I live in Bangalore and bought Fiat Garnde Punto Diesel Emotion (Bossa Nova White) in last Sep-10 from Concorde Bangalore and completed 10, 500 KM in last four months.
I am happy with this car though I know that this is not the best product in overall sense but it is the best product for my requirement. I am listing my experience so far with Punto and hope I will return some of the knowledge which I gained from this website and other portal during my buying process.
Requirements:
ABS (Must to have as I plan to drive on highways on speed)
Driving comfort and high speed dynamics which can give confidence
Strong body of car (in case of collision to save passengers)
Good service
Looks
Less running cost
All power windows, rear wiper, central locking
60:40 Split seat in rear (in case to create more space)
Resale value (not much worried as plan to keep the car for 5 years)
I was clear to buy car on cash and strictly no loan to keep costs low for a depreciating asset. Not many people like this idea but this clears out much air and narrows you down to few products with available Vitamin M.
I put great length of thoughts in driving and found that I want to drive the car for long kilometers and may need a diesel car. I did ROI calculations (in XL) and diesel was fitting the requirement. My home to office drive is not more than 25 KM (both ways) and job is not travelling but I had a feeling of seeing country in my own car and not in rented taxi or train (possibly, my personal choice again) so diesel made more sense to me with time.
Research:
Tem-bhp.com (Simple great in technical details and ownership reviews)
Mouthshut.com (great in overall reviews)
Consumercomplaints.in (gives great problem summary of products)
Gadi.com, carwale.com, google.com
Test drive (TD): I took TD of following vehicles and I found almost all are great cars to buy so all comments are purely personal feeling and don’t carry any intentions to branding products inferior
- Indica Vista (diesel): Aura ABS (TD: 3 times, total 40 KM, city highway mix)
a. Pros: Good car to drive, good legroom, great Fiat diesel engine, good mileage, cheap parts, price
b. Cons: Less comfortable seats, plastic type front bumper, instrument cluster in center, gear shift with sound, rattle(user feedback), taxi image (wife’s view, though I don’t bother)
Dropped finally.
- Indigo Manza (Diesel): Aura ABS (TD: 2 times, total 25 KM, city highway mix)
a. Pros: All similar to Vista. Plus good looking large sedan and rear seat comfort
b. Cons: Out of budget, great for chauffer driven (good rear seat comfort for Rich Seth!!) but driving seats are not much comfortable for driver like me
Dropped finally.
- Hyundai i10 (Asta-Manual): Wife insisted for this (TD: 1 time, total 12 KM, city highway mix)
a. Pros: Good looks, great city driving, Hyundai promise, great resale, good interiors, price
b. Cons: Petrol, not good high speed dynamics (steering etc), plastic toy car feeling, light weight
Dropped finally.
- Ford Figo (Diesel Titanium): Sales Numbers speak (TD: 5 times, total 65 KM, city highway mix)
a. Pros: Good looks, refined and proven engine, great mileage, good seats, price, great city drive
b. Cons: No split rear seats, no rear power windows, not felt stable at high speed.
This was my car initially and even once I paid the booking amount too after TDing all cars but later I took it back. I found from Ford Plant (Contacts!!) that people are buying only lower version petrol in numbers and diesel top ends are not high selling. ON road too petrols are more in numbers on weekends and not on weekdays.
Why? Because most service class people buy a petrol car and use it on weekends and on weekdays they use bus/cabs (at least in Bangalore).
One Guy had hole in front bumper and radiator and he told me that bumpers are wafer thin (low cost sir) and a WagonR’s exhaust pipe drilled hold while sudden breaking. Deal breaker for me. Want to put my money on something which was not designed to break Maruti Alto’s market (King of the road) but for the people who can love the car. Dropped finally.
- Fiat Punto (Diesel Emotion) (TD: 4 times, total 50 KM, city highway mix)
a. Pros: Great vault like safe feeling, great dynamics, cornering, good comfort, looks, price
b. Cons: Gear ratios, Fiat image in India, resale, NVH, boom sound after 120 KM/hr speed in cabin
Father owns Fiat Siena and that gives great pain with spares. Wife loved this car’s looks and comfort. I loved driving, stability, and strong body. Fiat India reputation and inability to use great engine, which is fantastically used by Maruti in Swift and Dezire were keeping me away from this car. My eyes got open when I saw a post (with photos) on Team-bhp where fully loaded Punto at 120 KM/hr hit an electricity pole (pole fallen!!) and then a tree (car took 180 deg turn here) in Kerala after a bus scared it. Result, great boom sound and car’s front portion got good damage including front windshield BUT nothing else broken. Users were wearing seat belts and one guy got scar on nose, that’s it. No one died. Driver could not apply any brakes and just hit the targets at full speed in pitch dark night. Great safety.. Finally, heart won on logical mind.
Dropped, and later bought it!!!
Dropped
- Swift/Dzire (Alas, I had to miss Dzire (ZDI) due to less Vitamin M)
a. Pros: All to list, India Drives Maruti Sir.
b. Cons: Booking queue too long for ABS versions (6 months in Bangalore), Vitamin M for Dzire
Dropped (with sadness).
Niggles so far: Rattle sound from engine guard rectified by Concorde after tightening few nuts. Left front window winding alignment mismatched after 5K KM and window was not closing few times, rectified by Concorde after realignment of window winding.
Good thing I found with today’s Fiat cars is no one argues with you for faulty parts, they simply change them if needed and all at Zero cost to you. It doesn’t mean that Puntos have to go for frequent part change but I think CEO, Mr Kapoor (who was MD of Herohonda earlier), is clear on service.
JD power (Oscar of automobiles) has ranked Fiat service as number 2, just after Maruti. Journey with Punto is very good so far and very comfortable, twice I have driven 11-12 hrs almost non stop (means with loo breaks only) and comfort is great.
I clearly observed that Puntos are not selling well and there is a reason for it. Most people who buy personal hatches are in the range of 2-5.5 Lacs and most of them don’t drive much their cars (petrol cars).
Most of them don’t buy car for driving pleasure but to move family on weekends so Fiat is obviously not an option due to obvious reasons. People who are in the segment of 5.5-8 lacs can buy a premium hatch or an entry level sedan, and here the market is not very big.
All premium hatches have overlap with first customer segment. Most Puntos on road are diesel and emotion versions, which are top end versions of this car and here buyer can buy entry level sedan with some stretch. Here comes the answer that people who love driving comfort and sturdy body prefer Punto though it comes with a price.
Everyone has his/her views on car buying and every person’s constraints are different so my views may not give all the answers to all but I can say that if you love to drive then you can consider Punto as an option too.