[Graham_B18C]

Originally Posted by steve06

My other half has had 3 puntos.

1st car: windscreen motor went
2nd car: head gasket went
3rd car: gearbox went

In my experience, they're rubbish cars! - And that's coming from an Alfa owner...

I had one and had to replace the engine!

[delly]

Having done a bit of research before I bought my Punto, they can be very hit and miss. They have known issues such as the PS motor, wipers linkage and the head gasket on the 8v models. If buying second hand, you really need to get one that has had a good service history.

[colm_mcm]

On the Puntos you had a few dfferent specs,

When they were launched in 1999, there were essentially 6 specs in the 1.2.

3dr had Base, ELX, and Sporting
5dr had Base ELX and HLX.

Base spec had black bumpers, no central locking, windey windows, and black plastic headrests that had a big hole in the middle.

ELX added electric windows, front foglights, coloured bumpers, central locking, nicer seats with proper headrests all round

Sporting had the 16 valve engine with a 6 speed box, subwoofer, side skirts, passenger airbag, sunroof, leather sports wheel,

HLX added remote locking, passenger airbag, ABS, electric sunroof, alloys, nicer seats and the 16 valve engine but with the 5 speed box.

Then around late 2001 they introduced an Elegance model, based on the base, it had most of what the ELX got (seats were from the base model though) some of these got alloys, but these weren't standard.
In 2002, they changed the names around again,

There was also an Active Special series model that was like an Elegance with alloys, but also got a sunroof....
The Elegance model in late 02 was similar to an original ELX model but with alloys..

Then with the facelift in mid 03, it got a whole load more confusing, they had Active, Active Sound, Dynamic, and all sorts of other models that made no sense at all. They all got standard colour coded bumpers for the facelift (except the vans)



So in answer to your questions:
1) it's a pretty run of the mill model
2) the syncromesh on 1st and 2nd, and 2nd and 3rd goes quite easily, if you hear a little gringing noise on downshifts, or on upshifts when you're driving hard, then it's on the way out.