Faults:

Handbrake Cable + Shoes replaced at 42000 miles, under warranty by dealer.

Handbrake Cable + Shoes replaced again at 43000 miles. Again free of charge, but would appear that dealer way trying to avoid replacing the adustor mechanism, which later failed.

Lambda probe failed at 46000 miles, replaced free of charge by dealer.

Cam Belt replaced at 52000 miles.

Boot lock failed at 55000 miles, boot cannot be opened with the key.

General Comments:

This car is excellent! Although there was a few problem with it, it is a very comfortable car, and very fast for a 1.1!

So far, the car has been modified as follows:-

15" Fox Alloys, 195/50 Uniroyal tyres.

40mm Suspension lowered all round.

K&N Induction kit.

Performance Backbox.

White Dials.

New Fiat Badge on bonnet (looks greats!)

Pioneer MP3 player headunit.

12" Sub (400watt)

6x9's in shelf, 4inch components in dash.

Car now handles like it is on rails!! And corner, and speed! Not particularly quick off the mark, but good top end!

OK on petrol, will do around 40mpg round town, and 45+ on a run!

Loads of room inside, looks great, and quick for the engine size! Insurance also very cheap!

Faults:

New Clutch needed at 30,000 miles.

General Comments:

This is an excellent car, the seats are supportive, the suspension is good, but it's not that good to drive.

The body is attractively styled and well built.

The only problem I have had with this car is the clutch which was not that costly to replace.

Faults:

Rear suspension arms at 44K miles. (£400)

Head Gasket at 49K miles. (£250)

Both of these seem to be a major problem on this car after reading the other reviews.

General Comments:

For a small car it is very roomy inside, the seats and furnishings are basic. The stereo positioning is very poor making it difficult to safely change the radio statio whilst driving.

Handling is very poor and under steer is a big problem on tight bends.

Reliable apart from the two mentioned points which seem to be very common.

Faults:

8 months after purchase, the MOT test showed a failure with the rear suspension bushes. Replaced at cost of 163GBP.

Hand brake stretched beyond servicable repair at 82000M.

New rear suspension arms on both side required at 84000 miles. I feel like the garage that I bought it from stitched me up with the repair above. Seems like they tried to avoid the repair under warranty. Sheesh. Livid. 170GBP.

Too much body roll, compared to my old XR3i, cannot take corners. Looks like i'll be uprating the repaired suspension.

Seat don't hold the body, prefer the missuses Saxo.

Internals of cam belt cover disintegrated at 83000M. Scary noise, lumps of plastic flying about inside.

Petrol filler lid : Spring has broken through the Fiat "cheese@ plastic. (Recyclable=made of cheese)

General Comments:

Bloody quick, drinks fuel like an elephant.

An absolute pig.

BUY ONE!

Faults:

Occasional cutting out of engine on warming up, I found this to be the injector relay loose in its housing.

Sunroof stopped working, replacement parts are on it's way.

Turbo boost pressure too low, this was rectified by by-passing the 'electronic' pier-burg bleed valve and replacing it with a manual bleed valve.

Knocking from rear suspension, needs a replacement rear trailing arm. (A common Punto problem).

Exhaust pipe front silencer blowing at 33,000 miles. Due to be replaced by performance system.

General Comments:

Having owned the Punto GT's predecessor, the Uno Turbo ie I have to say that I was a little dissapointed with the standard performance of the Punto GT. However, plenty of refinements to the engine, and car have made the small dissapointment hardly noticeable. The standard car suffers a little in it's handling, (and performance), but this can be easily rectified by purchasing uprated suspension and performance tuning the engine. I find the car on long distance, comfortable, quiet yet still fast. It's also incredibly stealth-like, looking over the car from the outside gives no real indication of it's enormous power to weight performance, which is essentially a good thing - deterring any opportunist thief.