Panda 100HP [fast becoming shedworthy]

[cj2013]

2007 FIAT Panda 100HP

I thought I'd add a bit of detail for my latest little project - a Panda 100HP.

---

An Intro

As a brief intro, for once this isn't a first car! I'm in my 30's and have had 50+ cars up until now; this was mainly when I was younger, as I grew up in the countryside where you could keep 3 or more cars and easily have a big empty barn as a garage. I've had quite a few hot/warm hatches before, as well as some more hum-drum things. I'm basically a petrol head that struggled to grasp the concept of car monogamy when I was younger - the usual pattern would be:

buy unloved car > spent thousands making like new > get bored and sell at a huge loss

Because of all this, I've got a bit more contrast to compare the 100HP against. I quite like cars that are a bit 'different', and so I first set out to find a Multipla. Having looked for months, and struggling to find one that was realistically priced, non-facelifted and didn't look like it had been used as a monkey cage, I gave up. This lead me to look for a Panda.

Again, on my searches, I did a LOT of research on these - common fail points, weaknesses, part costs, options etc. I then knew exactly what I was looking for, and how much I wanted to spend. The funds from my previous car are earmarked for home improvements, so I had a budget that would be beneficial to stick to.

It seems that these cars (with decent mileage) were £3k+ only 18 months or so ago, and a quick look on eBay/AutoTrader suggested that the traders and owners thought the residuals were still there. eBay auctions suggested otherwise, with very few reaching over £1500 at this time of year. The going rate for a non-abused example seemed to be between £2k and £3k, depending on how close to 90k miles you wanted to be.

From experience, I know that you can tart a car up, replace every nut and bolt, but you can't (legally!) take miles off the clock, or add to the history - so that was where my persuasions lay.

Eventually, I found a nice little example that was local (sort of) and on sale at a decent price. I'm not a tyre kicker or haggler, so having asked the seller a few key questions, then researched the risks of everything in between, I asked him for his best price so I could sort out some money. I knew from some research that he had probably owned the car for just under 2 years, and would probably be losing a lot of money, so I'm not one to kick a man when he's down.

To cut the story short, a deal was done and I bought this little example:





Some battle scars evident, but a full HPI check showed not concerns, as did the MOT history.

A further investigation led me to scrape out some very old cached images from the bowels of the internet. A few owners ago, she looked like this:



But then, not long after, like this:



Which is where the scratches started to appear (note missing tow eye cover and bumper damage). Whilst a shame, it's interesting to see. If you recognise the car, and think it was yours, get in touch - I'd be interesting to hear the history.

Anyway, initial impressions and a little summary:

Ride

This was my biggest concern. I'd previous had an R50 MINI Cooper which had 17" runflats and the 'sports' pack - it was a hoot to drive, but the suspension was horrific. Crossing the white lines in the road was like driving up a kerb.
I'd hear similar about the Panda 100HP, with lots of people saying the ride was awful, and franticly looking for solutions to fix it. It had me worried, and I was already planning Koni Sport adjustables with a larger tyre sidewall.

The reality? Absolutely fine. The history shows the rear shocks were replaced for OE jobbies about 14 months ago, which may help, but otherwise I'm not sure why people were fussing so much. Maybe if you came from a shopping car with cloud like suspension it could seem too firm, but these people have obviously never driving a MINI like mine, or perhaps anything 2 seater and small (MX5, Boxster, Z3 etc). Or maybe I have a freak of a car...

Either way, I'd suggest that the ride is comparable to a 207 or similar car. Nothing overly smooth (it was a cheap car when new, after all), but certainly not anything I'd call "harsh". Yes, you know where the bumps are, as you can sort of feel/hear them, but they are damped out. I've yet to experience the crashing and thudding suspension that is common on many warm/hot hatches and roadsters.

Handling

I've yet to test this fully. I believe the owner-before-last had Eagle F1s fitted, but it now has ditchfinders on 3 corners. Not the previous owner's fault, but the receipts show they went to Kwik Fit and got charged Goodyear prices for Goodride tyres (or 'Arrowspeed', to be exact. £80 a corner for 15's too!). Due to this, I've not been keen to explore the immense understeer screeching and panic that come with tyres called things like 'jinling'.

