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mlj Mon 21 Jun 04 16:50
However, last month the wipers packed up and our local (excellent) garage discovered the whole motor assembly had more or less disintegrated. They rebuilt it with a little ingenuity and a lot of patience.
Had same problem on 03 1.2 8v 5 door active.
Dealer gave me a 1.2 16v for 3 weeks while waited for part - alot better engine and far more fun to drive. If i was going for anoter punto i would certianly choose the 16valve.
Decent car for space - just seemed to flimsy and some of the fit was poor.
In its favour - doesnt rust as much as kia/hyundai!
I might be in the market for a new punto before they replace it late next year - tempting if the suspension has been sorted out.
BTW - there is a hole in the exhaust. Its a fiat design fault, and to put a long story short - they had to put a hole in the box to prevent it rusting. Its a pain and reduces slightly your mpg, but able to live with.
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We've had a 2000(X) 1.2 8v Punto ELX for over two years now and we have done about 16000 miles in that time. We've had lots of problems, the car has been off the road for days at a time and cost quite a bit to get repaired. It has cost more to run per mile than our 99(T) Vectra.
I know other people with Puntos and I have to say that there has been a higher proportion of them with problems than people I know with other makes of car.
We can't afford to sell the Punto so we just use it as little as possible and keep putting extra miles on the Vectra. We wouldn't dare buy another Fiat.
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>> My better half has a 1.2 8v base model >> of the sort you're looking at getting. I think you mean other half ;-). Not thinking of selling it are you?
No, definitely better half.... :-)
Selling it? Sadly not - she's very attached to it. I can, however, recommend the supplying dealer (PDH Garages in Hassocks, West Sussex) without hesitation - my family have been customers of theirs for around 10 years and they have been very good. They always seem to have an enormous quantity of used Puntos for sale (I think they get a lot of the ex-fleet ones, given the number of Bristol registrations one sees on their forecourt).
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I had an 01 X reg HGt for about 9 months, having previously had a Saab 9000. I've had quite a few Fiats in the past and had very few problems with them. The Punto was good fun and troublefree for a while, but the appalling ride quality of the HGT began to wear very thin and I sold it and bought a Saab 9-5. The difference in ride was a revelation.
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Good choice, at least I get to keep my 9-5 even though I lose the 9000!
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PaulB has raised a good point - large numbers of Puntos reach the private market after 5-10K miles in a rental fleet, so the quality can vary quite a bit. Check thoroughly, especially for complete documents (and the ones that belong to the car - my daughter's Punto came from a franchise, but its service record is for another car).
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Well, they only seem to have one Punto in stock at the moment :-(, but I'll check the site regularly. Thanks for the tip.
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Well, they only seem to have one Punto in stock at the moment :-(, but I'll check the site regularly. Thanks for the tip.
For some reason, Fiat's own "approved used" site always seems to show more of their stock than their own site, I'm never sure why - Fiat site therefore might be worth a punt(o). Sorry, couldn't resist! :-)
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Please please DO NOT buy a Fiat Punto we have had three in our family,on mine the head gasket went at 35,000 miles, on my daughter's car the head gasket went at 34,000 miles. My wiring loom burn out in a very odd place, her wiring loom burnt out in exactly the same place. On mine I had to replace two rear brake drums that went oval. My sump rusted through. The linkage broke in the air filter box that routes hot air to the engine in cold weather (£125),plus many other faults.
My daughter (against my advice) then brought a brand new Fiat Punto (the latest model) recently at just under three years old the windscreen wiper motor has broken (they won't pay under warranty as she was one week late for her first service). And now guess what, her sump has rusted through ...... mine rusted throught 4 years ago ... they have had that long to resolve the problem .... maybe an extra couple of quid to galvanise the sumps ... but stuff the customer.
I will now ONLY buy a Toyota or Honda.
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Very economical. Quiet. Will pull 100mph on the motorway once you're there. Bit jelly-like and unstable on fast bumpy bends, but not frighteningly so. Best driven fairly gently, when it is refined, comfortable and super-frugal.
Hired one in Spain the other week, 10,000 miles or so, still mechanically perfect.
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the complete wiper and linkage for these i obtained at my factors all in for £55 fiat are about £120.
It takes 20 minutes to fit as they are a complete cartridge.
Sumps do rot, cover it in hammerite or grease etc when you buy it and then forget the problem.
Personally i think they are good cars but the later ones do seem to suffer from ecu blow ups,something i never encountered with the mk1 of which i have dealt in lots of and rated them highly.
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Bought my 1.2 8 valve new in Jan 02, it's now done 70k miles, serviced on schedule at an independant, I've taught my 2 sons to drive in it and now my youngest drives it most of the time and drives it mercilessly (went through a set of front brake pads in 13k miles. The problems I've had:
Needed a complete new exhaust system at 3 years.
Needed front discs at 3 years.
Radio cassette packed up, replaced under warranty.
The battery will need replacing this winter.
Can belt is soon due for replacement at 72k
Permanent oil leak from rocker cover gasket, treat this gasket as a consumable.
In my opinion, they are a good car that will take a lot of punishment, or am I just lucky to have bought a good one?
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I was looking for a small car for my 17 daughter to learn to drive, last summer which would come
below a £3000 budget for car plus one year's insurance. After looking at polos, corsas fiestas
etc I found a '51'reg for £2000 with about 35k miles on the clock.First point I would make is
that second hand values of fiat are well below similar sized other popular models.
The one I bought,1.2 8valve, had a head casket replacement done 6months previously, an authentic
invoice,£700 was among the paper work. Since then I have replaced a lamba sensor and an
electrical part of the air bag system at a cost of £200 approx.
My daughter has found it fine as first car, though road noise is definitely present not a serious
problem. My own feeling is that fiat build quality is not upto today's standards it was
acceptable given the much lower purchase price. I fancy there are more than a few real lemons out
there which one would regret getting involved with.
And incidently we did get close to budget of £3000 thanks to Tesco insurance at £850
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I personally wouldn't go anywhere near one unless you like spending time sitting at the side of the road waiting for the AA- a mate had one and everything you could think of went wrong. Wipers packed up in pouring rain, headgasket went, then the clutch gave up the ghost, then the exhaust dropped off, then when it was back running properly again the ECU packed in.
Still, atleast when its broken down you don't have to put up with the awful ride and gutless engine.
In a word, don't.
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gutless engine.
>>>>>>>>>.
>>>>>>>
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unfair, they are cracking engines.
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You do seem to get mixed reports on Punto but all I can say is I bought a new pre reg 1.2 8V Punto Active in June 2003, its now done 76K with very few problems detailed as as follows
Stickimg Bonnet catch, replaced under warrenty
New front disks needed at about 50k
Complete new exhaust pipe a couple of months ago.
Engine is very refined if driven resonably wouldnt call it gutless, can do up to 50mpg, bargin motoring.
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