Author:
ROBIN ROBERTS
The Punto has reached a significant new point in its life, and dropped its maker Fiat from its title.
The three and five door new Punto gets a wider range of greener engines, more equipment and improved specification and options than ever before.
This enables it to meet buyers’ more demanding requirements for smaller, more environmentally friendly cars that are affordable to run, easy to live with, comfortable and fun to drive.
The simplification of the name to simply Punto matches the rationalisation of the look, with a new exterior design, a new range of exterior colours, new alloy wheel designs, new colours and materials inside, and a new engine with the ground-breaking TwinAir joining the line-up.
The importance of the new Punto shouldn’t be underestimated. The supermini segment accounts for approximately a quarter of all the new cars sold with around 30 models from Europe, Japan and Korea all vying for a share of the market. Since its launch in 1993 the Punto has been a leader with more than 8.5m vehicles sold throughout Europe. The new 2012 Punto is tasked with developing this while appealing to a younger customer profile.
The five trim levels, Pop, Easy, Lounge and the new GBT and TwinAir, reflect this. The Pop version has been designed to appeal to price sensitive customers who don’t want to forego style just because they’re buying a very affordable car. The interior boasts stylish denim inserts on the seats, all models get Daytime Running Lights and the Blue&Me TomTom LIVE infotainment system can be specified.
Prices for the facelifted Fiat Punto are £9990 for the entry-level 1.2-litre Pop, rising to £15,600 for range-topping 1.3-litre MultiJet Lounge.
The changes will make the Punto more attractive when it comes to business car leasing and it should extend its sales as a company car .