Fiat Punto FINALLY put out of its misery

Fiat Punto production ended

The Fiat Punto has finally ended production as Fiat rationalises its model offerings and focuses on the 500 and Panda for a City Car future.

As far back as 2013, the late Sergio Marchionne was declaring the end of the Fiat Punto in an effort to move Fiat in to more upmarket waters, but it didn’t actually happen.

By the time Marchionne made his wishes clear five years ago, the Punto had already been suffering poor sales despite Fiat’s best efforts, including renaming it the Grande Punto when the third generation arrived in 2005, turning it in to the Punto Evo in 2009 with a facelift and back to just Punto in 2012.

But it’s not just poor sales, despite endless tweaking, that’s finished the Punto off, it’s the dubious claim to fame as the only car ever to get zero starts in Euro NCAP tests, which was probably the final nail in the venerable Punto’s coffin.

With the Punto now no longer part of Fiat’s line-up (and the Tipo probably next to bite the dust) that leaves Fiat with just the 500 and Panda to play with, and that’s the Fiat future.

With a new electric 500 arriving by 2020 and an estate version of the 500 too, Fiat will push the 500 as the upmarket Fiat and punt the Panda as the budget offering.