Punto 1.2 8v 2013

Hi there,

I'm wondering if a 2013 Punto would be a reasonable purchase as a town car for the kids. Are there any major weak points to look out for? I'm afraid I don't know much about there and the Punto lineage over the last 10 years or so seems rather confusing - starting from the Punto, going through the Grande Punto, via the Punto Evo back to the Punto. There seems to have been big overlaps when the Grande Punto and the Punto Evo models were simultaneously available.

Any help gratefully received.
Thanks,
Neil

Decent enough little car. 8v is a bit underpowered for the latest Punto bodyshell, but its OK round town

Other than the obvious stuff like service history and damage, the only thing to watch out for is signs of neglect (bearing in mind they are often first cars for people with no money or mechanical sympathy)

The only longstanding 1.2 8v malady is failing headgaskets, so do the usual check for water in the oil and oil in the water

Also, the latest shape suffers from a failure of the wiring loom into the hatch (right where the cables run from the body into the hatch itself - top left corner). Check that the wiper, rear washer and high level brake light all work properly

Otherwise, if its clean and straight and everything works, its a good, stylish first car.

That sounds promising. Thank you Nigel. It will be used mainly around town or on relaxed trips so the lack of propulsion could be excused. Let's see if the one I have found is still around when I can see it

Check for rust at the brake servo:

http://www.fiatforum.com/grande-punto-guides/241678-fix-water-footwell-rust-brake-servo.html

My son has a 1.2 8v Punto Evo "My Life" 3 door (stop/start) and is already complaining that it's underpowered, but then he's been in my modified Coupe around Spa, Snetteron and Assen

It's modern enough to have Bluetooth, USB/MP3 and all that stuff. Insurance is cheap compared to say a Fiesta. Good first car I reckon, much better than the Fiat 850 Saloon that was my first car (843cc, 34hp)

Yes, the 1.2 8v may be a bit underpowered for motorway but will be OK for around town.

I had a 1.2 16v Mk2 Punto and now have a 1.4 8v Grande Punto, both similarly powered but you needed to rev the 1.2 16v to get the best out of it, whereas on the 1.4 8v there's really no point in taking it over about 4K rpm.

I'd say the 1.4 8v is about the minimum that's "ok" for motorway driving + overtaking, with just the driver on board.

The original Punto spawned a larger version called the "Grande Punto" and this then "evolved" into the Punto Evo, but in the final few years was just called Punto.

Thanks guys for the pointers - I'm learning slowly.

I have found a 10/2013 model with 33000kms for about 6000€. The problem is a preregistered one (04/2016) with a nominal 20 kms on the clock, ESP and a Euro6 engine costs 8000€. Both would have about 12 months warranty.

Funnily enough, a similarly basic Panda costs a a bit more even though the list price is much lower. Demand I guess.

My elder daughter's first car was the 843cc Coupe which was had a bit more grunt than yours as it came standard with a dual throat 30 DIC Weber. She bought that 23 years ago and still has it (now on Historic plates).

Up until 6 months ago, we had a 1.4 8v Grande Punto and it was a great city car. As mentioned earlier the 1.2 may lack the grunt for long distance highway driving. Ours gave no trouble in the 8 years and 100,000km of ownership; traded it on a 500X with a 1.4 turbo (103kw).

The motorway stuff should not be a main issue. We have the 20V Coupe, 2 Jaguars and a Tucson Turbo for that

Avoid the 1.2 engine as it's way underpowered out of town.

I have now had my 1.4 diesel Grande Punto for almost 10 years now. Apart from a faulty clutch release bearing lunching itself at 40000 miles it has been trouble free.

Just routine service parts have been needed apart from that. Even the clutch issue took less than 2 hours to fix.

Mine lives outside and there is no sign of the rust at the brake servo to which GrahamL alluded.

Another weak point is front suspension springs... both of mine snapped within a month of each other at under 30K miles. From similar comments on the Fiat forum it's not that unusual.

Also replaced front droplinks (twice) and wishbones to fix knocking noises at around 30K-35K miles, but other than that nothing else that you wouldn't expect from wear and tear on a now 10 year old car. Just passed MOT with no advisories a few weeks ago so will hopefully be good for a few more years yet.

Is the 1.2 so bad? The 1.4 only has 77PS vs. the 69PS of the 1.2. I don't think either are going to be exciting but a lot better than the 1982 series 1 Panda I had as a first car

I will get a drive in one in the next few days.

Btw, I always liked those 850 Coupes. I still remember them flying past us on our first continental trip in my dad's Austin 1100!!!

Yes. The local dealership had one as a courtesy car, and if it was the only one available when mine went in for a service, they used to apologise to me for giving me the slug.

If you can, test drive a few for yourself before making a decision between 1.2 and 1.4. As you say, it's a "town car for the kids" presumably to be driven by the kids rather than being used as a vessel to transport the kids driven by you?

The 1242cc lump started out more than 20 years ago in the Punto Mk1 with 60bhp. It had about 820kg to lug around, so it wasn't quick - "adequate" is probably as good as it gets

It was then used in the Mk2 and Mk2B, where it remained at 60bhp, despite the weight creeping up by 50kg or so. The chassis was nicer than the Mk1, so the lack of speed was slightly made up for by neater handling

For the Grande Punto and Punto Evo, the same 1242cc lump was "tuned" to a whopping 65bhp, but by now, the addition of a bigger shell, loads of squishy safety equipment and plusher trim etc had bloated the car to over 1,000kg, so the power to weight ratio suffered badly

The 0-60 time is reputed to be about 14 seconds, but it feels an awful lot slower.

The 1.4 is definitely a better engine, but commands a higher price

1.2 is obviously cheaper to insure

My stepson's Grande Punto 1.4 16V has been a great first car; nippy, but not too expensive to insure. Although, it has taught him a lot about how tough it is to run a car when you earn squat.

the 1.2 sounds perfect for a first car if it's slow!

Makes you think further ahead too

"Slow is good" was actually my first thought as son has already damaged the Impreza enough to have to have it collected in a skip.

We seem to get the 1.2 8V and the 1.4 8V here. There seems to be 1 second difference in the 0-60 time, 6 mph top speed but 2000€ if one buys a new or nearly one. 2000€ for going from really slow to almost really slow seems poor value for money. I expect at the price point of the 1.4, I could start to consider more modern products.

Nerd alert ! Cue Mr Bean nerd voice Actually I'll think you'll find, in the Mk1 Punto, the 1242 came with 60, 75 and 85bhp (in the 16v sporting.) The base model had a 1.1 with 55bhp.

I had the 1.2 SX with 75bhp, and it had quite good performance so long as you didn't have too many passengers.

I hankered after the 1.4 GT turbo, which then became a 1.8NA in the later Punto. Both had 130bhp.

On watchdog it had an programme about the Fiat 1.2 engines and many are mapped to give low emissions as the engine is an old design but are then painfully under powered. Surely someone like flea might be able to remap them?

I love the Punto Cabriolet, they come in 1.2 or 1.6, and there are still a few about, on Gumtree.

Thinking a bit deeper about it, there are really much more up-to-date cars for not much more money, so buying a new or nearly new Punto does not really make sense when very little more than the price of the 1.4 Punto buys for example a Hyundai i20 or a Kia Rio with 100+ h.p. which are both modern and well equiped.

Thanks everyone for the help in understanding a bit more about the Punto though. Very much appreciated.