Quality

As previously mentioned, this was a cheap car. Many of them were sold new for between £8,000 to £10,000, even in full 100HP guise, so it was a lot less than the Fiesta and Clio offerings.

The panels feel almost like plastic, but are just thin metal. This obvious contributes towards the low kerb weight (less than 975kg full laden, according to the stats). The paint sort of looks like aerosol, rather than a thick clear-over-base you might expect on a car worth more money.

Interior & Equipment

The seats do have a bit of adjustment but, rather than height, you get a lever which determines how low only your arse goes, leaving the lowest position feeling like you're squatting for a poo. I'm over 6' tall, though, and found a comfortable driving position. Unlike the Citroen Saxo, FIAT decided that the brake and accelerator don't need to be touching each other, meaning my wide feet are comfortable on the pedals.

The Dash is laid out in the same style as the 500/Ka/Multipla/Idea/Others. You get a dash-mounted gear change with an uncluttered floor - meaning you could scootch across from the passenger side without too much fuss (if you needed to).

The usual wear is common - the plastic/rubber "leather" will split and crack on the steering wheel. Mine hasn't done this, so I expect it's a reaction to either rings or a toiletry that does this over time. The gear knob does also wear and look tatty (as had mine), but I was able to fix that quite easily.

Beyond this, the interior is more spacious that you'd expect. I have plenty of head room (perhaps 2-3 inches), and the boot is enough for shopping and day to day stuff. I can just about fit a big bulky pram in, but the seats look to have ISOFix and are split/fold too.

You get built in Bluetooth for calls (independent of the radio), a trip computer, and steering mounted controls for the bluetooth/radio. There are a few options in the display that can be set, which include automatic locking when you drive off. This complements the A/C, Climate Control, Electric Front windows, Tinted rear windows and Remote locking you also get with the car.

There's no leather on offer, although I've seen on for sale with it, which is curious. The seats do have anti-submarining, with chunky bolsters offering a good level of comfort.

Controls

The gearchange isn't sloppy, but it's quite floppy! It's a bit like stirring plaster, for want of a better way of putting it. It would benefit from a shorter throw, but otherwise is quite nice and easy to use. The clutch/accelerator are also quite light, which has it's benefits and drawbacks. A nicely sprung accelerator can make long journeys easier (as you don't have to keep your foot at a high angle, more rest it lightly to cruise), so it missed out on that. The steering is also very light - pinky finger light. The sport button on the dash makes this slightly heavier (and throttle sharper), so you miss out on the feedback, but end up with a very easy-to-maneuver car.

The gearchange position is great, otherwise. The only annoyance with the controls I've found so far is that the intermittent wiper is too quick for a light drizzle, and operating a wipe manually gives a frantic sweep (unlike ever other car I've owned).

Servicing

The cheaper option can some times be a bonus. Under the bonnet is the same 1.4 engine that FIAT have used for donkey's years. This means that there's a traditional dipstick, no big plastic covers, and you can actually change a light bulb without removing panels, trim and completing a course in double-jointed contortionism. There are normal screws and everything looks like it's been put together with a certain amount of reassuring simplicity. Because of this, the servicing and parts costs look to be very low (£200 for a timing belt and water pump change from an indy in the receipts).

Performance

On paper, it's a quoted 9.5 seconds 0-62. Not exactly 'fast' by modern standards, and that is echoed by a selection of owners.

Despite this, it feels very pokey. You can feel how light the car is, and getting up to speed is very easy using the 6 speed gearbox, especially due to it's relatively close-to-the-wheel location. Regardless of what the stats say, mine feels like a very capable little car, and I have already experience some irritation from the usual Audi/VW bunch who try and undercut you at traffic lights - it's certainly no slouch.

Overall Impressions

I think based on what I have read, in both reviews and from other owners, I think there's a lot of criticism I can't recognise. The ride is perfectly fine to me (and the roads are awful round here), so I can only assume that people are blaming worn out suspension components as being 'the ride'. It was built as a cheap car, and the parts are cheap too, so it could well be a case that they need refreshing to solve the harshness? As for performance, it's such an easy and fun car to drive, I don't think I could knock it. Even wringing it's neck will return a minimum 30mpg indicated (or it has thus far), and I've not found 50mpg too hard to achieve.

