Brazil Gets New Punto. Or Old? Well, It's Complicated

Fiat do Brasil launched today the Punto in 2011 guise. It’s all about the engines man! Out goes GM’s very-long-in-the-tooth and old-school, not to mention wasteful and power-challenged 1.8L mill, and in come new 1.6 and 1.8L (both with 16v) lumps. So all good and new. Right? Not so fast…

Just to get it out of the way, the design remains unchanged. Inside as always there are new fabrics on the seats, the lighting is different etc. So it’s basically the old car.

But you see, the engines are new and much revised. They even get a cute (???) new name, E.TorQ (so clever). Though they are still basically the ones produced by Tritec. You know the joint-venture in Campo Largo, Paraná, Brazil? The company that was a joint-venture between BMW and Chrysler? Which supplied the first Mini’s motor? Which was laid to waste when Daimler took over Chrysler? Which made BMW marry Peugeot in unholy matrimony so that someone (anyone) would supply them with the second Mini’s engine? No? Now you do. Say hi.

Well, Fiat bought that plant last year and now it’s bearing fruits. If the design’s unchanged (and that’s controversial and can be considered “bad”) the engines are “almost” new. With a lot of new technologies that are basically unheard of for Brazilian car makers. So, not so bad for Brazil, and definitely an improvement for Fiat fans.

The new 1.6L puts out 117 ponies when drinking sugarcane and 115 hp when sipping the Brazilian dino stuff, which contains at least 25 percent of ethanol. It bests the old GM supplied 1.8 by some 8 ponies and, better yet, 81 percent of its torque is available at a low 1500 rpms. Top speed is either 180 km/h (112mph) or 182 km/h (114 mph), gasoline/ethanol. Acceleration? From 0 to 62 mph it’s 10.7 or 10.5. It also promises to be more economical, but Fiat won’t say by how much (all preceding numbers and those in the next paragraph were gleamed from Brazilian enthusiast car site bestcars.com.br).

If you need more power, then there’s the all new (in the same sense as the 1.6 being all new) 1.8 16v motor. This new one blows the old one out of the water. It provides its owner 132 or 130 (ethanol/gas) horses to play with. Top speed goes up to 189 km/h (118mph) and 191 km/h (119mph), and the 62 mile mark goes by after just 10.1 or 9.8 seconds (Brazilian gasoline/ethanol).

Both engines use a single valve command, similar to many a Honda’s, but unlike the Japanese variety, it is non-variable. Also different from Honda, the engine block is made from iron and not aluminum. In spite of this, FPT’s (Fiat Powertrain Technologies, the company left over from Fiat’s divorce from GM and which supplies the engines) industrial director Marcelo Reis swears the engines are 4 percent lighter than Honda’s. How you ask? Mr. Reis explained to Brazilian enthusiast site Auto Esporte that the crank case is made from aluminum and that they are using fractured rods, among other innovative (for Brazil) technologies.

The old 1.4 Fire engine is still available, though it’s “new” and goes by a new name, too. It’s now a 1.4 Fire EVO engine (same as in new Uno) and gets a slight bump in horsepower to 85 or 88 (Brazilian gas/ethanol). However, the emphasis here was in fuel economy. Its main highlight is that this engine now gets a continuous variable valve opening command system. This means it gets better economy and more linear torque availability for greater driving enjoyment.

Finally, for the hoons, the very sweet 1.4 L Turbo T-Jet version is still available. It remains unchanged from before, but what separates it from its lesser brethren are aerodynamic appendages, suspension improvements and the state-of-the-art (imported from Italy) downsized small engine with big output. According to bestcars.com.br this Punto is good for 152 ponies and 21.1 m.kgf (available from 2250 rpms to 4500 rpms). It goes to 60 in 8.4 seconds and runs out of gas at 203 km/h (127 mph). Oh, and it only runs on gas.

As to pricing (USD$1.00=R$1.80)… (sigh), thanks to Auto Esporte:

*Dualogic is an automated gearbox. It changes gears for you, if you so wish ‘cause you can still do it yourself, but the mechanic bits are still there.

PS: If you like Brazilian Fiat commercials, here’s another good one. In the U.S., it would probably get banned,