RE: Shed of the Week | Fiat Panda 100HP
Discussion
Kosy said:
Variety is the spice of life and I do like these a lot however at the risk of being a bore, I would find it difficult to opt for one of these over a similarly priced 172/182 and don’t know why you would.
I did just that, mainly because it was replacing a large 3.0 estate car and needed to be as economical as possible for the 10 mile daily drive to the station, and as close to being as practical as it could get. On both counts, the Panda beat the Clio. It's also cheaper to insure and has the added bonus of being a fairly rare sight on the road.I love mine. It's not always so great for overtaking (here, the Clio would trounce it), but otherwise never wants for power (you do have to use all the revs, but that's where the fun comes from!) The ride is stiff, and mine was twitchy at the back on the limit, but I completely cured that by fitting proper Goodyear Eagle F1s and Koni dampers (less than £300 for the lot).
They're far from perfect, but for the money, they're a cracking little car.
Read through everyone's comments there's generally a lot of love for this category of car...
Maybe time for Pistonheads to do a used "cheap tiny tot warm hatch" test - One of these vs Citroen Saxo VTR, Ford Sportka and maybe the Suzuki Ignis. All available for under £1,500 (well under £1,000 in the case of the Ford and Citroen) and all an absolute hoot on country lanes I would imagine. All have been on my radar actually as I'm mulling over buying a cheap shed weekend/work hack type car and I've always enjoyed low powered but small and nimble hatches. IMHO they are often more fun than the larger full fat hot hatches....
SweptVolume said:
Kosy said:
Variety is the spice of life and I do like these a lot however at the risk of being a bore, I would find it difficult to opt for one of these over a similarly priced 172/182 and don’t know why you would.
I did just that, mainly because it was replacing a large 3.0 estate car and needed to be as economical as possible for the 10 mile daily drive to the station, and as close to being as practical as it could get. On both counts, the Panda beat the Clio. It's also cheaper to insure and has the added bonus of being a fairly rare sight on the road.I love mine. It's not always so great for overtaking (here, the Clio would trounce it), but otherwise never wants for power (you do have to use all the revs, but that's where the fun comes from!) The ride is stiff, and mine was twitchy at the back on the limit, but I completely cured that by fitting proper Goodyear Eagle F1s and Koni dampers (less than £300 for the lot).
They're far from perfect, but for the money, they're a cracking little car.
I’ve ran my £1k 172 Cup as a daily beater for 4 years and can’t complain about real world practicality. 5 door would definitely help with access to the rear seats but once inside it’s plenty big enough and can take a set of golf clubs in the boot. MPG is regularly around 40 and cheap to insure in my mid thirties. Road tax not great at about £260.
It’s like the Twingo argument, many love them and prefer them to a 172/182 however I think I would greatly miss the punch of the 2.0.
Anyway, this is a Panda thread and clearly it’s a great car for the money. We are lucky that there are genuine PH type cars for the price of a set of tyres for a 5 series. Long may that continue!
Kosy said:
SweptVolume said:
Kosy said:
Variety is the spice of life and I do like these a lot however at the risk of being a bore, I would find it difficult to opt for one of these over a similarly priced 172/182 and don’t know why you would.
I did just that, mainly because it was replacing a large 3.0 estate car and needed to be as economical as possible for the 10 mile daily drive to the station, and as close to being as practical as it could get. On both counts, the Panda beat the Clio. It's also cheaper to insure and has the added bonus of being a fairly rare sight on the road.I love mine. It's not always so great for overtaking (here, the Clio would trounce it), but otherwise never wants for power (you do have to use all the revs, but that's where the fun comes from!) The ride is stiff, and mine was twitchy at the back on the limit, but I completely cured that by fitting proper Goodyear Eagle F1s and Koni dampers (less than £300 for the lot).
They're far from perfect, but for the money, they're a cracking little car.
I’ve ran my £1k 172 Cup as a daily beater for 4 years and can’t complain about real world practicality. 5 door would definitely help with access to the rear seats but once inside it’s plenty big enough and can take a set of golf clubs in the boot. MPG is regularly around 40 and cheap to insure in my mid thirties. Road tax not great at about £260.
It’s like the Twingo argument, many love them and prefer them to a 172/182 however I think I would greatly miss the punch of the 2.0.
Anyway, this is a Panda thread and clearly it’s a great car for the money. We are lucky that there are genuine PH type cars for the price of a set of tyres for a 5 series. Long may that continue!
Mini me (well actually he is huge) has got a 09 plate 1.9 diesel Panda and I love driving it. feels fast even though it isnt , does 60+ mpg, £30 tax, carries 4 easily (im 6'2 & he is 6'5), parts are dirt cheap and other cars love you! I have an Aston, Alfa and a big Merc and i choose the Panda everytime for local runabouts......Oh and bought it for £1800 and its worth £2000 now!!
about them when new. Seems a total bargain at this price.Can't believe these are shed money already.
A couple of years ago in Cornwall I chased one of these and was very surprised by how sharp it was, it looked good in an imperial(y) blue type colour too. The next day I came out of the hotel we were staying at and it pulled into the carpark, had a chat with the fella and he sung its praises, always liked them since then.
I've no use for one either... but they're great little things.
A couple of years ago in Cornwall I chased one of these and was very surprised by how sharp it was, it looked good in an imperial(y) blue type colour too. The next day I came out of the hotel we were staying at and it pulled into the carpark, had a chat with the fella and he sung its praises, always liked them since then.
