2007 Fiat Grande Punto review from UK and Ireland

I had one as a hire car from Drive Assist, as my Citroen C1 was in for repair after some muppet drove into it whilst it was parked in Tescos car park!

The Grand Punto was a pile of junk and was only a year old!

The car showed signs of wear after only a year, and switches were marked or did not work properly, and the air vent on the dashboard at the front by the windscreen has warped in the sunlight.

The first evening on the way home, it became a nightmare to get in and out of gear, and the AA were called out, who discovered that the clutch cable had jumped out of its housing due to cheap plastic fittings!

The diesel engine was superb, and the car's performance was good. This car was replaced with a 1.4 petrol version the next day, which was much slower, but had much of the same faults as the previous car!

Thank God it was only a hire car, as I would not have bought one myself...

The man who came to collect the car was dropped off in a new Fiat Panda, and I asked him if that car was better than the Grand Puntos the hire company had lent to me, and he said that they were Fiat, and they were still crap!!!