The new Fiat Punto, now in its sixth series and now referred to as the Fiat Punto Pop, is now in Malta and available for viewing at the Fiat showroom in Psaila Street B’Kara.

While maintaining the model’s instantly recognisable and dynamic shape, the new 2012 Fiat Punto is even more elegant and more full of character thanks to a host of detail changes, inside and out.

Available with either three or five doors, the new Punto features a wider range of engines, more equipment, and more choice of specification than ever before. This enables it to meet buyers’ ever more demanding requirements for smaller, more environmentally friendly cars that are affordable to run, easy to live with, yet still chic, safe, comfortable and fun to drive. The new Punto comes in five trim levels, Pop, Easy, Lounge and the new GBT and TwinAir.

“The new 2012 Fiat Punto builds on the Italian company’s heritage of producing mould-breaking, class leading small cars,” states Francesca Mamo, Managing Director of Pater Group, owners and distributors of the Fiat brand in Malta. “Aimed at the most competitive and dynamic sector of the car market, the 2012 Punto cements its hard-won reputation as a stylish, technologically advanced supermini. The major developments in this model include a new exterior design, a new range of exterior colours, new alloy wheel designs, new colours and materials inside, and a new engine with the ground-breaking TwinAir joining the line-up,” added Ms Mamo.

The importance of the new Punto shouldn’t be underestimated. The mytical Fiat Punto model has always been one of the strongest models that drove the FIAT brand to spiralling new levels of success.

Since its launch in 1993 to replace the ageing Fiat Uno, the Punto has been a leader with more than 8.5m vehicles sold throughout Europe. The Punto’s distinctive clean-cut styling was an instant hit mostly due to the car’s most recognisable features, the vertical tail/rear lights.

Throughout the following years, the Punto not only became a very sought after car for all the family but also by the single driver who wants a compact car with a unique sporting edge. The Fiat Punto became a reference point for many models that ensued. Today, the supermini segment accounts for approximately a quarter of all the new cars sold with around 30 models from Europe, Japan and Korea all vying for a share of the market. The new 2012 Punto is tasked with developing this while appealing to a younger customer profile.

The most noticeable of the new modifications is a new front bumper. To ensure the exterior look of the car reflects the cutting edge technology inside, it blends the strong points of the 2005 Grande Punto’s design with those of the 2009 Punto Evo. At the rear the Fiat badge now doubles as the door lock: push it and the tailgate opens. The rear bumper has been redesigned to be the same colour as the rest of the car. Beneath it the rear fog and reversing lights have been elongated and integrated into the surrounding surface. The 15-inch alloys have a new design and there are three new metallic bodywork colours.

To demonstrate its technical excellence, at the heart of the 2012 Punto is a revamped range of five petrol and two diesel engines, each offering a varying degree of driveability and class-leading efficiency to ensure the new Punto is capable of satisfying all manner of demanding drivers. All engine options feature Fiat’s Start&Stop (optional on Pop 1.2) combined with a Gear Shift Indicator which suggests the best gear to reduce fuel consumption and emissions by up to 15 per cent on an urban route.

The five engines are TwinAir Turbo, MultiJet 2 Turbo diesel, MultiAir petrol, 1.2-litre Fire EVO II engine and the 1.4-litre eight-valve. With such a host of high efficiency, low environmental impact technologies now available on its cars, Fiat has given them an umbrella name. Included in the new Air Technologies brand are the Start&Stop and Gear Shift Indicator plus the exclusive eco: Drive software.

The new Fiat Punto starting price for the 1.2 petrol version, in Pop specification level is Euro 11,637* with a rich list of equipment consisting of *including scrapping scheme.

Some of the extras include:

• Fiat CODE (electronic anti-theft immobiliser)

• Electric front windows and central door locking

• Remote door opening / locking with luggage boot release

• “Follow me home” headlamps

• Central unit with glass holder

• Trip Computer

• Multipurpose reconfigurable display with outside temperature sensor

• My Car system (to customise vehicle function)

• Electric Dualdrive™ power steering

• Manual climate control with pollen filter

• ABS + EBD (Electronic Brake Distribution)

• Front airbags with dual stage smart system

• Curtain airbag

• Bodywork with high-strength steel elements (Dualphase)

• Fire Prevention System (FPS)

• Front seats belts with pretensioner, load limiter and fastening sensor

• Three-point Isofix attachments (two on rear seat)

• My Car passenger airbag deactivation system