Faults:

Cooling fan was coming on from a cold start.

I am now on my 3rd horn, the previous 2 stopped working!

New slave cylinder for clutch to stop a rather irritating "clicking" noise when the clutch was released.

Starting problems - has failed on me a few times although 99% of the time it is fine, however there are a lot of bumps and rattles when starting from cold.

Irregular revs - they drop very very slowly - fiat admit it has a fault, but don't know what it is... surely that's why all cars have a warranty is it not?

Blowing exhaust - getting gradually worse!

Windscreen washer jets packed up.

General Comments:

Quick for a 1.2 - the 16v version is a lot quicker than the standard 8 valve believe me! It is also quicker than an equivalent corsa as I had one as a hire car and I noticed it was a lot slower straight away, the Punto is a very light car however which certainly helps!!

I like the steering, its very direct, but there is a fair bit of body roll so don't try and go around any corners too quickly.

Have had a handful of problems in its first 19,000 miles, nothing too major, but still very annoying.

Seats are quite comfortable and are fairly good on long journeys.

I will never buy another punto I don't think, I do really like the car, but I am forever wondering what will go wrong next, and also the depreciation is just ridiculous - bought new 18 months ago for £9000, now worth £4000, what a joke!

Faults:

After a week of having the car the brakes failed on me. I ended up hitting someone (not hard) but not the point. This was June 2005.

In July 05 the engine malfunction light came on, so I had another trip to the garage who then fixed it.

August 05 and the horn went so this needed to be fixed.

October 05 the engine started making funny noises, I took it to fiat in November who said it is the cam belt that has worn thin and needs replacing. 2 days after that the power steering packed in and the battery acid has leaked, corroding the battery.

General Comments:

I have decided to take the car back to the place where I bought it from where they are giving me a new car (not a punto). I found the people who work at fiat to be rude and were not interested in looking after me. Other than that the car is semi comfortable, has good controls and is nice to drive. Shame it kept going wrong! I think I had a friday afternoon job off the production line.

General Comments:

Performance is excellent for the 1.4 sporting with the 6 speed gearbox well matched to the engine.

Lot of extras for your money including air con, sports seats, leather trim, on board computer and lots of nice little touches inside the car.

0-60 in 9 seconds is excellent for a 1.4 and is capable of hitting 120+ in 6th gear.

Insurance group 7.

Would recommend this car to anyone thinking of choosing a Clio, Saxo, Corsa or Fiesta. Had doubts when I first bought it with it being a Fiat, but I wouldn't change it for any alternative excellent car!