2006 Fiat Grande Punto Dynamic review from Serbia

- Rear right door doesn't open from outside - only from inside. This after only one month of use. Dealer said they need a few hours to fix it, and were genuinely surprised to see the problem, as it seems it has never happened on any other Grande Punto they sold.

- Remote control for alarm/door lock is a real pain to use. It works only if I stand right next to the driver's door, and even then I may have to try a few times. Dealer said it would not take too long to fix that.

- The other remote control stopped working all together. Imagine not being able to get into your own car...

- Little plastic tongue that keeps rear shelf in place falls out every time I need to take that shelf out (e.g. when I need to put something bulky in the trunk). Although not a serious issue, it is annoying.

I loved the styling of this car, highest NCAP crash test marks, as well as it's roomy interior and decent acceleration (8v, 1.4 L, 77bhp which feel more like 90bhp).

Now, I am somewhat of a perfectionist, and my previous cars never failed to amaze me with their reliability (Honda, Nissan and Toyota - all just perfect in every respect). I was kind of hoping for the same thing with this Fiat, but as much as it does impress in some areas, there is space for improvement.

First the bad stuff:

Besides those things that have gone wrong with my Grande Punto, I found a few other things that seem to be general design issues. I also have to add that I am driving this car in Serbia and from what I gather, Grande punto in Serbia is not exactly the same thing as those sold in the west. Differences seem to be minor, but may also account for these things that do bother me.

1. Incredibly stupid and annoying seat belt reminder. If you sit in the car, move it a few yards, and then need to get out for a second, the annoying seat belt alarm will go off like there is no tomorrow. Even if you step out of the car, it will still go! So if you live in a house where you may have a gate that you lock the old fashioned way, your entire neighborhood will be listening to you getting in and out of the car... and constant "beep-beep-beep-beep". Either that, or buckle up for those few yards and then unbuckle, only to buckle up again...

To make it worse, if you put something like a bag of groceries on the passenger seat, it will again start beeping just as you start driving - try buckling up your passenger seat while driving in a rush hour... Obviously not well thought up concept. It seems that western Grande Punto has an option for disabling this stupidity, but East European Grande Punto doesn't. So we have to learn to live with this annoying beeping that is too loud and too stupid (or move to Italy! Now there's a thought...).

2. Either my central computer was bad from the start, or this may be "normal": to lock/unlock the car with the remote, I need to press on the button for one whole second. That's right - press the button and say "One-thousand-and-one" slowly, and only then will you hear "click". Same is true when pressing the trunk lid button inside the car (hence - it is not the remote, but rather the CPU which is either bad or just plain slow).

3. When adjusting power exterior mirrors, there is actually a blind spot where the mirror doesn't go. While I can lower the mirror to extreme when I park in reverse to see that I don't hit a very low laying concrete barrier around a tree for example (and I appreciate that option very much!), I cannot adjust the mirror to cover an angle that I like to see (it would be sort of where the typical blind spot is). It just doesn't go there, even though that's not extreme.

4. Although it doesn't really bother me, and I don't care about it - plastic bumpers don't really align to the body panels. They are off by a few millimeters. I don't think anyone would notice though.

5. This car doesn't have isofix (for child seat), while I am pretty sure that W. European models do.

6. The fuel computer is good for nothing. I caught it showing some ridiculous consumption: e.g. that consumption was 6.5 L per 100km when I was on a downhill and going about 60km/h in neutral at 800rpm. After about 10 seconds, it went down to about 2L per 100km which is more like what it should've been. It seems that it doesn't actually measure the amount of gasoline that engine uses, but rather does some sort of calculation (inaccurately) with available data: rpm, speed, gas pedal. And it makes a bad job of it. (Could this be related to other problems like the slow response of the door unlocking and such - main CPU again?)

THE GOOD:

This car has these few little issues, which don't really affect one's driving, and they may all be related to one and same thing, hence I left "the good" for the end as Grande Punto deserves to be remembered by all the good stuff about it.

1. The engine is nothing short of miraculous. I was never good at being a gentle driver. I am one of those who is wondering - "Were those my tires squealing?". This car, even with such a small engine can squeal tires even in the second gear! You may need to push it to the very limit, but it does it! (I did it only once, when I needed to accelerate fast on the highway... but it came in handy to have the acceleration of a much bigger engine in such a small and understated package).

