Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong with the car as yet, apart from a few minor faults with thesunroof, which was sorted after turning the ignition of and then on again.

The car seems to have done a lot of miles, however, it had a new engine from Fiat put in at 40,000 miles, so the car has actually only done roughly 65,000 miles in total on new engine.

General Comments:

I loved the car from the second I saw it, the Italian styling is amazing especially on the Sporting model in sprint blue, both on the inside and out, the inside is classy and creates a feel of quality. The sporty seats are those which you would expect to see in a much bigger engined sports car, which is great for a car that costs this much.

I haven't yet passed my test, but, have it booked. I have driven a lot of cars, just practicing, but this car is the most hard thing to drive I have ever driven, the clutch is so tight, and as a result I tend to put too much power into first gear with the close gearing configuration, therefor on occasions stalling it. I guess it's only practice that will solve that, but I thought at first that the car had a fault of some kind.

Overall the car is stunning and I would buy another Fiat, but maybe not until I have more experience at driving, the Fiat Punto Sporting 1.2 16v is not a wise choice for a first car, with insurance group so high and if you have little experience at driving. But I can't sell it I love the looks, colour, styling of the car too much, so I'll just have to get the hang of it.

Faults:

Paint defects on off-side front door on delivery.

Rear washer inoperative from new.

Glove box catch faulty from new.

Doors difficult to shut (need a considerable slam).

Water stain to interior roof lining from new. Transpired a drain hose from the sunroof had not been connected in the factory. Had a replacement lining, but this was not fitted correctly so had to have further work!

Nearside rear shock absorber leaked at 4000 miles (a dangerous defect).

Suffers from carbon stains on rear valence (from exhaust).

Faulty windscreen wipe motor replaced at 7000 miles.

Rusty nearside front door at 7000 miles.

Car was off-the-road for 30 days in its first year!

General Comments:

Amazing engine. Superb torque at next-to-no revs. Always gives acceleration regardless of the selected gear. Can push the car along at 1500 rpm, yet also goes up to normal petrol engine limits (although there's no extra power up there!) so little to be gained above 3500 rpm. Fantastic economy; 60+ mpg is not difficult and 70+ perfectly possible. Would expect overall average around 60mpg.

Low cost of ownership.

Everything else though is pretty poor.

Ride is appallingly hard for this sort of car.

Made mistake of buying 3 door model (cheaper and fewer possible rust points) but front doors are too wide and access to rear is difficult.

Faults:

Rear Suspension Arm At 10,000 Miles, Due to rattling.

Juddering Wipers.

Knocking noise coming from rear passenger side.

High revving at 5000-6000, causing car to drive itself (current problem)

Brake Discs needed replacing at 20,000.

Noisy water pump.

Headlights switching themselves off.

Engine sounds like a quiet diesel.

1st to 2nd gear bad.

Juddering clutch.

General Comments:

Nice car to look at, but loads of faults, dealers no help. found knocking noise myself at rear, it was the folding seat latch, the plastic on the catch was worn, put some electrical tape around bar, noise stopped. Has anyone suffered very high revs when driving car at normal temperature, engine doesn't do it when cold, I only had it serviced 3 days before, they don't want to know. it doesn't seem to do it with air filter box off? other than that a good car, car had not caused me any problems until warranty ran out.