Fiat Panda 2003

...massive VW's and the baby Fiat are it!

And do you know which of these three cars was most fun to drive?

Yes the Fiat Panda, 2004 Car of the Year - costing less than one sixth of the price

The Volkswagens are big and impart a tremendous feeling of safety certainly. My everyday car, the Honda accord diesel in which we had travelled up from the south coast too has a genuinely reassuring feel of integrity ...
...motorised transport is the Polski Fiat 126. My wife, as do many Poles, associates small cars with danger and death on the road, the more metal around her, the more she feels protected and safe.

Poles also have something of a tradition for regarding their own home produced products as somehow inferior to imported goods, the Fiat panda of course is manufactured in a large modern Fiat plant on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland's capital ... more

This is another review based on our experiences at the Company Car in Action event at Millbrook Testing Ground in Bedfordshire last summer. The beauty of this event is that you have the opportunity to drive a huge range of cars, all on the same day, back to back on the two routes open at this superb test facility.

To start with I would say that this particular day saw the worst storms of the summer in southern England, we had torrential rain on and off throughout the day and very high winds constantly.

My reviews so far published following this event, cover two massively expensive cars, the Volkswagen Phaeton, their W12 engined £70,000 flagship and the V10 diesel Touareg a mere £10,000 less expensive. Obviously both of these extremely large and heavy cars had shaken off the elements with distain, now it was time to come down to earth, to a car that I could actually afford to buy and more importantly run.

If there is a motoring equivalent of the sublime and the ridiculous, then the two massive VW's and the baby Fiat are it!

And do you know which of these three cars was most fun to drive?

Yes the Fiat Panda, 2004 Car of the Year - costing less than one sixth of the price

The Volkswagens are big and impart a tremendous feeling of safety certainly. My everyday car, the Honda accord diesel in which we had travelled up from the south coast too has a genuinely reassuring feel of integrity about the way it drives, it too feels like a very safe car. Again however it is no lightweight, around 1500kg, when it comes to perceived safety there is no substitute for weight, or is there?

My wife has a particular aversion to very small cars. Coming from Poland, where driving standards are abysmal, roads dangerous and the average car a mobile wreck (Polish translation "grat" - a banger!). She knows many quite young people now in the graveyard, the result of horrific road accidents. In the south east of Poland, a relatively poor area - one of the poorest in the enlarged EEC, the staple motorised transport is the Polski Fiat 126. My wife, as do many Poles, associates small cars with danger and death on the road, the more metal around her, the more she feels protected and safe.

Poles also have something of a tradition for regarding their own home produced products as somehow inferior to imported goods, the Fiat panda of course is manufactured in a large modern Fiat plant on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland's capital city!

We were offered a choice of two Pandas' to try, a base 1.2 and a top of the range Eleganza. Following the last two test drives, my wife did not want to go out in either of them! Even though we chose to go in comfort - the pale metallic blue Eleganza looked much nicer too with its smart alloy wheels - this car was almost £10,000 less than any other driven today and it was a very long way from being the least capable. The slowest yes, but I'm jumping the gun.

First things first, how could this possibly be a basic Fiat? There is no bare paintwork inside, everything is neatly trimmed and surprisingly well finished. The equipment tally is staggering, climate control (with individual settings for left and right occupants), electric windows and a trip computer - all standard. For goodness sake my Honda was more than twice the price and it does not have a trip computer!

Even after the superb seats in the two Volkswagens, these were certainly not uncomfortable. Being honest the driving position in the Panda was probably better too, aided by superb all round visibility. Sitting in the front we were far from short of room, two people could have sat behind us comfortably enough too. The huge Volkswagen Phaeton only had seats for four.

Obviously in a car so small the boot space is going to be restricted, but being so upright if there were only two occupants, the back seat folds easily to create a small van of very useful and square proportions inside. To gain more useable interior space you would need to spend a lot more money than this to step up to something like the equally impressive, although less well equipped, Vauxhall Meriva.

I have always been a fan of baby Fiats; if the need arose for a small car I would look no further than this. The gearlever sprouting from the centre of the dash feels initially a little rubbery as it engages, but clutch and gear action are faultless on the move. Remember too that this is the first manual gearbox car driven here on this day too. The steep hills and very tight hairpins require literally hundreds of gear changes; I certainly did not find making them in the Panda a chore.

