Fiat launches Grande Punto in India

As I said earlier, Fiat launched Grande Punto in the Indian market. Fiat India has surprised the Indian automobile market by tagging it with ex-showroom price ranging between 399,000 INR and 600,000 INR.

If I think of cars available in Indian market at that range,

- Maruti Suzuki Swift (Petrol & Diesel)
- Tata Indica Vista (Petrol & Diesel)
- Hyundai i10 (Petrol)

But the Fiat Grande Punto is at par with Hyundai i20, Skoda Fabia & Honda Jazz by design, technical specifications & size. I have never been to a Tata Motors showroom to check out a fiat car. I still hear problems about after sales service for Fiat cars at Tata Motors service centers.

Honda has just priced their car Honda Jazz (Petrol) for approximately more than 400,000 INR. That means one could buy two Grande Puntos at the price of one Honda Jazz. In fact one can buy a Fiat Linea Diesel for the same price of a Honda Jazz.

Honda Jazz is overpriced compared to Skoda Fabia and Hyundai i20. So how does Grande Punto fares with Fabia & i20? The base petrol version of Grande Punto is underpowered with 1.2 L engine and with max power of 68 bhp. The 1.4 L petrol version is on par with Fabia, i20 & Jazz in terms of max power - 90 bhp.

And the Fiat website does not provide the price details of 1.4 L separately. That's a little confusing too.

I believe the 1.4 L Grande Punto would cost almost same as i20 & Fabia Petrol. The coming days would reveal more about the pricing and also about the response for this machine in Indian market.