I've no use for one either... but they're great little things.
These are a lot of fun, though the suspension really doesn't help if you're pushing on. This one looks to have had an extremely hard life in the past couple of years ... missed MoT appointments and negligible efforts to get faults rectified wouldn't fill me with confidence; I'd be driving it with my fingers crossed.
Though it makes do with two fewer doors, a Suzuki Ignis Sport would do everything the 100HP does, but better.
Though it makes do with two fewer doors, a Suzuki Ignis Sport would do everything the 100HP does, but better.
Had mine for 3 years and about 25k miles, bought as a 'safe' option after a disastrous encounter with an Accord Type R...
Anyway, it's a decent small car and I've had plenty of Fiats over the years so know what to expect. The engine is bullet proof, incredibly cheap and easy to work on and always returned me around 40mpg commuting on a mix of A/B roads to work every day.
However, I've just not gelled with it.
It's served me well over the last few years with it's funky looks, really nice online community via Facebook and like I say, it's not a difficult car to maintain but there's just too many inherent things that niggle with me.
You sit too high in pretty unsupportive seats (you can swap to Abarth 500 ones relatively easily), the suspension is ludicrous - I lowered it on Vogtlands and Bilstein B4s along with a top mount refresh and Coupe bump stops, it did actually improve the ride BUT you still avoid any bump or rut in the road like the plague. The standard 195 45 15 rubber is also annoying as it just makes the ride worse and tyre choice becomes limited. I went up to 50 profiles and that opens up loads of options (including Pilot Sports) and also makes it cheaper but rubbage is encountered at the rear when driving...enthusiastically. The steering also a bit crap. There's weight to it in Sport (I never have that off as it feels broken to me) but it just feels artificial and not in a good way. This coupled with the driving position just doesn't make me like the HP as much as I feel I should.
Don't get me wrong though, it's a nice buzzy little car that's great fun to hustle on the right road. It'll grip and grip and the size really helps make it feel completely non-awkward in most driving situations - that said the turning circle is terrible. I've always liked the 1.4 16v engine (had the 1.2 version in my old Stilo) as it loves to rev and sounds great with some induction changes (running a Ram-Air home-brew kit on mine).
I don't think it helps mine has just hit 107k miles so is maybe a bit tired despite the suspension work I've done including a lot of polybushing but I'm looking to swap into something different soon that'll probably be less practical, faster and a lot less frugal
I have to say though, SOTW is a bargain even if it has issues.
Maldini35 said:
Gandahar said:
All mums need to use these for the school run. You could fit 37.4% more cars in the same parking space and then good for the kids when they grow up for a first car.
And can be spanked on the way to the supermarket by PH dad.
Epic shed.
Brilliant And can be spanked on the way to the supermarket by PH dad.
Epic shed.
everyone looks around, sees a man with "titanium tints" driving a shiitmobile , and then glares at the Civic R just bumbling around behind minding it's own business.
A very good Q car.
Maldini35 said:
SweptVolume said:
Agreed. The Clio 172/182 is one of the all-time great hot hatches. When you look at where 205 GTi prices have got to, the Clio is ludicrously good value right now.
100%172/182 is the car to buy now.
Preferably a good 172 Cup
A 2005 182 popped up on my facebook marketplace page last week. £1100....it was gone within 24 hours.....
westernlancia said:
However, the second best Fiat seats ever were the hammock ones from the original Panda 750. Less is more...
The entire original Panda is a design maserpiece in my opinion. "The Panda is like a pair of jeans, that simple, practical, no frills piece of clothing. I tried to bring into this car the spirit of military machinery, especially helicopters, that means light, rational, built-for-purpose vehicles." I think Giugiaro is really underselling it when he said that. So many clever details...Never been to keen on the mk2 of both the Panda and the Y. But strange things happen and fairly tidy looking Elefantino Rosso showed up near by. Super rare here. I think I'll take a look in two weeks time (can't make it earlier). If it is still there I'll take a look...
Yes, carving out the plastic to the left of the clutch sorted the driving position for me (size 12 don't you know!) and the same trick works on the 500 that we now have.
One other tip for larger people, try and get an Eleganza version as that had a height adjustable drivers seat which makes it much more comfortable. Not a show stopper though if you can only find a lower spec. There is a breaker up north who sent me a set of Eleganza seats on a pallet for about £100 and it took no more than an hour to fit them in my Dynamic. Simple 4 bolts, no electrickery.
Overall we loved our Panda, cheapest car ever to insure, both boys learnt to drive in it and it took abuse with no issues. They were made in Poland so quality is far better than you would expect. Ours was bright red, my son only replaced it with a Fabia as his girlfriend would not stop singing Postman Pat when she was in it - probably just a generational thing with certain millennials !
One other tip for larger people, try and get an Eleganza version as that had a height adjustable drivers seat which makes it much more comfortable. Not a show stopper though if you can only find a lower spec. There is a breaker up north who sent me a set of Eleganza seats on a pallet for about £100 and it took no more than an hour to fit them in my Dynamic. Simple 4 bolts, no electrickery.
Overall we loved our Panda, cheapest car ever to insure, both boys learnt to drive in it and it took abuse with no issues. They were made in Poland so quality is far better than you would expect. Ours was bright red, my son only replaced it with a Fabia as his girlfriend would not stop singing Postman Pat when she was in it - probably just a generational thing with certain millennials !
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