One-Million Fiat Puntos sold
November 25, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
Italian manufacturer Fiat has not sold more than 1-million Puntos with the production of a right-hand-drive Punto Sport T-Jet in “Passionate Red” yesterday.
Unfortunately for Fiat in Australia sales of the Punto have been on a steady decline, by the end of October last year 634 Puntos were sold, during the same period this year only 360 had been delivered.
So far 7.5 million Puntos have been sold, with the first generation reaching about 3.5-million and the second generation managing about 3-million (car is still on sale in some markets).
Overall Fiat is doing better in Australia this year having sold 351 more vehicle compared to the same period last year, helped by the delivery of 494 Fiat 500s.
Print it: 
a proper auto tranny is really holding back Fiat from grabbing a larger share of the market. There euro price premium doesnt help to, especially for a brand alot of Gen Y isnt familiar with. City chicks with Mini’s and Beetles most of the time opt for an auto. A fiat 500 with a manual just wont cut it for them lol.
if they want to get serious in gaining market momentum in foreign markets besides EU an auto tranny needs to appear, and quickly.
personally, love the Punto. would have it over a Pug 207 or a VW Polo anyday.
I own a punto and will be trading up to a new one next year, fantastic economy in the 1.3 diesel. Makes a polo look poorly put together and a Pug booring.
Have to agree with Daniel, the fact that a modern car is being offered in this market without a proper Auto just does not make sense… Sure the manual may be great, but most posers want to do just that – pose – not change up and down gears. Great looking little car though ;)
Maybe if they, you know, spent some time actually advertising their product they might sell more. It’s just a suggestion…
Too expensive for what you get!
It’s a great little supermini this one. Unlike a lot in the segment, it has quite a lot of character and in Australia at least, it has a tiny bit of prestige. I know Fiat offer that Dualogic auto thing, how does that actually work? Good looking, economical, spacious and safe. I think that right now anyway, this would make more sense than a Polo considering the Polo is aging and will be replaced soon.
From the first paragraph.
“Italian manufacturer Fiat has not sold more than 1-million Puntos with the production of a right-hand-drive Punto Sport T-Jet in “Passionate Red” yesterday.”
Have they or haven’t they sold 1 million?
Might want to change that CarAdvice :)
By the way CA, you have done a lot of reviews for budget hot hatches and the Punto hot hatches should be a part of that because they are the same price if not cheaper than the ones you’ve done and great fun to drive. I’d just like to see how one would stack up to say, the Polo GTI or the Fiesta ST.
It does annoy me how expensive some of these Europeans are, considering they are “cheap” in Europe.
Fiat and alfa need to ditch the Selespeed type autos and use regular autos. Agree that it must put a lot of people off.
Would be good if Fiat and Alfa made RWD again as well.
^Well Alfa use proper autoboxes in the 159, but yes most still use the Selespeed ones. I’ve heard the next generation of cars, Alfa is hoping to put of a RWD platform, from rumours I’ve heard, either GM platforms or Jaguars.
I’m still trying to get my head around the first line. The Punto is a good car, the 1.4T I liked a lot, although everyone says the diesel is the pick. But yeah, it is a little overpriced in Aus, and gets absolutely zero advertising. Fiat, people won’t buy cars they don’t know about. So give Ateco a little help and throw some advertising money their way.
I’m not sure how the Punto is expensive. I priced up a Punto with a similarly spec’d Corolla and the Toyota came out more expensive by about $1000.
So, when I bought my Punto I saved $1000, got a car that has a heart and soul and is fun to drive, as I spend 4 of my 8 hours of work driving.
While FIAT hasn’t advertised on TV much, they have their ads everywhere on billboards and a day doesn’t go by where I haven’t waved at another FIAT on the road. I parked next to a 500 the other day and the driver and I had a chat in the maccas parking lot for about half an hour.
While it is annoying that some Euroboxes are more expensive than their Jap equivalents, when you option up a Japbox to include what most Euroboxes come with, they work out the same.
Then there’s the resale value argument. Euroboxes tend to lose more in value than other cars. TRUE. But you have two choices. If you plan on buying a car only to sell it, lease one. If you plan on keeping it, you’ll probably run it into the ground, and I don’t think resale value is of a concern at that stage when scrap metal is pretty much all worth the same in weight.
The car’s popularity in Europe is due to the car being a brilliant one. I’m in love with mine. I’ll probably buy the series 2 when that comes here, and I’ll probably get my wife a 500 Abarth soon.
SteveC
I will now that it has an automatic box look at buying one finances permitting to replace my 2006 Nissan Tiida when the warranty on that is close to running out.