Fiat Grande Punto with the 92 Bhp 1.3MJD Engine due in July 2010; Linea T-Jet to follow

Fiat Grande Punto MJD Sports

Finally, we have official word from Fiat as to when the Fiat Grande Punto MJD will launch with a 90 Bhp engine, putting rest to all speculations. Our friends at Indianautosblog emailed Fiat India and managed to find out when exactly the 92 Bhp, 1.3 Liter MJD VGT engined Grande Punto will get launched. Here are the excerpts of the email that Indianautosblog received from Fiat India.

The 90hp Fiat Punto will not be called Sports. The 90 Bhp Fiat Grande Punto will be launched during the first week of July. The Fiat Linea T-Jet will be launched in India a month later.

Fiat Linea T-Jet

Interpreting the email, it looks like Fiat India might simply plonk in the VGT(Variable Geometry Turbo) 1.3 MJD diesel engine into the Grande Punto’s engine bay without all the graphics of the sports model to accompany. This, in our opinion is a pretty good move as the sport graphics looked garish and gaudy. Also, the other bells and whistles being omitted might result in cost savings making the Grande Punto look like a better value proposition which it otherwise might not have been.

These two launches would finally put Fiat back to where it really belongs, right in the performance hatchback and mid size sedan spectrum as we know for a fact that both the Grande Punto and the Linea could do very well with a little more poke under the bonnet. What remains to be seen is whether these major refreshes prove enough to reignite the once brisk sales of both the Grande Punto and the Linea.

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