The analogiees which have been drawn between the Fiat Punto and Fiat Uno go well beyond the simple fact that the former is the successor to the latter. They are like two episodes in the same story. Like the Uno, the Punto is strategically vital to Fiat since it is intended to cover approximately one-third of the world production of all Fiat Group marques. Like the Uno, the Punto’s arduous birth took place during difficult times at Fiat Auto. The car was eventually created with great haste since the model initially under development did not fully meet management expectations and Fiat had to invite new design bids at the beginning of 1989. >

In July 1990, as it had previously been for the Fiat Uno, Italdesign’s proposal was selected, although on this occasion only for the exterior vehicle design, while Fiat’s own Centro Stile was selected to design the interior. Giorgetto Giugiaro describes the principal strenghts in the exterior design of the Fiat Punto as follows: “a two-box, verging on one-box, car with all the advantages that this type of build offers in terms of habitability and visibility within a pre-detrermined lenght. The line of the bonet is almost continuos with that of the windscreen, a feature to which we have become accustomed today but which, at the time, was extremely innovative. >

It was also the topic of a great deal of discussion”. Giugiaro continues, “personally, I designed the Punto even higher in order to achieve a more upright seat position and, as a result, greater advantages in terms of accessibility, habitability and load capacity.