To add to this, I just did a trip around Europe, and when the road was good and I was rushing, the car did 180km/h on a level road! This is way over the max speed of the car. The engine didn't complain in any way, the weather was super super hot, and the temperature gauge seemed to have been nailed smack in the middle. Just perfect. Like Honda or Toyota.

I also drove Opel Corsa for a brief period of time, just before purchasing this Grande Punto, and that car feels like a Citroen 2CV compared to this Fiat. There was no end to accelerating with it, while Punto by contrast is too happy to jump at your command. I am truly impressed, especially considering how small this engine is (and it's an eight valve engine).

2. There are quite a few pieces of ingenuity that I appreciate about Grande Punto: for instance, you can still close power windows after you power off the engine and take the ignition key out. I also like the "city mode" for power steering when parking. The rear wiper will turn on automatically if you put the car in reverse and the front wipers are on and will also turn off once you put the car in the first gear. The headlights will power off automatically when the engine stops (that is if you turned them on in the first place), and will come back on once the engine starts again. The list of these small, but important things goes on and on...

3. The car is REALLY roomy. It is way more roomier then a WV golf of the latest generation, and even though I am 6'4" I fit in with no problem, even with someone sitting behind me. My hair doesn't touch the ceiling as it did in most other cars... It is also much bigger then the latest Corsa.

4. Ride is superb for this class of car. I don't thing it can be compared to a Rolse Royce (for those complaining about the ride quality), but Grande Punto does feel very solid, is not too loud at all, and comfort level is better then other cars in the same class. Considering that it is quite tall, it still takes curves very well. It's wheelbase is almost 100 in, which is better then even some larger cars, and this adds to comfort and stability. Cars with longer wheelbase are also way safer.

5. Grande Punto can achieve a really good mileage, provided you don't get carried away with it's responsive and all too happy engine. I had a situation where three gas stations on the same highway were out of order, and was almost running on fumes; but I drove at around 75km/h in fifth gear, and made 50 miles on almost no gas. I think it was showing fuel consumption of about 4.0 liters per 100 km... Incredible, but true.

6. Overall Grande Punto feels very solid in every respect: doors and bonnet close with a heavy "thud", engine purrs regardless of how badly you treat it, it is very stable over uneven pavement, and feels like a much bigger car then it is. You won't get pushed by half a lane on a highway when passing a big truck or an eighteen-wheeler... which cannot be said of other cars in this class.

7. The sporty design of the front end is great for tight spaces! I've never had a car that is so easy to park due to it's rounded, or rather - pointy front end. Where other cars would get a scratch at the front right or left corner, this car is wedge shaped and can therefore be easily maneuvered into tight spaces. I still need to get used to this.

8. Brakes save lives, and on the Grande Punto, the brakes are just superb. These are probably the best brakes I've ever had on a car, except for maybe my Celica, which was no better, just the same.

9. The A/C is also superb and thanks to Grande Punto's amazing engine, you don't feel like you've lost all power when A/C is on. Actually, I don't feel that my Punto runs any different with the A/C on at all! The only difference is that you can sometimes hear the A/C motor in the background, which kinda reminds you that it's on. A/C is also just as cold as one of those big American cars with a 6 L engine.

10. Grande Punto comes pre-wired for a stereo, with speakers already installed. This made a job of installing the car stereo super simple (lasted about 5 minutes) and surprisingly - pre-installed speakers are really not too bad. Better even then some other cars I tested which cost twice as much.

11. Once I filled up with gasoline that was of inferior quality. I immediately noticed that something was wrong. Grande Punto noticed that around the same time, and dropped the power by about one half - and limited RPMs to about 3500. Luckily I had about half the tank empty, so I drove to the first good gas station and added some decent fuel. After about 5 minutes of driving, it detected that everything was pretty good again, and raised the RPMs to normal. Now that's some serious engine management.

All in all, I think that those few little problems I have are easily dealt with; I just need to find time to visit my dealer, and I am too busy to leave the car there even for a few hours. Hopefully Fiat will take notice, give equal attention to little things like door locks and remote controls as they do to the engine and will be able to compete even with Japanese car makers in this class.