2002 Fiat Punto HGT from UK and Ireland - Comments

You made more than one typing error Buddy. Another one is saying it`s a VERY quick car.0-60 in around 8.3 seconds and a 0-100 time of about 24 seconds is not VERY quick. As far as your farty little mods go, this is a site for people to read about standard cars not Max power cars complete with neons no doubt.

The Punto HGT is merely a " Warm " hatch, nothing more, nothing less.Don`t make yourself look like a foolish schoolboy anymore by making silly claims. As far as hot hatches go now, its way off the mark.

A decent first time hatch for someone to get a taster of whats out there, but it can`t compete with others in both build quality or performance. If you think any different you are avin a Giraffe!!!

The HGT is an underestimated car and was never meant to be an outright performance car. People looking at the book stats will see the figures (like on the above post) and say "oh, not that fast then" but you have to actually drive one to find out how much fun they are and yes they are FUN to drive.. Handle quite well good performance and has loads of goodies like sat nav, 5 disc changer, remote locking and alarm, traction control etc and also they are pretty rare to see on the road so you get that exclusive feel. I have had mine 2 years and so far nothing has gone wrong on it all. By the way I am 33 and have only changed my airfilter and exhaust and mine has been dynoed at 147bhp at the fly. 0-60 has been timed at 7.22 seconds and 0-100 is 18.12 so it is not impossible for relatively cheap modifications to improve the performance greatly. If you have not driven a HGT don't slate it.

Obviously It isn't in the same class as the honda ctr or clio 182's etc, but nevertheless it will give most of the other well known cars out there a good run for their money for a lot less of the cost. Like any fiat however you do have to look after them.

To the above comment ; nicely said!

I have owned my hgt for 1.5 yrs and have had no problems with it, it is a very underestimated car.

Most people mistake it for the sporting model, until you put your foot down!

I own an HGT, four years now.

It is a lovely not so small "small car".I have three kids, and with my wife it's a pleasure to travel, all around Greece, and even Italy.

The performance was really nice, but I wanted something more of it so I pushed it to 150 hp. I still can't beat a Type R at the lights, but sure I give it a hard time till 120 kph (about 75 mph).Not to mention about golf GTIs, Vtis, Saxos, MR2s, BMW 323s, leon VTs and a lot of others in my "beaten list".. ;-)

OK.. I have to admit that the air conditioning is CRAP,that I hear some annoying click sounds from the cabinet (since I installed the bilsteins), that the headlights are weak, that the valve variator has gone twice (a common problem with the VFD engine), that the back-right view is a little restricted for the driver, as restricted is the space for the drivers feet.

But overall My HGT is a "Joy machine".The way it moves, turns, accelerates and looks, is a real pleasure for me.

I don't say it's a Mercedes, I just say it's worth the money..

I have a HGT and I love it very much.

Before I had my HGT I had a punto Turbo, and yes, the turbo was a lot faster, but, I hated the interior and the feel of the car was crap.

I had nothing, but problems with this car as it was not looked after. So I sold it and couldn't decide what to get. I have had 3 Fiat's and have always liked them, so I decided to get this punto and I wanted a fast car so that's why I got the HGT.

I think this car is my best, I love it to bits. Had a few problems, alarm kept going off and someone broken into it, but didn't get very far as alarm went off and scared them, so I had to have it D-Locked, was hard to get brake disks for it.

But overall this car is fast, smooth, big (in a small car), smart and lovely. Anyone that slates it, hasn't had one.

Not many people like Fiat, but you don't know what they are like until you have one.

I could go on and on about my car, but I won't because everyone has their own views, this is just to let you all know how I think my car is great.

I owned a punto gt turbo before my hgt.

I myself found the hgt to be quicker, the gt felt quicker due to being sooooooo tinny. But when timed with proper timing gear it wasnt as fast as the hgt.

My hgt has been dynoed at 149.45bhp standard apart from a pipercross viper and cold air feed.

Similar power figures from my HGT with the Viper and cold air feed. 146bhp!

I am looking at buying a HGT, I took one for a test drive last night and it was a very fast car, plus the extras are good! I had a saxo VTR (until I crashed it) and it is a lot faster than that!! Nice smooth car when you hit the 'city' button, my only worry is about the gear box? is it suppose to be so stiff? you sort of have to move it into neutral? got use to it in the end, but don't wanna get ripped of!! and I am 19 and they will insure me on it!! £1500 a year! very expensive, but am a mummy boy so she will sort it!! ha ha. need some advise about the gear box thou! please help!!

OK, this is an old thread (i.e. post), but I have to point out that people on here are getting hyped about a Fiat!!! To be honest these things are tin boxes and am quite shocked that 33 year old's are driving a kids car - go kart springs to mind! If you tried driving something with a bit of quality you would soon notice the difference!

If you're young, in-experienced in cars and want something nippy and cheap then this is the car for you, like the posts shows this car can be done up and will be nippy! But anyone thinking that this is a SERIOUS car is disillusioned! Needless to say if you bump anything in one of these consider it a write-off! Which would help to explain the insurance groups on them - don't think it's because it's a so-called hot hatch and fast, think more like a cardboard car!

And if you're buying one second hand I would definitely get a HPI check done - yes the HGT is fairly rare, but probably because the young in-experienced drivers who want to 'rip' these cars have written a majority of them off already! They are not built to last, but what can you expect for the price?! Certainly not quality! I ask the owners of these cars would your car last 4-5 years? I doubt it and notice most people have owned them for less than 2 years - maybe theres a reason for that?!

The above post is utter rubbish, I drive a HGT Multijet diesel, but quality wise it's going to be the same. The build quality is fantastic, I've not had one single problem what so ever in the 12 months I've owned it. And yes I have also had older Fiat's, a 10 year old Uno, and an 7 year old mk1 Punto, which were also great (which is why I chose a Fiat the 3rd time round!). I've been in/driven expensive Merc's, Porsche's, etc, and yes the ride and feel of them is far superior too many other cars, but in day to day life my Punto fits the bill fine. Besides, when did you ever see a Porsche the size of a Punto? The size of the Punto is part of the appeal, it's small outside (easy to park, manoeuvre around town centres, fit through small gaps, etc), yet it's much more spacious inside that the exterior would suggest. Therefore, why on earth should a 30-odd year old feel silly driving a Punto!?

Well I'm 30yrs old and drive a punto hgt, I don't feel silly!

It's a bit of an old fashioned view saying only the very young should drive superminis. Its just a matter of what car suits you best. I think the world would be rather boreing if everyone over the age of 30 jumped in a vauxhall vectra or ford mondeo.

Oh my god! How many of you are in dream land??! My friend had a hgt and it is OK for a nice nippy car, but that's it I'm afraid. I had a williams Clio at the time and OBLITERATED him. It wasn't even close, in fact i'd say it's slower than the OLD 1.8 16v Clio. So to be desribed as a hot hatch is a bit of an overstatement as it is no 182, Civic type R, astra GSI turbo. And yes, I grew out of my litte hot hatch (Williams Clio) at 22 and moved onto bigger and better things, impreza then m3. And I think if you moved on from the hgt, you'd realise it's only a pretty everage motor. Sorry hgt owners!

I am eyeing a 2nd hand HGT, after reading all the post, I do feel that the HGT is a great car for singapore where the speed limit is 90 Km/h..:P, we hardly hit 120 km/h here.

Though the FC leaves much to desire.

There is only 21 running on our roads, don't know if it is a good thing or bad thing.

I've just bought an HGT simply because I like it. If you're happy with the car you drive and it's what you want, that's all there is to it.