Fiat is the largest vehicle manufacturer in Italy which is involved in the production of small Fat city as well as various sports cars manufactured by Ferrari and vans and trucks, like Ducato. Here it should be mentioned that the company Fiat is the owner of some well known brands like, Alfa Romeo, Didge, jeep, Ram and SRT, Ferrari and Chrysler.
In 1993, Italian car manufacturer Fiat designed a super mini car named as Fiat Punto. Here the word ‘Supermini’ means a category of car which is larger than a city car but much smaller than a family car. The term was developed in UK in the year 1970.
The car was launched in 2005 and was being updated time to time over a large duration. Many people in India believed that its features are not competitive enough to beat other cars. Its engine was not much powerful according to the experts. Some of its brands like ‘Punto Evo’ were not even able to complete the figure of 100 customers ever since October 2017!
In addition, the disappointing news is that in Europe a decision was taken to stop the production of Fiat Punto by Fiat Chrysler automobile plant which was situated in Italy.
Now the company has no further roadmap to revive the brand. In Europe these cars have been manufactured for 25 years. Initially the brand was said to be successful as it dethroned the Volkswagen Golf in 1997 as the bestselling car in Europe. Punto had also faced competition from SUVs. The decision to discontinue it was taken in the wake of emission guidelines and its prices seemed high to buyers as compared to other cars. The buyers were also not much satisfied with its technicalities and performance.
Punto was also the most desirable model from Italy for a long duration of time, say 25 years. It took its usual name in 2012 when it completed seven years of continuous sale.
It got a tough fight from the car makers of Korea which were better in terms of price and quality, Fiesta and Polos to name a few. As the year 2018 started, the sales of Fiat Punto did not even cross the 3 digit sales once in a month in a country like India.
Sources have also brought into light the fact that these cars won’t be discontinued; actually the manufacturers have different plans. They want to have free space in their manufacturing area in Italy in its Melfi Plant to manufacture Maserati SUV. Only time will confirm the reality.
But it seems difficult to get a global successor of the Punto. It has been announced by FCA in June that the brand ‘Fiat’ will give attention to the new ‘fiat 500’. And it will put its efforts in introducing the augmented generation of the Fiat Panda. Punto has been discontinued in Europe but not in Latin America. But now everyone has to accept the fact that now it will no longer be a global brand!
