Abarth Punto Evo Hatchback (10 on) - Review

Review by Chris Ebbs on
The world of hot hatches is a pretty busy one. Volkswagen, Renault, Peugeot, Skoda, SEAT, Audi, BMW, Citroen and MINI are all jostling for position in this crowded marketplace. As such Abarth, Fiat’s performance brand, has a lot of work to do with its new Punto Evo to get its share of customers. While other hot hatches might out-do the Punto Evo when it comes to pure performance, the Abarth is the more practical, less-hardcore alternative and is not so arduous when it comes to day-to-day driving. It's no slouch though, and the 1.4-litre turbocharged engine is more than lively enough, while the handling is sharp. To push Abarth's case even more, the 165bhp Punto Evo is available in the hotter Esseesse guise with an improved power output of 180bhp.
4 out of 5

Safety

While the regular Punto Evo hasn’t been crash tested by Euro NCAP, the previous Grande Punto model was awarded five stars for safety when it underwent tests. On this basis and with the long list of safety features that come as standard you can expect the Abarth version to perform well too. The standard safety equipment on the car includes seven airbags including a driver’s kneebag. There's also stability control, ABS and Hilld holder that stops the car rolling back when the driver takes their foot off the brake when accelerating on a hill.

NCAP Test

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3.5 out of 5

Reliability

Fiat tends to perform poorly when it comes to customer satisfaction surveys but this may be different when it comes to Abarth. With a limited number of specialist dealerships and a low volume of customers, service should be better than that found at generic Fiat dealerships. While Fiat’s reputation for reliability hasn’t always been great, the company has looked to improve this and recent models like the 500 seem to have performed well when it comes to build quality.

Car check problem points

Body

No problems reported

Engine/Gearbox

No problems reported

Other

No problems reported