Bought one of these the other week... I thought it looked a bit girly to be honest but it ain't. I used to hate Fiats, too, I just thought they were another rubbish Italian brand and I had no time for them at all. However my friend took me out for a drive in his Abarth Grande Punto and I knew I had to have one, so I went to the showroom the next day!
The first thing I have to report is the amazing performance. The engine doesn't seem that impressive but get the thing going and you won't be disappointed. What a goer! The car's small chassis only helps to propel it even quicker and you can get some seriously impressive acceleration results. The handling, though, is probably my favourite thing about the car. It's a joy to drive.
Of course, there isn't a lot going for the car apart from it's performance and driveability, apart from the really very impressive price. I don't like how it looks, I'm sorry, and I must say that it's completely impractical for anything other than nipping around country lanes (whilst staying strictly within local speed limits of course).
The Abarth Grande Punto Turbo is an awesome combination of small size and big power. The 'sport' button adds even more fun on top. First of all I never thought I'd get inside a 1.4 litre car and see a six speed gearbox lol, they've clearly juiced a lot of power out of this thing somehow. Zero to sixty in 8 seconds, not bad!!! That certainly sees off all the racer boy Golf noobs at the lights. Plus I regularly have it cruising at over 100, never seems bothered by that. But the best part is that none of this comes across in the fuel costs. It is a 1.4 at the end of the day and it gets about 30-40 mpg - I could probably do better if I behaved better. The insurance is a bit much but that seemed to be the case with any car that had anything interesting to offer.
The sport button in the Abarth Turbo is really a masterpiece. Without that down it's a pretty smooth ride, almost relaxing, and you can pretty much understand that you're in a 1.4. Put it down though and as soon as you tickle the accelerator it roars, rarraaaaaaagghghghhh! Very satisfying, and the throttle becomes way more responsive too. It's a different machine then. For the price and the size of it, you could do a hell of a lot worse for a sporty little beast. The button itself is really cool too, this big red thing in the middle of the dash. PUSH THE RED BUTTON hahaha..
Decent stereo controls on the steering wheel, if a little bit sticky at times. The main stereo panel and aircon controls and all that look a little bit.. hmm, a little bit ordinary though, and that lets it down a little bit. I mean you're not really paying for a muscle car so fair enough, but it just takes some of the shine off. Mind you the racing seats and the rest of the interior don't look boring, and anyway you'll be concentrating on the road when you get behind the wheel.
I had the suspension lowered on this for more feedback and more fun, but obviously this has made it quite a bit less comfy, so you won't be driving your nan out round the shops in it. Mind you it's actually got lots of space for a car like this, I mean the boot in the Abarth Grande Punto really is bigger than you'd expect. I got me and three mates in with all our football kit and some of the gear four our five a side game. It swallows all that easily enough.
I reckon one of the biggest problems with this is first of finding one anywhere (took me about four months from starting to look to actually buying it, plus a cross-country trip - but that was lots of fun in this car anyway). Secondly is getting parts for it, cos it's hardly a Yaris there aren't many about.
My wife and I bought the Abarth Grande Punto after the last of our brood left home - call it a joint mid life crisis! We wanted something with a bit of oomph, but for not too much money, and this is exactly what we were looking for. The Abarth Grande Punto is a nice little jitter bug, it jumps up to 60mph in about 8 seconds - hardly a drag racer but a good deal faster than the people carriers we had before. The dealer offered us some sort of upgrade or mechanical tweak that would have beefed up the power even more, but on the test drive it was perfectly sufficient for our modest (ageing!) desire for speed. I mean we really have to remind ourselves that it's just a 1.4, it's always got more to give. And it always makes us smile to climb inside a car with racing seats!
Another thing that's fun is that it's got six forward gears, which we really weren't expecting. And all six gears have got plenty of power in them, loads of fun on the motorways.
It's reasonably comfortable to drive, although not quite as comfortable as some. As we get a bit older that will probably what makes us sell it eventually, but there are some nice touches to increase comfort. The steering wheel and driver seat can be easily adjusted up and down which is very handy when you've got two drivers of different sizes.
What made us lean towards the Abarth Grande Punto as opposed to some other fun cars we were looking at was that, when we got over the fun of it all, this car was still nice and practical. It has got funny racey seats, but it's also got a really good sized boot to put things in, and overall it's just fine for taking three grandkids around with their things. The back seats fold easily enough as well if it's just us and we're taking lots of stuff away for a trip.
The grandkids also approve of the stereo which plays 'MP3' files or some such from their CDs. It's all a bit noisy, but keeps them pleased! It's also been nice for us to have a car with air conditioning. It really doesn't need to be on long to make the car lovely and cool in the hot weather, then it can be turned off again to save fuel.
We haven't had the car long so it's tricky to recommend it based on reliability, but it has been perfectly reliable for us so far. And after all, it's got a lot of Fiat stuff inside so it should be fairly straightforward to get it fixed up.
Another reason we plumped for the Abarth in the end is that it's not too expensive to run. It gets about 40 miles a gallon, which we thought was a fine compromise for all the power we're getting. However, probably because it's so sporty, it is insurance group 30, so that's a bit of a sting in the tail. This is kind of a mid-life extravagance for us anyway so we're ok with that, but it's worth bearing in mind.