Fiat Punto 1.7 diesel

What are the engines like in these? Are they a Pug/Citroen lump? Are they reliable?

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan
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Nope- Fiats own. Distinctly average on all fronts. Abit of a tractor if its the pre common rail unit.

Tim..

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Tim (Remove NOSPAM.

Hmmm... Average? The turbocharged ones performed well for their day and price, and were even economical, but a bit loud and rough around the edges. If you like diesels, this won't be an issue.... :)

Are you looking at small diesels again?

Reply to
DervMan

Kind of, but this time I'm thinking anything cheap - i.e. less than a grand, preferably less than £500, ideally around the £200 mark if I'm lucky and it's not falling apart, runs well and has a decent MOT on it. I was looking on the vans section of Autotrader last night, just doing a search on vans in general, make by make, seeing if anything cheap came up, and there was this low mileage 1.7D Punto van, 49k on the clock, R reg, for £895 - sounds pretty good to me. Any idea what sort of mpg I'd be getting out of one??

Basically work have said no cars any more, everyone must be in a van, which I'm gutted about as I've just bought a really nice Audi that should hopefully last for a bloody long time, and might have to very regretfully sell it as it really won't be used much if I'm not using it for work, and I really hate the idea of £6k worth of car sitting on the drive, losing value whilst getting barely any use (band split up, so no real need for a big car at the minute, but I love it and really don't want to get rid of it!).

But the plus point is that I've still got a couple of weeks left to run on the insurance policy I took out on the Fiesta (when I got the Audi I dropped cover back to TPFT, meaning I got a hundred or so quid back, whereas if I'd cancelled I'd have got nothing), so if I can get something cheap with tax and MOT I can effectively run it for nothing for at least a couple of weeks, and even after that, the fuel saving between a 38mpg Audi and a 50-55mpg supermini-derived van should pay for the insurance anyway, so I'll be no worse off really.

Also, looks like I've located a decent low mileage Nova 1.5TD (Isuzu) van with a year's tax and MOT (well it will do by the time I get it) for a good price, so I might see how I like that. It's fairly rust free as well, which is a bonus.

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

I own a Rover 100 Ascot diesel, with a 1525cc engine. Basically, on a full tank, I can go to Mars and back ;-)

Seriously though, on a run and not driven too hard 55-60 MPG.

Have a look at Rover 100 Diesels in the Auto Trader. Low mileage examples in VGC can be picked up cheaply. In the three years I've owned mine, apart from servicing, its cost me just £30, this was for a suspension fluid change. It's never failed to start and it fires up within a second of turning the key.

Regards tox

Reply to
God's gift to women

I think the Rover 100 1.5 Diesels have the PSA engine (Pug/Citroen) which is the same engine as the Saxo/AX/106 diesels, and is supposed be a pretty good engine, and a lot stronger than the earlier 1.4's, but I need a van. If I was running a car, I'd more than happily stick with the Audi - ok, at 38mpg it's not going to be quite as good on fuel as something averaging 50-55mpg, but the saving would only pay for another lot of insurance anyway (i.e. van insurance), so I'd be no better really - the thing is, I don't have a choice, and I've got my eyes on a Nova 1.5TD van with a year's tax and MOT which I can effectively insure for a couple of weeks for nothing (due to having another policy still running), during which time I can see whether I like it, and whether the economy's as good as I hoped, and if it is, then the fuel saving compared to the Audi will basically pay for the insurance and I'll be no worse off. Only thing is, I'll be left with an Audi that I'll be using very little, and struggle to justify keeping it, when I could sell it and put the money towards something more useful, like a house.

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

This may well be the "low blow" turbocharged version of the engine, but it's indirect injection with a Euromix figure of something like 43 mpg (less for a "High Cube" version of course).

Change company? Isn't that the car you spent four months trying to find? :-(

The Nova TD is a nice piece of kit and it should be more economical than the Punto, oh and not being Italian is a benefit too...

