2000 Fiat Punto Sporting Speedgear review from UK and Ireland

Water ingress from either bulkhead or behind wings. Fiat cannot decide! Very wet carpets and lots of condensation inside.

Fiat are refusing to fix this under warranty as water ingress is not part of the warranty. This will probably cost in the region of £400.

ECU to be replaced as engine light keeps coming on in freezing weather.

Faulty micro switch in gearbox caused engine light to come on and brake pedal to cause a relay switching noise from centre console.

Rear spoiler and near side door bump strip needed to be re-glued. Spoiler after six months and door strip after two years.

Windscreen wipers making electric crackling noise at the end of travel. Have had this adjusted twice under warranty, both times around Christmas as the weather got colder.

Fantastic car to look at, sit in, and drive. It does not feel like a 1.2 engine and friends have always guessed it has a 1.6 until I tell them.

The speedgear gearbox is a dream and makes perfect gear shifting into the reach of even the worst driver!

The 7 gears available in the sporting speadgear gearbox means that if you want to race around for a while you can pull away from a number of cars. There is no real drop in revs because the gear ratios are so close together.

The handling could be better as it does seem to wallow around the bends. Nothing that an upgrade to the suspension wouldn't fix, and it does cry out to be lowered to frame the lovely alloys.

Service costs are high, a 24000 mile service (having only done 15000) costs £215 inc VAT. You can reduce this though by taking your own oil, spark plugs, windscreen wash. Cheapskate I know.