2000 Fiat Punto HLX review from UK and Ireland

Interior trim below glove box fell off and took 5 trips to the dealer to be fixed.

Both windscreen wipers have failed on separate occasions.

Drivers seat height adjustment failed 1 month after warranty ran out, needed to replace entire seat sub frame.

Offside rear light fails regularly, but is an intermittent problem and the dealer has been unable to rectify this problem.

Clutch has failed, was told it was the slave cylinder which was replaced, but problem has returned and it is getting increasingly difficult to change gear.

Paint blisters have developed on the roof, this appears to be a corrosion problem and will be fixed under the 8 year warranty (I hope).

Air con failed after 13 months, which included a British winter so didn't get used much, told it would cost over £600 to repair, so now I open the windows.

Power steering fails if full lock is used for more than a couple of turns (for example trying to do a several point turn in a narrow road), rectifies itself after the engine is restarted.

The car looks good and the 16v engine is incredibly nippy on country lanes and is a good motorway cruiser.

The interior is comfortable and considerably larger than some of its competitors, driving position is good apart from the lack of space for your clutch foot.

Build quality could be better, the trim looks good, but tends to creak and, in some places has come off altogether.

I don't have much faith in the dealers ability to identify and rectify faults, the lights and trim problems (mentioned above) were greeted with a general attitude of "why are you bothering us with this, its trivial" and in the case of the intermittent light problem I was consistently told the bulb was faulty, but I've never known a blown bulb to repair itself!

I would like to think that I have a Friday afternoon car, unfortunately I only had a 1 year warranty, 3 years would have made a big difference. I am very aware that things started to go wrong after 13 months! coincidence?