Can you go motoring for £100?

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A car for £100.

A lightweight, Italian two door with a spartan interior and a manual gearbox. A car who's engine and chassis beg to be wrung out to the limit. Impossible?

Let me introduce you to our 2004 Fiat Punto. I’m going to explain how you can use and enjoy a car costing the same as filling up a Range Rover.

The Punto in question has covered just 45,000 miles from new, and, while scruffy, has held up reasonably well. My father runs a used car dealer in Cardiff, and was approached by the then-owners of the car in 2012 wanting (understandably) to part-exchange for an upgrade. Keen to let it go, a deal was struck at £100 and the Fiat has been with us ever since.
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Unloved

Now used as transport for customers and family members, it is now apparent that the Punto was in fact worth more than a tank of fuel. Despite this, some yobs have used its roof as a trampoline, the bonnet is finished in a very interesting rendition of Blue Jet metallic and nearly every panel is damaged. It’s a similar story on the inside - the poor car has been through countless owners in its lifetime, and given heavy abuse by each.

Proving a hit, it's the car people must borrow often and some of its larger fans have made a distinct impression on those snazzy covered seats. As a whole the car actually comes across OK, not embarrassing by any means, and these facts do give the little Fiat a certain charm - all who have driven it have developed a similar bond.
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Flaws

The Fiat is the perfect example of a car that, by most measurable qualities, is a shed, yet somehow gets under your skin. A car doesn’t have to be great in order to be great. In fact, often these flaws give a car a certain personality. Perfection can be boring. This is apparent in most Italian machines, and part of why I love Alfa Romeos.
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Not all bad

And flaws there are many, although fewer than you might expect. The clutch engages so high up in the pedal that you touch your forehead with your knee before setting off, but the brake pedal is relatively progressive and well positioned in relation to the throttle, allowing for easy heel-and-toeing.
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More positives

Another plus is the driving position. Unlike some modern hatches, you can get quite low in the Punto and feel (somewhat) integral to the chassis instead of perched on top of it. I admit this may be specific to this example because as mentioned, those er... striking seats have been squashed down by some of its weightier occupants.

The Punto also just about resists the typical Italian driving position of arms stretched, legs cramped – instead being comfortable and easy to throw around.
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Driving

The best part of our £100 investment is how the little Fiat wants to be driven. Hard, in a word. If you ever want to experience the old motoring cliche of a ‘little terrier pup’, this is it. The piddling 1.2 litre 4-cylinder has little to no torque (a weedy 75 lb ft), so loves living on the red line.

So, like the best Italian superminis, you must thrash the thing to get moving, and when you do you can’t help but smile - the little Punto will squeal in pain, only to have brought up 30mph on the speedo (60 comes up in a dazzling 13.8 seconds). But it's fun and plain hilarious. It’s a happy car, our Fiat Punto.
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A good buy

The same goes for the chassis. Although numb and unsophisticated, the Punto does in fact have a surprising appetite for lift-off-oversteer. It’s no 205 GTI of course, but it has an eagerness to play, which, predictably, can be aided with the handbrake for the boy-racers among us. Of course, at the price of a weekly shop, you naturally drive the car free of much guilt and mechanical sympathy.

Although worn out and battered, our Fiat Punto has been absolutely reliable and without issue - it really is a useful, dependable little vehicle. This, coupled with the fun factor and connection we have formed with it, making it the best £100 you could ever spend.

Yousuf Ashraf