Time will tell, and I've got plenty of bits to do, but these will soon be well within SOTW territory. Only around 1700 or so appear to be registered at the moment, but there are quite a lot to be found in the classifieds. I think I recorded around 50 different ones either for sale or being broken at the moment.

The plan is to keep her as a long term fun car - it will fit in the garage, so why not! Happy to keep this going on with some details of updates - have quite a bit I could put up at some point. I'm generally trying to restore her to a decent condition, whilst adding in some subtle changes to just make my one a little more individual.


Hopefully you've found this worth reading, and perhaps not an irrelevant waste of time hearing about a crappy cheap FIAT!

[cj2013]

steve-5snwi said:

its not all about speed, I had a 500 sport as a hire car in jersey and I loved the little thing

Of course - it's better (and more fun) to take the car to it's limit rather than the other way around.

The most important think is that it feels quite fast due to the lack of weight in it, which also makes it feel more enjoyable to drive. Heavy cars always make me feel tired driving them

[cj2013]

I've got a bit to update, but best to wait until I can do it on my laptop, possibly tonight

[cj2013]

TheInternet said:

Re. the ride - Do you have the original rear bump stops? Shorter or removed ones make a big difference to the ride quality.

All original and genuine. Reasonably new. Don't really see what all the fuss is about!

[cj2013]

TheInternet said:

The original bump stops give you about an inch of travel before you hit them, but I agree the ride is not that bad (potholes and speed bumps excepted).

I'm aware of the FIAT Coupe bump stops, but not sure if it's a specific engine variant. I plan to whip the axle it at some point and fully protect it, so I can look then.

I have found that the ride is better than a Peugeot 308 (not sport model), but it is a little jittery. If you didn't know, you wouldn't notice it imo.

[cj2013]

ScoobyChris said:

I bought one of these new in 2007 and ran it for 3 and a bit years and over 60k miles. I really enjoyed it and both my girlfriend (now wife) and Mum bought one as well after going out in mine. It made me smile every time I drove it (with the exception of the time the clutch release bearing failed and Fiat relieved me of a fair chunk of cash to fix it!) but when I let others drive it, it turned out to be a bit of a Marmite car. I'd agree that the ride wasn't that bad but trying to keep the speed up on an undulating B road was always fun, especially when the car started to bounce.

[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/xm4iGHDt[/urtl]

Replaced with a MINI Cooper D company car!

Chris

Electroclash seems to be a popular and well suited colour for them.

I agree with what you're saying - I think that a compromise is often made between ride and budget, so there's a few options out there to reduce the bounciness, should it become an issue.

[cj2013]

Still no laptop, but I'll do my best off the phone.

The first morning had seen some light rain, highlighting the poor state of the protection on the paint..





The priority at this point was to add some protection, rather than a full detail, especially with being so close to Christmas and both daylight and free time being a luxury.

With that, she had a quick rinse and then snow foam. One that had settled, a sponge wash with Autosmart Autowash.




The lack of decent protection was evident by the water adhering to the paint...





I decided that I'd have a go at some of the many scratches and marks whilst I was at it.



With little time for the rotary, I used some G3 Scratch Remover by hand. It's quite decent, and breaks down as you apply it.



Despite the scratches on the bumper being deep enough to feel, I managed to remove them by hand..




Also, odd scratches on the roof and spoiler..




Also found and sorted these..




There are quite a lot of heavy scuffs on the driver's door too - see between my right hand and the handle



The rear bumper trim was also broken/dislocated..




Quick fix...(behold the ditchfinder!)




Next up, to sort out the sandpaper paintwork!




Then a quick pass with AG Clay. My clay needs replacing, but still picked up plenty of gunk..



She was ready for some protection on the two panels now. I started off with Autosmart Topaz. Before



After:


Quick spray to test the bead...



I then added some Natty's Blue to test, and repeated on the rest of the paint. Roof took what felt like forever to clay!




Next job was to fix the blocked scuttle I noticed on viewing..



Drain holes weren't blocked at all....



Job done..


Bodywork protected for now...




Next task was to fix the common worn gearknob..



Sanded down with 300 grit...



Primered..



Then some tetrosyl I had knocking about...



A few coats of clear..



Left to dry for a while by the radiator, then put back on...




A few bits on order, but that's all for now.

Edited by cj2013 on Monday 26th December 23:33

Edited by cj2013 on Friday 13th January 11:07

[cj2013]

I've done a bit more since - some of it a little silly, but just trying to 'feel' my way towards some tasteful personalisation, and other little more functional touches..

