Fiat Grande Punto review
by David Finlay (13 February 2006)
First of all, let's sort out why Fiat has chosen to add the word Grande (pronounced "grandy", more or less) to the name of this car. The reason is that the last-generation Punto, which the new model appears to replace, is in fact staying in production, in much the same way that you'll still be able to buy a new Peugeot 206 even after the 207 goes on sale.
The Grande is bigger in every dimension than the Punto, but Fiat has priced the cheapest version - the 1.2 Active three-door - at £7594, or £1 less than the most basic Punto. Although this seems to be a compelling argument against having anything to do with the smaller car, Fiat says that the Punto will be subject to various deals and special offers which will effectively make it cheaper still. Officially, there are to be no such incentives for the Grande.
The new arrival looks neat, if not particularly adventurous. There's nothing to suggest that it would have caused shock waves in the motoring world if it had arrived in the late 1990s. It is, however, quite up to date in terms of visibility, and not in a good way. The windscreen pillars are awkwardly thick (with little triangular windows which are no help at all on your side of the car), the large C pillars block the view badly when you're trying to reverse, and the three-door has a large blind spot which means you have to move your head a long way to check if there's anything overtaking you.
In these respects the Grande isn't noticeably worse than the class average, but the class average is a disgrace and it's time the major manufacturers got back to building small cars that we can see out of.
The entry-level 1.2 Active feels quite cheap, but then at £7594 it is cheap. Sometimes the most basic model in a range gives the impression that a high-quality product is being offered with relatively little equipment, but the Grande Punto works the other way round; more expensive versions seem like cheap cars with more powerful engines and a wider range of on-board toys.
Still, the 1.2 Active, which was the first car I drove on the launch event, made a good case for itself. Like all Grande Puntos it has quite a lot of space for front passengers and a reasonable amount for those in the rear - it won't quite take four six-footers in comfort, but it comes close. Luggage volume is 275 litres with all the seats in place, extending to 1030 litres with the rear seats folded.
The base model's petrol engine, like the 1.4-litre equivalent which comes further up the range, is astonishingly quiet, to the point that you would hardly know it was switched on when the car is sitting at tickover. Neither unit ever becomes really loud, though the 1.4 takes on a very sporty, very Italian sound as you approach its full 75bhp capability.
The snag with this extraordinary degree of refinement is that it points up one of the Grande Punto's biggest failings. Fiat says that the suspension at both ends of the car has been designed "to minimise the transmission of noise and vibrations, while further enhancing ride comfort", but, if this is true, it simply hasn't worked. The boom through the 1.2 Active's cabin is already a major distraction from as little as 15mph.
And the ride comfort, which we were invited to try on some distinctly wobbly country roads at the launch, isn't up to much either. Where the Grande Punto does score is in its cornering ability, which is impressive whichever model you choose, and its ease of use around town, where the Dualdrive electric power steering is both light and precise.
The 1.2- and 1.4-litre petrol engines, both with eight valves, are the only non-diesel units available from launch, though a 16-valve 1.4-litre alternative will go on sale soon and there's talk of a much higher-performance turbocharged petrol motor in the near future. Fiat admits it has been underperforming in terms of its UK diesel sales recently, and in an attempt to improve matters it has given the Grande Punto no fewer than four diesel engines.
They come in two types. The smaller ones are 75bhp and 90bhp versions of the brilliant 1.3-litre MultiJet. I tried the 90, and it was so good that I couldn't come up with a reason to pick the 1.4 petrol engine instead, except for the fact that the price premium for the diesel is a hefty £1400. You could perhaps add that the MultiJet is slightly louder, but that's something of an advantage since it helps drown out the road noise.
Fiat's almost equally splendid 1.9-litre turbo diesel is also available here in two forms. Producing 120bhp, it powers the five-door Eleganza which, thanks to its high level of equipment (the dual-zone climate control, front armrests, front seat lumbar adjustment, multifunction display, parking sensors, and 16" alloy wheels are available on no other model), is the most expensive car in the range at £12,295.
It's not quite the halo model, though. That has to be the Sporting, which again uses the 1.9 MultiJet engine but this time with a maximum power output of 130bhp. It's easily the best-performing car in the current range, with better combined fuel economy on the official cycle than either of the much slower petrol models, but although it's great fun it loses out slightly to the hot diesel versions of the SEAT Ibiza, Skoda Fabia and Volkswagen Polo, all of which use the same VW Group engine.
I was assured at the launch that the Sporting would become quicker after a few thousand miles, but Fiat's own figures show that although its engine matches the German one in terms of power, it's not so impressive when it comes to torque, producing slightly less of the stuff with a peak slightly further up the rev range.
That explains why the mid-range performance, though impressive, isn't class-leading. And since the Grande Punto is an appealing car in many ways, but by no means one which rewrites the supermini rule book, the same could be said of the range as a whole.
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