Probably the most impressive aspect of this very small car is that there is incredibly little wind or road noise filtering through into the cabin. Look at it without actually driving, or travelling in, it and you would be inclined to dismiss it as a city car, I'm here to tell you that in doing so you would be making a big mistake, on open roads, even climbing mountains in a gale (as here today) it is a remarkably refined car.

Yes after the very quiet Volkswagens the engine does seem noisy, after all it is only a humble 4 cylinder petrol unit. Being used now to big lazy diesel or multi-cylinder petrol engines it is remarkable just how hard you have to work the little 1.2 engine to keep up with other normally driven cars. However, just like several years ago in the Cinquecento Sport, I can honestly say that I held up nobody else whilst driving this car.

Fiat have since launched a more powerful diesel engine in the Panda, which according to those who have driven it, makes this car quite a spirited drive. The 1.2 litre petrol one we tried here produces a fairly humble power figure of 60bhp at 5000rpm and a torque rating of 75lbs ft at 2500rpm. Whilst ten years ago those figures would have looked quite impressive in a small hatchback, during the intervening years these cars have piled on a lot of weight due to having to carry heavy air bags, ABS systems and much more advanced crash protection - crumple zones - built into the actual metal structure of the car. Therefore at 935kgs in weight, the Panda at only 3.5m long could not exactly be called lightweight; 60bhp really is only just enough motive force, especially on a test track such as this. Tellingly, Fiat did not have a version of the "base model" 1.1 litre Panda here, it weighs almost as much and only has 54bhp to pull it along.

Driving away from the Fiat stand, apart from the engine noise, you cannot help but remark on just how refined this car feels. Primarily this is due to the outstanding ride, unlike the VW Touareg, there are no tricks here, just a thoroughly well engineered chassis. Having already discovered that a car rides well, it is never a surprise to find the handling thoroughly agreeable too.

The superb test track facility at Millbrook is just the place to enjoy a good chassis, and enjoy the Panda's I did. On the hill route the only criticism I had was the sheer lack of torque causing you to change gear all the time in order to extract the best from the chassis. Get it right though and the little Fiat was quick enough. Brakes, ABS now a legal requirement even on baby cars, were more than man enough for the job. This had proved to be impressive car before we took to the speed bowl.

At Millbrook there is a circular banked track of approximately 2.5 miles in diameter. Five lanes wide, the top one, lane 5, where professional drivers carry out maximum speed testing is out of bounds, however in lane 4 you are allowed to drive perfectly legally at 100mph. None of the roads here, I would hasten to add are public roads - it is a "closed facility".

Remembering that this was an extremely windy day, the Phaeton and Touareg had been unaffected due to sheer weight, the Fiat Panda proved to be completely stable. Obviously it took a while to accelerate to 80mph, it was only on the second lap that I managed to wind it up to a wind assisted 100mph, but once there it happily held it. On getting home, my wife telephoned her Polish (Fiat 126 driving) father that the Panda was a great little car and proved more stable at speed than the new Astra as well as other cars costing more than twice as much. Coming from someone who, for safety reasons, has an intense dislike of small cars that is high praise indeed!

Would I drive to Poland in a Fiat Panda? The answer - providing there was no hurry - is YES!

Fiat Panda 1.1 Active (base) model: £6595
Fiat Panda 1.2 Eleganza (as described) £8195
Fiat Panda 1.3 TD Dynamic (diesel) £7895

Insurance groups range from cheap (group 3) to dirt cheap (group 1).F

Fuel economy ranges from about 50mpg for the petrol versions to an impressive 61mpg for the diesel.

They even do a 1.2 (Petrol) 4x4 version for £9195 - the cheapest 4x4 by far!!!!!!!!

In terms of running cost you are not going to find a new car that is cheaper than one of these to run either. Fiat offer discounts on them when new and depreciation is tiny compared to larger cars.

My recommendation would be for the new 1.3 Multijet diesel version. Other Fiat and Alfa products that I have driven with diesel engines lately have been impressive and I can only imagine this new state of the art engine enhancing an already super all round package.

Don't tell my wife but I'm thinking of asking Fiat for an extended test drive in one - maybe three weeks in June, 3000 miles to Poland and back! Then I could write you a much more interesting review!
 

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