How the steering wheel turns in Punto? Typical for Fiat, Dual Drive electric power steering is used. In the standard (road) setting it is very efficient, with the press of a little steering button, turning the steering wheel with one little finger becomes all too easy. Fortunately, Dual Drive only works up to 40 km/h, but we judge anyway, that Fiat engineers have fallen into the super-power trap again. It makes driving, despite the progressive decline in servo performance with increasing speed, a bit imprecise. It's weird, because this Dual Drive in a car with slightly sporty ambitions should allow people to increase the feeling of the steering wheel, who want and like to use it. The suspension of the new Punto is absolutely typical and does not surprise with any technical innovations. They are said to be very well developed. Indeed, even on an uneven road with a very variable grip, the car moves steadily on the selected track, appearing e.g.. when accelerating on ice sheets, the wheel slips do not upset him. As long as we refrain from too nervous movements of the steering wheel (support!), the ride is calm and, colloquially speaking, "do not feel the speed".
It doesn't mean that, that you can not hear the work of the suspension on unevenness, what we were disappointed with. Test car with tires 195/55 R 16 (recently, such tires were reserved for better versions of D-segment cars) Loudly stamps the wheels on the bumps. Seems, that the rear suspension is noisier – the front overcomes small humps quite quietly, the rear shows at the same time, as it seems, excessive flexibility of the rubber-metal components used to attach the complete rear suspension kit to the body. Let us mention this, that it is one-piece. The stabilizer is performed by a torsion beam connecting the trailing arms, made of a steel tube with an incomplete circumference and with a wall thickness selected for the suspension version – more or less sporty. Only the Sport variant with the JTD turbo diesel 1.9 130 The KM has a lowered and noticeably hardened suspension.
Brakes – ventilated discs at the front (of different diameters, depending on engine power), rear drum, and only for the Sport version also discs at the rear. All Granda Punto variants have ABS with EBD (electronic brake force distribution for improved braking in turns), ASR/ESP. You can see the real quality of the brakes in summer on grippy surfaces.

Fiat's policy on drive units is interesting. The offer includes six of them, but there are actually three, only in several varieties. Gasoline products come from the well-known FIRE family. Two 8-valve are available – 1.2 65 KM and 1.4 77 MILES. Even though the FIRE family made their debut in 80., to this day they are considered modern, and above all, distinguished by the culture of work (low noise level, no vibration). After further modifications, including the intake system, exhaust and combustion chamber as well as adaptation of the sequential multi-point injection system Magneti Marelli and electric throttle, the engines comply with the Euro IV exhaust gas standard and provide reasonable performance (though 65 KM and 102 Nm of the weakest unit is a bit too little to comfortably travel over a ton of Punto with a full load) with relatively low fuel consumption. Fire 1.4 16 V with maximum power 95 KM and moment 127 Nm and it can be called the optimal gasoline unit for the Fiat Punto.
The manufacturer put more emphasis on equipping the Punto with diesel units. In fact, two are offered – small turbo diesel 1.3 16V JTD called SDE (Smali Diesel Engine) and the second greater 1.9 8In JTD – both in the Multijet injection version, that is, multiphase injection Common Raił. These two units allow the Punto to offer several power variants. Engine 1.3 has 75 or 90 MILES (the same bike also comes in variants 70 and 85 KM not offered in Punto). Unit 1.9 is offered in Punto with powers 120 and 130 MILES – only the latter appeared in the Sport trim level. So we see, that in a car, performance is definitely associated with diesel engines, and gasoline is intended for people who are not very dynamic and economical.