Marco
14-06-2008, 09:11 PM
(Yes, yes, not a Holden but I know that some of you like other cars too...the rest of you can move on, nothing to see here...)
I'd been interested in the Punto Sport T-Jet for a couple of reasons - firstly, it seemed like a good car for the price, and secondly, I was interested to see how the idea of a small (1.4 litre) engine with a turbo instead of a more conventional 1.8-2.0 litre engine for this type of car would work out. I was also interested to see what you can get by way of a 'warm hatch' these days.
So I took one for a drive today, and I liked it a lot.
The T-Jet engine works really well - certainly feels much larger than 1.4 litres, and has a nice wave of torque kicking off from very low in the rev range - so you could put 2nd and 3rd year to good effect just whipping past people in traffic. Sounds good too, very much in the Italian twin cam engine mould without an overbearing turbo sound. It doesn't look like a lot of power on paper, especially for the weight, but it was usefully quicker in the real world than my old TS Astra which had the same power/weight ratio but much less torque. So, very driveable. I'm now looking forward to seeing more of these types of engines in the future, as having peak torque available at low revs works out much better for real world driving than a slightly larger non-turbo engine if my drive today was anything to go by.
Can't say too much about the handling, I wasn't on the right roads for it, other than to say there were no glaring problems and it was running Potenza RE050A tyres so should at least be grippy.
Really nice interior - some hard plastics around but made up for by good colours and textures and some other nice materials. I often get in cars and feel a bit out of place, like the car just isn't for me - Falcons and Hondas particularly, for some reason - but that wasn't the case here. Very Italian and very good. Seats were excellent.
My only problem here is that it would have been good to get the driver's seat back further - I was slightly lacking in legroom which meant that I was cramped and started to get lower back discomfort. This alone may be enough to stop me buying one (not that I was planning to). Otherwise, interior space was pretty good considering it's not that big a car.
Nicely styled, wheels look better in real life than in the photos, visibility generally good although no idea where the bonnet ends because the base of the windscreen is so far forward. Lucky it's a short bonnet.
So, good buying? At the moment they're $26k drive away so I would say yes, for sure. Its natural competitors would seem to be the Polo GTI and Fiesta XR4 - I haven't driven those so I don't know if the Punto is better. Certainly both appear quicker on paper, but then, the Punto is substantially more fuel efficient on paper so it might be worth the tradeoff.
So yes, I liked it.
I'd been interested in the Punto Sport T-Jet for a couple of reasons - firstly, it seemed like a good car for the price, and secondly, I was interested to see how the idea of a small (1.4 litre) engine with a turbo instead of a more conventional 1.8-2.0 litre engine for this type of car would work out. I was also interested to see what you can get by way of a 'warm hatch' these days.
So I took one for a drive today, and I liked it a lot.
The T-Jet engine works really well - certainly feels much larger than 1.4 litres, and has a nice wave of torque kicking off from very low in the rev range - so you could put 2nd and 3rd year to good effect just whipping past people in traffic. Sounds good too, very much in the Italian twin cam engine mould without an overbearing turbo sound. It doesn't look like a lot of power on paper, especially for the weight, but it was usefully quicker in the real world than my old TS Astra which had the same power/weight ratio but much less torque. So, very driveable. I'm now looking forward to seeing more of these types of engines in the future, as having peak torque available at low revs works out much better for real world driving than a slightly larger non-turbo engine if my drive today was anything to go by.
Can't say too much about the handling, I wasn't on the right roads for it, other than to say there were no glaring problems and it was running Potenza RE050A tyres so should at least be grippy.
Really nice interior - some hard plastics around but made up for by good colours and textures and some other nice materials. I often get in cars and feel a bit out of place, like the car just isn't for me - Falcons and Hondas particularly, for some reason - but that wasn't the case here. Very Italian and very good. Seats were excellent.
My only problem here is that it would have been good to get the driver's seat back further - I was slightly lacking in legroom which meant that I was cramped and started to get lower back discomfort. This alone may be enough to stop me buying one (not that I was planning to). Otherwise, interior space was pretty good considering it's not that big a car.
Nicely styled, wheels look better in real life than in the photos, visibility generally good although no idea where the bonnet ends because the base of the windscreen is so far forward. Lucky it's a short bonnet.
So, good buying? At the moment they're $26k drive away so I would say yes, for sure. Its natural competitors would seem to be the Polo GTI and Fiesta XR4 - I haven't driven those so I don't know if the Punto is better. Certainly both appear quicker on paper, but then, the Punto is substantially more fuel efficient on paper so it might be worth the tradeoff.
So yes, I liked it.