Made some cupholder inserts from some adhesive Velcro I had in the garage. Could have been slightly bigger to be a better fit, but better than the £30 or so FIAT would have wanted for the proper ones..






Added some Team Heko wind deflectors. Not only do these tend to add something to the overall look, but it also makes it so much easier to stop the annoying "It's raining, the windows are condensating, but it's too hot for the heaters" scenario I always find I'm in!






Replaced the cracked/worn number plates with some cleaner ones..









Some tricolore emblems, which had to be ordered from the other side of Europe! Placed these subtly below the side repeaters...



....and a daft little sticker for the tailgate




Overall leaves me like this:

[cj2013]

The problem is that they were going for £3k+ easily a year ago.

The traders are still trying to retain some value, and the private sellers are (typically) using the trade value as a bench mark.

They mostly seem to go for £1500+ on eBay auctions, rougher/v-car ones perhaps a bit less

[cj2013]

benjijames28 said:

I would love to have a blast in one of these.

This version or the 4x4 version really appeal to me.

Looking locally the dealers seem.optimistic at best, auto trader saying a model with about 80k on it is worth 2250, dealers asking 3k.

Got a private seller knocking one out for 1.8k. But this so called private seller also will take a car in part ex, how many private sellers do that on a car worth under 2k?

What about this one? Electroclash Grey, 116k....£1450
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2006-FIAT-PANDA-100HP-GR...

Electroclash Grey, 78k....£1895
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252670322969

Red, 92k...open to bids (probably finish somewhere around £1200 I reckon)
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122286125325

Blue, 90k...looks good, has dropped £200 off the price in the last week, now £1795
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

I assume this is the £1800 swaps one. The Abarth line is a load of bull (none of them were Abarth), but looks like it has the Pandamonium pack..
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

[cj2013]

hora said:

90k is constant issues money though?

Huh?

I don't follow. Timing Belt interval is something like 72k/5years, and everything else is purely driver-related rather than scheduled.

It's not a complicated modern emissions box - it's pretty much the same 1.4 that's been in Puntos for years, with suspension less technical than a 205.

[cj2013]

They do have an issue generally with wheel alignment tolerances, so can exhibit a bit of "natural" wheel wear.

Besides that, they're a surprisingly well built car. Hard plastics and easily worn gearknob top and steering wheel, but otherwise the rest of the car feels simple yet robust.

[cj2013]

Blue Mikey said:

I've been looking at these recently but can't seem to find one that's local-ish to me (Manchester) with the right mileage (15k a year) for the right price, as mentioned previously some good ones for around 1.8k then others at 3k!

There's one in Bristol for £5k

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311722956788

[cj2013]

eddiefara said:

I bought one in October and have done over 3000 miles in it since in town across country and of course for country blasts. A 1 owner (now 2) 2010 car that has just ticked over 50000 miles. I do wonder what it will be worth in a year or so when the times comes to sell.



I absolutely love it such a fun, quirky and practical car. I do however I live in London and there are a lot of speed bumps this is one thing the car is shocking at which is a shame but it's definitely worth the pain for when I get it out to the country lanes. I put 50 section tyres on the car to try and improve the ride personally not convinced that they make much if any difference from the 45s.

Also in town I get around 30mpg, I find at motorway speed 35-40mpg never got close to 50mpg though!

Congratulations on yours OP I love them in black, I wish you many happy miles in it!

I'm a 'black car' person, really.

I tend to prefer colours that look like you look after them, should you spend a lot of your time on the bodywork. This is why I have never got on with silver cars.

Out of my last 5 cars, only two haven't been black.

The one thing I would say, is that the 100hp Grille and arch extensions might have stood out a bit more if I had gone for a different colour - I quite like the White ones because of that.


Most comments I hear/read about black cars are that they "always need washing" or "they're dirty 5 minutes later", which never seems to be the case if you put the time (once a year, say) to probably lay on some decent protection, and top up every 2-3 months.



