| First Drive | Cheltenham, England | Fiat Punto Evo 1.4 MultiAir Sporting |

Fitting the clever 1.4-litre MultiAir engine into Fiat's new Punto Evo Sporting makes 135bhp mightier than it should be.

In the Metal

The Punto Evo is pretty much as with the outgoing Grande Punto, but with a twist. The facelift includes new front and rear lights, a Fiat badge prominently located within what Fiat insiders call the 'moustache' and a new interior. It's a mid-life model, a refresh to keep the Grande Punto (introduced in 2006) competitive and interesting in a marketplace awash with all-new Fiestas and Polos. The overall of the Evo look is good, particularly in the more thrusting models like this Sporting.

It's the flagship until the Abarth models arrive, the usual modifications like fog lamps, deeper spoilers and alloy wheels making the Sporting a real head-turner. The bread and butter versions look good too, but it's the keys to the Sporting we've nabbed. The interior is all new, Fiat majoring on optional kit like a smart TomTom Blue&Me interface that allows the satnav unit to slot directly into the dashboard. Quality is up too, though there are still some let-down areas: the column stalks feeling pretty flimsy and insubstantial and the driving position is difficult to get right. Lots of standard kit makes it a good value proposition though and the design is different enough to make it look and feel new, despite it just being a facelift.

What you get for your Money

Fiat reckons that the Punto Evo is a better value proposition than Ford's Fiesta thanks to more generous levels of standard kit. Certainly looking at the equipment lists the Evo comes with everything you'd need, though if you want some of the more flash trim bits like leather and contrasting colour inserts it bumps up the price. Being a Sporting model this particular Evo looks great, the chrome mirror caps, chrome exhaust tip, fog lamps, alloy wheels and red brake callipers suiting the Punto's revised look. All Punto Evos come with Start&Stop, while the Sporting adds standard air conditioning, ambient lighting, a leather covered steering wheel and gear knob and ESP. Under the bonnet the Punto Evo features Fiat's latest MultiAir petrol (and MultiJet turbodiesel) engines, their inclusion being perhaps the biggest improvement over the old car.

Driving it

Good looks, decent equipment and a mighty engine define the Punto Evo Sporting. We'd have never believed the fact that the Sporting model has a 1.4-litre petrol engine with 135bhp until we pored over the specifications. It feels far more potent than that, Fiat's engineers having created a fiendishly clever variable timing system that allows it to boost power and torque without harming emissions and economy. Torque is where the biggest advantages are, the 1.4-litre MultiAir delivering 152lb.ft at a turbodiesel-like 1,750rpm, making it easy and quick; economy is good too, with a quoted 50.4mpg and 129g/km of CO₂ on the official combined cycle. It still revs as well, cleanly and with vigour, 62mph arriving in 8.5 seconds for example and the building force that is the MultiAir's underlying torque makes it feel like a far larger capacity engine.

However, the chassis is competent rather than sparkling, the steering never really communicating through the chunky wheel, the ride being reasonably composed but not delivering the ultimate composure that you'll get in any Fiesta. The chief criticism of the driving experience is with the five-speed gearbox. It needs another ratio and some more precision, the shift quality vague at best and obstructive at worst - downshifts from third to second being particularly difficult. That's a real shame as otherwise the Punto Evo Sporting is a great fun, the 1.4-litre MultiAir in particular impressing hugely.

Worth Noting

Spec adjusted figures are always interesting, but at a few hundred pounds over £15,000 for this Sporting model it's pitching up into some pretty serious territory. Forget specification levels for a moment, spend an extra £1,000 or so and you could have Renault's fantastic 200bhp Clio RenaultSport Cup - the hardcore and quite brilliant yardstick in the world of junior hot hatches. If refinement, solid build and image are your thing then that £15,000 buys a lot of VW Polo. If you want dynamics then the Fiesta is difficult to ignore, even if neither the Ford nor VW offer the Fiat's punchy performance - in petrol guise at least.

Summary

The Sporting is fun and the MultiAir engine is quite incredible, but the overall package is too close in price to some serious hot hatchbacks to make sense as a sporting drive. Economical, punchy, decently specified and good looking there's a lot to like about the Punto Evo Sporting, but even with 'specification adjusted' figures the numbers add up more convincingly further down the range.