Hi,

 Cant find any details on this site at all about the gearbox for the grand punto. We need to buy an automatic for my girlfriend to use, and am interested in the new puntos.

 Can anyone give me some details on the punto gearbox options?

Many thanks

Jam

Hi Jam

If you configure a Grande Punto on this site, the Dualogic gearbox will come up as an option for certain GP models (it costs £720). With the new "Series 2" Puntos, I think the semi automatic box is only available on the Active, Dynamic and Eleganza models with the 1.4 8v engine (although I believe Fiat have re-introduced the Dualogic option with one of the Multijet engine variants).

Whether or not you like driving a car with an auto box is very much a matter of choice.  Personally, I find the Dualogic a smooth drive (I have a 1.4 Dynamic, and previously had a Grande Punto 1.3 multijet with Dualogic), and mpg consumption should be pretty much the same as the manual equivalent. One thing though - because of the type of "manual-auto" box, the car doesn't "creep" when you're stationary and on the level, but you soon get used to this.

I guess not many Fiat dealers will have an automatic GP demonstrator for you to try out, but if you are at all familiar with driving automatic cars, you should find the Grande Punto Dualogic pretty straightforward - I like it, anyway!  Hope this helps.

Thanks mate, thats exactly the information I was after.

 I'm heading off to the fiat dealer now for a chat...

 Thanks again.

The Fiat Dualogic box is a very good system, but is not a true automatic. It is a manual gearbox, with a robot "bolted" on the side. This has two ramifications:

1, You cannot drive it if you only have an automatic liscence.

2, The car will not "hill hold". So if you try to hill start you wil have to use the hand brake like a manual car.

All in all it is a very good drive, but it is only mated to the 8v 1.4 petrol engine at the moment.

Hope that helps.