First drive: Fiat Grande Punto

• Price from £9250
• Spacious, stylish and long warranty
• Lifeless steering and choppy ride, though

More Information

• More pictures

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Price from £9250
On sale Now
You'll like... Space and style; warranty; deals; kit
You won't... Lifeless steering; cheap plastics; choppy ride

Rather than spending cash face-lifting a car that still looks fresh, Fiat has decided to give Grande Punto buyers more for their money instead.

First, a quick recap. The Punto has loads of space and style, but isn’t as good to drive as the best superminis. It hangs on well round corners, but there’s not much steering feel and the ride is bumpy.

While the way it looks and drives remain unchanged, there are more reasons to buy one. For a start you now get a whopping five-year, unlimited-mileage warranty (you only got three years or 60k miles before).

All models now get a Bluetooth handsfree kit as standard, too, which includes a USB connection to plug your MP3 player into and some buttons on the steering wheel to answer calls and skip tracks.

Stability control is still an option on all but top-of-the-range cars, but the price of it has been slashed from £420 to £200.

All this hasn’t upped the brochure price, although you shouldn’t be paying anywhere near that anyway. Even Fiat knows that, which is why there are some cracking manufacturer deals around.

Same basic car but more for your money, then? Absolutely.

The Punto isn’t as complete as rivals like the Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa, but it’s still a very decent supermini and fantastic value for money.