Faults:

Mostly electrical.

Power steering failure.

Hand brake light coming on randomly.

Wipers not working properly.

Lights on the back not working.

Niggly faults, but they can really get you down.

Oh and the manifold developed a hole and the exhaust came away from it.

General Comments:

Not a bad little car.

Nice six speed gearbox, but it is clunky.

Easily the quickest out of all 1.2 engined cars.

Looks classy in my opinion.

Funky interior.

The plastics are very cheap on the dashboard however, be careful if your heavy handed like me.

Faults:

Head gasket blew at 35000 miles.

Head gasket blew at 50000 miles.

Wiper arms fell of at 54000 miles.

Power steering failed at 55000 miles.

General Comments:

It seems the Punto is OK up to about 30000 miles.

After that the trouble stars and it is endless and expensive. The head gasket was fixed professionally both times (£400 each).

The wipers I fixed myself by removing the wiper assembly, pushing the rods back in place and securing with a 'starlock' washer. Takes about 2 hours.

The steering is not going to be fixed. A dealer has offered £1000 P/E and we snapped their hand off!

Faults:

Electrical powered steering failure at 32,000 miles.

Head gasket at 34,000 miles.

Wiper arms fell off and needed replacing 3 times - I gave up trying to get them repaired properly and tied the arms on with shoelaces - (it did a better job)!Wiper motor also failed 3 times.

Exhaust fell off twice.

Front headlights replaced twice due to misting.

Dashboard lights flickered when using the foot brakes.

Driver side door fell off due to faulty hinges, made loud "cracking" noise after repair each time I opened it.

Central locking failed.

Electric windows failed.

Peculiar gurgling noise from engine which FIAT could not sort out.

General Comments:

Would never have another one and definitely wouldn't recommend it nor wish it upon my worst enemy!

Dealers were very helpful when trying to sell, but aftercare was appalling - they couldn't have cared less.

Faults:

Ticking noise from steering column when new - apparently a known fault. Fixed by dealer.

Juddery wipers on intermittent, but goes away after a while. Personally doesn't bother me that much.

Very heavy clutch and difficulty going into 1st gear. Had the clutch checked and was informed that this was "normal". Yeah, right.

Head gasket went at 40,000 miles - cost to replace £200 (plus new timing belt etc). Not from main dealer of course!

General Comments:

Originally I was looking for a new car under £6000 and you don't get much to choose from at that price!

Good package and 3 year warranty. Dealer repairs over-priced generally, but fixed things under warranty with no fuss.

Apart from the head gasket I've not had any major problems in nearly 5 years, so you really can't complain when you consider the price.

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.