Fiat Panda 2003

This car was bought as a second car mainly for the use of my wife for the school run and short city driving trips , and we are very happy with the choice . We looked at the Kia Picanto , Panda and the citreon C2 and a few sums and test drives later chose to have the Panda .The Picanto was a close second , but , the Citroen mainly down to 3 factors overpriced, poor build quality and very basic trim /specification was a non starter.

I have a 407 but admit to using the Panda often , for its ease of parking and its quirky performance , basically the car is fun to drive . True my 407 is more comfortable , quiter and refined , but there is something I enjoy about driving the little fiat hatchback and I am no fan normally of small cars .

The model we bought was a standard Panda Dynamic 1.2 but still comes with central locking, twin airbags , ABS , EBS , trip computer , body coloured bumpers and a host of other standard extras including my wife's favorite the City steering option . Just press the city switch and a gerbil would be able to sterr the little beauty if it could reach.

If the trip computer is accurate the fuel figures are pretty impressive doing between 38-45mpg and that is almost exclusively slow city driving constantly stop starting. Haven't had the chance to take it on a long trip yet , but , I imagine at a reseanable cruising speed it would return fantastic figures . And its nice to have a display telling you approx when your fuel will run out , it saves me and the AA trips to my forgetful wife with the petrol can in hand .

On the downside I have only 2 major problems . Firstly there is only one external lock , so you can only lock and unlock from the drivers door and the boot can only be opened with the key . Secondly if its been raining ,because the top of the car is completley curved with no gutter or rim , the shape of the top of the roof allows an influx of water straight onto the seat , both front and back . I have taken to removing this with a squeegy when we have had one of our regular downpoors.

So thats it in a nutshell , not saying its the best car in the world , but , in its class it stands alone.