2007 Boring Stuff

I've recently become a dad; apparently babies are supposed to go in car seats nowadays, and I've been explicitly told I'm not allowed to screw a seat down in the back, so I'm reluctantly putting it up for sale (the car, not the kid).

I've had the panda for a couple of years and had a lot of fun turning it into its current form!

Boring stuff:

- 146000 miles

- MOT until 21 August 2023

- I changed the timing belt, water pump, thermostat and spark plugs in October 2021 at 140,210 miles, so these won't need doing again for a long while

- I also fitted new rear dampers and bump stops (commonly missing/damaged) at the same time

- 4x new tyres (matching set) within the last couple of thousand miles

Fun stuff:

- I managed to convince an Italian scrapyard to send me the van bulkhead from a European Panda Van, so I could get the dog in the back easily. The load space is roughly 1m in all directions - great for a couple of big dogs or a mobile cockfighting cage. Fiat UK are able to provide panda van spares too - if you can get past the confused look on the part desk person's face then you could be lining yourself up for overnight parts from Italy!

- The scrapyard wouldn't send the van floor itself, so I made one out of plywood - it's been carpeted and has a lift-up flap to still access the spare wheel easily

- I fitted the front seats out of an Abarth 595 (relatively easy job as 3 corners on each seat bolt straight in, then one corner just needs the bracket swapping over from the original panda seats) - these are a massive upgrade over the standard panda 100hp seats which are known for their bolsters disintegrating just by looking at them; when I bought the car the original front seat bolsters had spread so much they'd basically turned into a front bench!

- I fitted the steering wheel and stalks/clockspring from an Abarth 595 too - the wheel buttons light up and are connected to the car wiring, so an aftermaket connector shoould be able to convert the signals for integration with the stereo in future, I've just never got around to it

- I've replaced the original stereo with a double-DIN Pioneer touchscreen stereo - this has Android Auto/CarPlay via a cable in the glovebox and it works really well. Feels a bit mad asking google to play spotify songs over voice control in a 2007 Panda!

The car starts, runs and drives really well and I've been using it to commute across the peak district (the fun way) from Sheffield to Manchester weekly without any issues. There's a small amount of vibration through the steering at ~50mph but it's not noticeable above or below those speeds - I did replace all 4 tires in case it was a balancing issue but that hasn't fixed it, so it might be the wheels themselves which are warped.

Cosmetically, the car has the odd bit of damage to the external plastic trims in a few places - all the usual supermarket car park sort of things you'd expect from a car at this age, mileage and price range. It does shine up well after a wash though, so if you're the fussy type you could probably replace the worst plastic trim pretty easily.

In the longer run I was planning on putting a 1.4 TJet engine into the car and making silly boost noises but life's got in the way, so whether you're after a nippy little runabout or want to make it even sillier then please get in touch!

I'm sleep-deprived from life with a 9-week old and I'm not in the mood to argue with messers/tyre-kickers. I'm happy to send photos/videos to anyone interested, or you can come see it yourself (S11).

No part exchange needed - I've done some man-maths and bought an S3 (though I was sorely tempted to buy a fiat multipla and make another van conversion with 3 front seats...)

Any questions, please ask!