Reply to
DervMan

Dunno - it just said 1.7D, so quite possibly just a non-charged one. Euromix of 43mpg?????????? That is utter, utter, utter, utter shit!! Why would anyone considering a supermini based car derived van, which people buy because they generally easily do 50mpg, get one that only does 43mpg. My Audi averages 38mpg and that's in lots of London traffic.

regretfully

Yep. Could possibly change company, but I think most courier companies around here want people with vans, not cars, and from what I've heard about other companies, the levels of work are all much of a muchness. I'll probably keep the Audi, and actually get a life, so I can actually make use of it :-)

Heh! Only thing I'm a bit concerned about, is that it's probably going to be a cat-strangled one, so not quite as good on fuel as the earlier ones, and I really can't be bothered de-catting it - "if it goes, leave it" is going to be my new motto, at least for a while.

Anyway, I've got a couple of weeks of effectively free use of the Nova (in that the insurance is already paid for, and it's bound to be lower insurance group than a W reg Fiesta van), so in that fortnight I can find out exactly what sort of economy it gets with me driving it in and out of London, if I like driving it, and then do the sums, and hopefully the difference in fuel economy between the Audi and the Nova should mean that I can afford to run both for pretty much the same money. That kinda banks on nothing going wrong on the Nova though.........

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

The badged the "low blows" as "D," perhaps to save insurance premiums or - more likely - so that the intercooled model could be badged TD?

Because Fiat offered chunky big discounts?

Aye. But don't forget that your Audi has direct injection and this one is a mechanically injected, indirect injection donk.

Hmmm. It would have to be a very late one to have the cat...

It may well not be more economical, 'cos of the Nova SR / GTE / GSi influence, oh and they're quite pokey...

Reply to
DervMan

Ah, maybe so then - I take it by "High Cube" you mean a small van with a big box stuck on the back, i.e. Citroen C15 (Citroen Visa), Ford Courier (Fiesta) etc - this one definitely isn't - just a standard Punto car shape - looks pretty clean as well.

Yeah, horrible old technology! Since the 2 diesel Carltons (one n/a, one turbo) I haven't owned an indirect injection diesel, so I've been kinda lucky (well, more picky with what I've bought).

It's a K reg, 92 model I think. I'm thinking that all K reg ones onwards would have had cats, but then again that's only based on the knowledge that the rules for petrol emissions say that K reg onwards (specifically August

1992 onwards) have to be subject to the more stringent emissions tests, so I may be way off.

Out of interest, what does a cat actually do, on a diesel, given that the emissions are mainly smoke particles???? I mean, with a petrol it reduces CO (mainly) and other things as well (can't remember exactly), but the diesel emissions test is just based on smoke particles - is it a completely different type of catalyst to a cat on a petrol engine (stupid question probably)??

I'd be driving it fairly gently, to see what I could get out of it, but not

*too* gently, as I want the figure to be realistic!! The bloke selling it says he's been getting 46-48mpg out of it, but I reckon even going into London I should be able to average somewhere between 50-55mph in it. I remember Jack Hackett mentioning he could easily get 60mpg out of it, but that probably wasn't in city traffic, so based on that I'm kinda hoping I should be able to average at *least* 50, hopefully nearer 55. *PING JackH* - if you're reading this (saw a post to do with Lagunas recently from you) - have you ever owned a late 1.5TD Nova (K reg onwards - mind you wasn't K reg the last of them anyway?), and (a) did it have a cat, and (b) was it still excellent on fuel??

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

Bascially its a hot gauze with catalytic compound on it which reacts with carbon to rise to a higher temperature than it would do normally- the gauze glows yellow hot and it burns off alot of the carbon particulates that would otherwise come out of the tailpipe in a black cloud of smoke.

Compare a mk5 Escort TD's smoke emission (non cat) with a mk1 mondeo TD's.- with an oxidation cat- and you'll see wot i mean.

Tim..

Reply to
Tim (Remove NOSPAM.

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