller than me and never had a problem getting comfortable - her shorter legs meant she could pull the seat close enough to the steering wheel. My wife also had a Punto (how sad - but it's hard to argue with three year's free insurance) which suffered quite badly from flaking paint on the bonnet after getting some chips from driving through the spray of a gritting truck.
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Ellis - I have found Puntos to be roomy, economical and well designed, though I personally have not yet come to like the shape. Problem areas have been mentioned - rusting sump (though nowhere else), feeble elec.window motors, and poor adhesion of paint on plastic parts like mirror housings. Otherwise quite cheap to buy and run, and depreciation not bad.
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hi i have a 97 1.2sx punto with 70000k.I did read somewhere about potential problems (cant remember where)and they said about rear bottom arm bushes, rear shockers,disc and pads and heater matrix problems.When i bought mine i had to replace rear shockers.Since then the rear arms have both warn and the heater matrix leaked.I did buy the car cheap so i cannot complain but it is worth looking out for these problems.The rear arm problems are the bolts seizing in the arms and the rubber bushes then fell.To check jack up car and lift bottom arms if they are worn ther will be play in them.Hope this will help
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My wife's cousin bought a PUNTO second hand (1 year old). It has just got through it's first MOT after having the complete floor pan renewed by the dealer on Fiat's authorisation. Apparently every seam had rusted so bad that the assessor said it was worse than you would expect in a 20 year old car! That work done the steering column needed replacing. All OK now and done under warranty. A colleague at work has the same model and has had two steering columns and trouble with disk brakes and paint. All done under warranty.
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