I have found that standard speed humps like these:


...are an issue, due to the track not quite being wide enough to straddle the hump, but you can dart inbetween them more comfortably. There are some sleeping policemen type humps around the town by me, which are quite harsh whatever you're in. I've certainly still not found the suspension/ride as harsh as what the other owners say, but I guess it depends what you've come from - I've had a lot of cars that are much harder in ride on standard setups, but if you had just sold a wallowey softly sprung 1.1, or something with big squishy tyres/longer travel, then most cars would seem quite firm in comparison.

[cj2013]

battered said:

I'm so glad that people still think this. :-) It means I buy good used cars for beer money, especially if something disastrous like the drop link bushes are worn and it's clonking over bumps.

Actually I think that the "problems after 90k" idea is the 21st century equivalent of "all cars are knackered by 100k" that was the common belief in the 80s, largely because throughout the 60s and 70s it was true. I think that it IS true that after 90k, 8 years old and on, some service items do start to give up. You can expect a clutch to give up around 90-120k, obviously depending on usage, also brake discs, suspension bushes, and so on. The mechanically savvy are unfazed by this as replacing a bit of suspension is hardly a big job, but it does make the car an unpleasant thing to drive and you can see how someone might think that the thing is falling apart beneath them. As I say, long may it continue. "Suspension knocking, madam? Well, after 90k miles I'm afraid you're going to be getting a bit of that, it's only to be expected in a car as old as this. Have you seen the newer version of this car? It's a BIG improvement. Really nice..."

It was reinforced by the invention of the 21st Century Renault, though

[cj2013]

battered said:

There's a lot of truth in that. A flywheel and a clutch on one of those may well cost more than another car, and that's before it starts putting lights on the dash for no reason anyone knows.

My brother had one of the 'new shape' 1.6 Lagunas (with the card key) not long after they came out - paid a lot of money for it too. The timing belt went at around 26k, which Renault washed their hands of, then the dash failed (common), electric windows failed (common), bits started falling off. Even when they were not long out of warranty, the scrappies by me were brimming with the 1.9 DCi models due to catastrophic failures, not least turbo issues (which the Clios seemed to have too). My mate had one of the new 2009MY 1.6 Meganes too, which ended up having thousands in warranty work done due to a top end failure.

I miss the old 1.4e engines they used to have in the Clio and 19. They were bulletproof back then.

[cj2013]

As a brief update, I've done some very minor adaptions:

Been trying to a while to put the Sony headunit I had for a previous birthday (that the OH bought and thus she insists I must use it).

Naively bought an aftermarket Single DIN adaptor off the usual online vendors, only to find it fitted like a square plug in a round hole.



I couldn't even work out how the lugs/screws were supposed to line up with anything

I managed to hunt down an bagged as new old stock original fascia from a base model for a fraction of the cost, and set about fitting it. I would echo the sentiments of others in that it's a no brainer to get the OE part - the fit and finish is far superior, and it screws in solidly as you'd expect.



I bought a Connects2 lead with Sony remote adaptor so that the steering controls could be retained, as well as a new cage (which I don't think is quite the right one, but will do) and an aerial adaptor.



...and then set about reminiscing to being 19 again, trying to jam all of the wiring into the back of the dash so that the unit could slide back enough!




No 'after' photos yet, but I whipped off the stubby aerial and sprayed it black (with Simoniz 'Tough Black').







Also, despite several frostings, and typical winter weather, the protection is still holding up. The bonnet was done with 2 coats of Topaz, but I think I tried Natty's blue on the wings. The roof, which was finished with Harly wax, is still beading quite fat blobs.

[cj2013]

Paraicj said:

You've done a great job cleaning it up, it makes me feel like I should do the same to mine!

Lovely little cars, I've had mine 9 months now, fault-free and cheap to run. It did take a while to get the right one, they are still very popular in their little niche, I had to act quick. Bought private with no problem.

It's also very easy to just attach an AUX lead to the back of the original radio, as long as you can tolerate upsetting your OH!

I already have the AUX lead, but she is insistent I use the "one that cost a fortune" (it didn't, but still)

[cj2013]

hora said:

I agree with her. The cheap ones take ages to charge and have really thin wire inside. The pricey ones show

I have absolutely no idea what you're on about

An AUX lead charges nothing. The Sony H/U was the expensive item

[cj2013]

ChrisS1 said:

Here's one for the people looking £1,750

https://classifieds.seloc.org/ads/fiat-panda-100hp...

Looks a steal - that one has the "Pandamonium Pack", and very low miles