Fiat Grande Punto twin test: 1.3 Multijet & 1.4 FIRE

Fiat has a plan. Ok, so they've had plans before as well, like the time when they first came to India and gave us one of the first forms of what we recognise as privately owned affordable cars, the Premiere Padmini, which continue to crowd streets all over the country to this day. They had plans when they tried a resurrection with the Uno too. Yes, they had plans when that fizzled out and they tried yet again with the Palio and Sienna in the 90s. Now they have a plan again, but this time, it might just work! 'Cause this time, they have Grande plans, plans that started off with the 500, moved to the Linea and are now taking shape in the form of the cute little big hatch, the Grande Punto.

You may sit back and laugh about Fiat trying so hard and so many times for success in India but look at it this way, they're still here, and they're getting stronger. The alliance with Tata has certainly helped and Fiat has delivered by offering a whole new class of products, that are not only desirable, but also put together fairly well. While the 500 was a CBU, the Linea is proof of their progress. Fiat India has certainly built on an aspect that has been their strength for all these years, the sole reason that they've kept coming back at the Indian masses stronger each time. India relates with Fiat, and that shall continue to be so.

This may be a country where having a boot at the back automatically gives two steps up in terms of respect, but we're still predominantly a 'hatchback' country and having a hatch in your product portfolio is paramount in any business strategy.

Why else would Skoda have the Fabia and Honda have the Jazz in their line up? Fiat has had the Palio and the Stile for a while now and that's exactly the point, it's been around for a while. With a fresh onslaught was needed a fresh hatch and the Grande Punto is it.

Design & Style: Teddy bear cute? Think again!

If the first time you've seen a Grande Punto it's been in silver or blue or black, you're bound to have one of those 'I think you're cute, but can you be sexy?' reactions. And then she comes out dressed in red, replete with those suave 12-spoke silver alloys and your jaw drops, you begin to go weak in your knees, sweat trickles down your forehead and you realise this is one hot looking car! Yet, it retains a certain individuality that can only be Italian, in fact, it can only be Fiat. Change the logo on the grille from the red Fiat logo to anything else and it will be completely out of place. The grille itself is a continuation of the theme set by Fiat designs in the recent past - a rectangular mesh that seems to be divided horizontally through the centre by a solid portion that also holds the registration plate - exactly the way it is in the Linea.

The feature that sets the brand recall for the Grande Punto has to be its teardrop shaped head lights set at far corners of the car's front end. Quite frankly, there's not much happening as far as the car's design goes, but as a complete package the Punto is extremely attractive. Subtle highlights such as the slightly flared wheel arches and the tight crease running between them, thick wing mirror stalks and well-rounded bumpers fore and aft make the car cute and cuddly. Move to the rear and typically Fiat tail lamps greet you with an 'I told you so' grin plastered all about them. The fat vertical cluster houses the turn indicators all the way at the top towering over the night and brake lights. The reverse lamp gets pushed all the way to the reflectors in the rear bumper on the car's left. With all the lights out of the way, it leaves for a fairly wide tail gate - making for easy stowage and removal of luggage in the cavernous boot - which by the way was big enough to swallow one of the producers for our television show with utmost ease.

Interiors: Looks familiar, doesn't it?

Step in and something familiar greets you - well it did us anyway. After we settled into the extremely comfortable driver's seat that offers nice support all around and laid our eyes on the well appointed dashboard, it struck us - this is exactly like in the Linea. The same silver finish centre console with the integrated Blaupunkt music system and climate control switches adorn the cabin of the Grande Punto as well. That itself gives the car a rather upmarket feel and mind you - the insides on the Punto are better finished than on the Lineas we tested a few months back. Then there's that awesome steering wheel - thick enough to snugly fit in your palms with very ergonomic thumb recesses. Quality of seat fabrics and door trim is nice and patterns are pleasant to look at as well.

To make things even better for the Grande Punto, there's the abundance of space. While that may not be as much as you'd find on the Linea - it is quite comparable to what the top guys in the Punto's direct competition offer - so expect to seat five average adults in there rather well. There are sufficient cubby holes and recesses to store knick knacks in and we've already mentioned the huge boot. But all's not perfect with the Grande Punto. For starters the pedals feel weird - the clutch pedal has a whole lot more travel than the brake and accelerator pedals making setting you seat up right a rather confusing situation that requires a little getting used to. And then there was the issue of us not being able to find the missing USB/Aux jack. Ok, so it's not exactly missing, because it actually doesn't even exist owing to an awesome Blaupunkt music system and Blue&Me technology (which Priyadarshan made great use of), but Fiat, I'd like to listen to stuff stored in my iPod thank you very much!

Powertrain: 1.3 Multijet - Fiat-tuned!

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Leading the onslaught for the Grande Punto is Fiat's very own (and very impressive) 1.3 litre Multijet diesel engine. Jointly developed by Fiat, Suzuki and General Motors we've seen this award-winning compact turbo-diesel do duty in the Suzuki Swift, Tata Indica Vista and Fiat's Palio, 500 and Linea. Despite so many cars sharing the same engine, Suzuki seems to be the one to have mastered the art of tuning the Multijet as seen on their Swift as the DDiS. Somehow Fiat doesn't seem to be able to get the same kind of performance out from the 1248cc DOHC oil burner and the same situation continues with the Grande Punto. On paper it makes around 76PS of power at 4000rpm and a whopping 197Nm of torque starting at 1750rpm. But where the Fiat-tuned Multijet is distinctly different is in the way its turbocharger has been integrated into the grand scheme of things. The turbo spools at a higher 2000rpm and even though you can clearly hear the exhaust gases do the twist on the turbo's vanes the surge you get when it does kick in is pretty mild. Coupled with the gear ratios, this may be Fiat's ploy to make driveability more user friendly by avoiding any unexpected surge in power, it certainly does hamper your image of the Multijet's capabilities - especially if you've driven a Swift DDiS before. That said, the Grande Punto 1.3 Multijet is a tame animal and quite a few people prefer it stays that way and understandably so.

