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Fiat Punto review by jim3-13-2005
Overall rating: 1/10 Good points: not a bad looking car Bad points: Main dealer is shockingly bad, Car has had several major problems despite being little over 2 years old, car is slow and sluggish, fuel economy not great, Main review: I have had my 2003 (52) reg fiat Punto 1.2 active for just over 2 years now, but the problems began even before it arrived. The car was delivered around a month late due to dealer incompetence and effectively I ended up with a 52 reg car which by all rights should have been an 03 reg because by the time I received it, we were well into the next registration period. So even though it was a new car, it wasn’t new... As soon as it arrived, I discovered it had the wrong radio fitted which meant that only 2 speakers worked in the car instead of the six it was supposed to have. Having mentioned the problem to fiat, it took a further month or so for them to finally arrange a new radio for me, but only after several dozen angry phone calls. After approximately six months of owning the car, the car developed a problem when starting which caused it to throw out clouds of black and blue smoke and the engine to misfire terribly. I took the car to fiat but naturally their "technicians" could find no problem at all. I suggested they might try looking next time. At this point I was so furious I refused to have anything to do with fiat, until the first year service came around, at which point the starting problem was mentioned again. No problem found again. I was not impressed. By this time, several bits of plastic inside the car, like the door speaker covers, had started cracking and falling off. Replacement parts were ordered but these were ill fitting and soon cracked and fell off again. The next problem I encountered was when one of the keys broke. I ordered 2 new keys and was told that they should arrive within the week. Over a month later, I was still without my keys because of an apparent communication problem between the dealer and the factory. When I phoned to complain, I was labelled as a "problem customer". Obviously I was in the wrong somewhere. It took a wealth of phone calls to the main fiat headquarters before my elusive keys finally arrived. and even then I had to pay over a hundred pounds for them... the car has just had its 2 year service, and having covered less than 20,000 miles, fiat came to the conclusion that the car was in need of a new gearbox, a new clutch, various oil seals and other bits and bobs that really shouldn’t need doing to a 2 year old car. Obviously my warranty would cover this major work? Well, no actually, according to fiat, because the car was just over 2 years old. Less than a week over 2 years old, but over 2 years old nonetheless. My only hope was the third year warranty, held with car plan. After much deliberation, they decided they would cover the work to be done on my car. So I got my car back with a new gearbox, a new clutch and several new main oil seals that were found to be leaking. But when I drove the car away, it still had the same starting problem, and now a juddering clutch, which suggests that the clutch was not actually changed at all. Who knows? So I booked the car back into the garage for the clutch to be done again, and the starting problem to be looked at again. Fiat came back and said it needed a new engine to rectify the starting problem. So after a year and a half, they have finally noticed that. So I now have a car with a new gearbox, another new clutch, a new engine and various other new parts. Yet the thing that amazes me the most is that the car is only 2 years old, and has only done 18,000 miles. What a lovely car!
Reliability: 0/10 Practicality: 1/10 Performance: 1/10 Value for money: 0/10
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