I didn't want to hijack Shark's "memories of the vRS" thread, but the comment about Fiat reliabilty awoke dark memories within me.

Back in the early 90s, I bought a Fiat Tempra - pre-registered and it seemed like a very good price - just under £8k IIRC. What a nightmare it turmed out to be :(

• 4000 Miles - Fuel Pump packed in - miles from anywhere on a cold dark November night
  
• 12,000 - Belt tensioner knackered
  
• 18,000 - Alternator - out of warranty - £190
  
• 19,000 - Power Steering Pump - £180
  
• 23,000 - Water Pump - £250
  
• 25,000 - Exhaust pipe baffle plates
  
• 26,000 - Choke cable snapped - guy in the parts shop laughed - "I've never seen that before!" Told him to stuff it - got the machine shop at work to fix it using piano wire.
  
• 29,000 - Belt tensioner (again) - £40
  
• 31,000 - Disc brakes grinding - the pad warning lamp circuit wasn't working (surprise surprise) - £250
  
• 36,000 - TDC sensor - £350. That took Arnold Clark many hours and a lot of my money to finally fix. The symptom was that the engine would just die on me especially on the motorway !:eek:
  
• 45,000 - Belt Tensioner (again) - £40
  
• 50,000 - Exhaust pipe (again) - £100
  
• 65,000 - Power Steering (again) - £200
  
• 72,000 - Clutch

I'm sure you're getting the picture. Interspersed through all this was the wipers fuse blowing intermittantly, water leaking into the fuse box causing all sorts of strange effects, track rod ends, siezed joint on the gearchange linkage causing it to jump out of gear etc, etc, etc.

Several snot-o-gram letters to Fiat failed to provide satisfaction - they even suggested it might be my driving style - cheeky barstewards:mad:

Contrast with my VW Passat which cost a lot more to buy but after 100,000 had suffered only two failures - an electric window and a temperature sender. It had only had one change of discs and two changes of pads in that time, and still had the original exhaust and clutch.

I kept both cars for just over 7 years and did similar mileages. The driving styles were identical for both giving lie to the Fiat assertion.

Although in terms of hard cash, the Fiat package cost less, there are the intangibles such as the lack of confidence that I could complete a long journey without breaking down, the inconvenience of taking time off work to get to the garage, the embarassment ("car in the garage again ? - s****** s******")

So IMO when you buy a Fiat, you get a low cost car which is CHEAP. By that I mean, poorly designed (look at their wiring looms) and made from cheap crappy mateials that aren't fit for purpose and which won't last long.

I really hope that Shark's experience with the Punto turns out to be good. I'd never risk one again no matter how low the price was.

I'm in month 3 with the vRS and so far so good. Fingers crossed that I don't have another nightmare lying in wait.

Rant Ends!

I recently bought a 2000 plate Punto hlx JTD for the wife with 72k on the clock. It cost me