The 16 valve engine is mated with a 5 speed manual gearbox with some well sorted gear ratios - for the tamer setting on the engine of course. There's adequate grunt all the way to fourth gear while fifth is more of a highway overdrive setting and does wonders to the Grande Punto's fuel efficiency figures. Something that the Punto does lack in the transmission department though is feel. Shifts are rather rubbery and we had a bit of a problem convincing the lever to slot into third during our performance tests.

Powertrain: 1.4 FIRE - petrol performer!

For those who've done their math and have figured out that they're never going to be driving enough kilometres to recover the extra money they shell out for the diesel engine, Fiat is also offering a great 1.4 litre petrol option. I would have started this paragraph with a sentence that would read 'For the performance hungry...' but in true honesty, the 1.4 FIRE gasoline mill isn't exactly a scorcher so to speak. The 1368cc powerplant comes up with 90PS of power at 6000rpm - which, isn't really much and is also kind of peaky. Torque is at 115Nm and maxes out 1500rpm lower than all those horses. The Grande Punto with the 1.4 petrol engine weighs in at 1145kg which translates into a power to weight ratio of a little over 78PS/tonne. With all the power unleashing itself at 6000rpm, you have to keep that right foot pressed constantly so the engine is revving close to 4000rpm and higher if you really want to enjoy this car to the hilt of its handling capabilities. Now that seems a little bit of a task in the city but then again, when you're crawling in traffic, you're not going to be moving anywhere much anyway.

Transmission duties on the petrol, like in the diesel are carried out by a 5-speed manual gearbox - though the ratios may differ from the oil burning unit - the same rubbery feel stays. That, we think is another Fiat trait and maybe we'll all just have to get used to it! No problems slotting it in any of the gears though if that's consolation enough.

How do they move - in figures

Like we said before, both Grande Puntos aren't really scorching fast as you'd expect them to be. As far as the 1.3 Multijet equipped car is concerned, the late and mild turbo kick-in couples with the spongy gear box meant that it managed a 0- 100km/h sprint in all of 17.57 seconds - that's not only way slower than the Swift, but also a good three seconds slower than the petrol Grande Punto. The quarter mile came up in 20.6 seconds with an exit velocity of just over 107km/h.

The 1.4 petrol car though was refreshingly quick. Keep that engine revving above 4000rpm and it will reward you like it did us - 0-100km/h in 14.2 seconds is a decent time for a 1145kg car with 90PS on tap. The quarter mile took about 18.3 seconds with the test equipment registering a 109.3km/h read out. Braking performance on both petrol and diesel cars was similar with around 3.5 seconds and 47 metres required to come to a standstill from 100km/h.

Handling: Is it German?

There's a reason why if you go to Europe you will be able to get yourself an Abarth version of the Grande Punto. Fiat India may have plonked in two able engines in the Grande Punto for our driving conditions, but the car is definitely capable of handling a whole lot more power - and we're not talking just about a straight line here. We saw this with the Linea and we see it in the Grande Punto as well - there's a certain feel you get when you sit in the driver's seat of a car that handles well - and the Punto has it. The chassis is just so well set up and works so amazingly well that you'd think you were driving something built in Bavaria. The brilliance of the package comes out in the fact that despite the diesel and petrol Grande Puntos having so very different characters as far as the engines go, the handling bit of this road test still shares the same space - the chassis is that accommodating. Yes, the diesel does tend to understeer a bit more than the petrol owing to its 45kg weight disadvantage concentrated towards the front, but that's where the differences stop.

The front end uses independent suspension with McPherson struts, helical springs, double acting telescopic dampers and a stabiliser bar while the rear makes do with a torsion beam apart from the helical springs, double acting telescopic dampers and a stabiliser bar. Both petrol and diesel Grande Puntos share the same suspension setup as well as the same tyre sizes - 195/60 R15 Goodyear GT3 rubber on the Emotion PK variants which we tested. Now all that technical jargon and the way it is tuned for Indian conditions means that the Grande Punto soaks up broken tarmac, potholes and even deep craters with ease. Before you go thinking that the car is probably too softly set up then to turn in quick and the like, you're in for a surprise. The Grande Punto will go precisely where you point it and stay in complete control throughout. One area where the diesel might have a slight disadvantage over the petrol could be in the long run - with the extra weight contributing to faster tyre wear on the drive wheels than on the petrol engined cars - but that's a long term issue and shouldn't be much of a problem with those Goodyear GT3s anyway.

Good show Fiat!

The Grande Punto follows Fiat's new philosophy of cars just like the Linea. It is spacious, driver friendly, a great handler and good value for money too. Both petrol and diesel options offer a good mix of adequate power and fuel efficiency as well. At 9kmpl for the petrol and 12kmpl for the diesel they may not be the most frugal machines ever built but they get the job done. The Grande Punto definitely gets brownie points for being an absolute head turner too. So all in all, it's a sexy looking car that makes for a pleasurable driving experience.

Gone seem to be the days when Fiat was looked upon with an eye of suspect in the Indian market - the number of Lineas doing the rounds in major cities countrywide is a prime example of that. So if you've fallen in love with this car at first site, we reckon you can't go wrong. One piece of advice though - she looks really hot in red!