The Fiat Punto has been chosen as the The Safest Car of 2007 in Latin America in the compact car category by road safety organisation Cesvi - Centro de Experimentacion y Seguridad Vial.

The Fiat Punto has been chosen as the The Safest Car of 2007 in Latin America in the compact car category by road safety organisation Cesvi - Centro de Experimentacion y Seguridad Vial (the Centre of Research and Road Safety of Argentina).

All of the basic versions of the Punto models sold in the Mercosul region (which comprises of Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina) and also Mexico were submitted to a series of stringent safety tests, including crash testing. Last Friday, February 15th, the President of Fiat Automóveis América, Cledorvino Belini, received the prize at the factory of the company in Córdoba, Argentina.

The Latin American Fiat Punto, which is built at Fiat's giant plant in the city of Betim, Brazil, and only available in 5-door format, is closely based on the European-built Grande Punto model, and is sold in the region's major markets including Brazil and Argentina. The European version meanwhile is also available in Latin America as it is imported and sold in selected niche volume countries for Fiat, including the diversified Chilean and Mexican markets.

The Grande Punto first arrived on the European markets in autumn 2005 and immediately proved itself to be one of the safest models in its class with passive safety features such as up to seven multistage airbags, three point seatbelts with pretensioners and load limiters, five head restraints and FPS (Fire Protection System). Active safety features included ABS with EBD (Electronic Brake force Distributions), ESP (Electronic Stability Programme), Hill Holder and ASR (Anti Slip Regulation) and MSR. The European-sold Grande Punto won the prestigious EuroNCAP 5-star crash test rating for passenger protection, the maximum score that is available.

by Claudio Perlini