Panda 2012+ The new Panda has arrived!

[Oscar]

Nice colour! Interesting to see that you have Continental tyres on yours - mine has Goodyear...

 

[Super Uwe]

Oh right, I thought they all came with Contis to start with.

Only reason I can think of is that your car has the 15 inch alloys whereas mine has the standard 14 inch steel wheels.

 

[Caroline62]

It looks just like my car, thank you for sharing the photos I would put photos of mine on here, but I've mislaid the lead that links the camera to the computer - I've put it in a safe place, so safe that I can't find it

My manual says that the speed of the wipers adjusts according to the speed of the car, but they don't - do yours? I had a 1.1 Active Eco before and when I was stopped at traffic lights, for instance, the wipers slowed right down.

Thanks, hope you don't mind me asking. Happy motoring

 

[ivantate]

That looks like a great option(for me anyway). Although I don't see a use for the split level boot it is nice to have a flat floor all the way through.

What's the tailgate to top of the dash length? I.e the longest bit of wood that can be wedged in from a b and q trip!

 

[suniil]

Thanks for the pics and recommendation on cargo box, which I think a must have in my case.

I'd also love to know the measurement as quoted below. In addition measurement from tailgate to front passenger seat would be also useful to confirm Panda is enough for our needs (shortlisted are Fiesta and Jazz).

What's the tailgate to top of the dash length? I.e the longest bit of wood that can be wedged in from a b and q trip!

 

[Ulpian]

Thank you for the very clear pictures.

As well as the other measurements requested, can you plese say how much knee room the plastic front seat 'table' robs from the back, if any?

I need all the storage options avavilable for work purposes and at the moment the demonstrators at my dealer don't have everything fitted, which is perfecty reasonable I suppose since they tend to get what Fiat sends them.

I loved the car when I drove it and there is nothing else on the market at the moment that comes close.

 

[Super Uwe]

Afternoon all!

Thanks for your replies, I'll respond one by one if that's OK.

Caroline62 - first of all good choice with your car of course!. I have to say I haven't noticed the wiper speed change yet either. However on our old 500 the intermittent wipe used to go faster/slower depending on your speed. So it might be the same again? Not sure I'm afraid.

ivantate and sunill - as soon as I can locate the tape measure I will let you know! Basically though it looks good enough in my opinion for flat pack wardrobes, cupboards etc. The fact that it is virtually flat with the cargo box and cover really is a bonus; am looking forward to having our first longer trip away so that we can test out all the nooks and crannies!

Ulpian - the passenger table pinches just over 1cm of legroom behind the passenger seat. You do lose a bit but it's countered by the fact that the table is set quite far into the seat. I am 5 foot 11 and needed the passenger seat to be a little further forward when I sat behind it. Also I found it was useful to have the passenger seat relatively upright - in fairness though I was sitting as if there were three adults in the back which is unlikely to happen often anyway.

 

[Ulpian]

Thanks for that.

I thought it looked like it stole space, but the foldability is also essential, for me, to the practicality of the car.

I reckon the Panda is realistically only a four seater, and I too needed to splay my legs to sit in the back, and I couldn't sit comfortably behind myself unless the front passenger seat was moved a few notches forward, which is anyway perfectly fine for the front passenger.

I'm only six feet tall but I do have long legs, and anyway I hardly ever carrry people in the back for any distance so the shortage of rear legroom in what is a handy small car is no problem.

Still loving the Panda!

 

[Super Uwe]

Hello everyone,

Armed with my tape measure, I've managed to get the different measurements for you.

Tailgate to front of dash/glovebox with rear seat and passenger table down = 200cm. If you were to wedge something flat in above the dashboard (with padding) or indeed put something relatively thin into the passenger bin, I reckon you could comfortably add another 15-30cm to that as well. So in short, you will have no trouble getting the vast majority of flat pack furniture in there. Result!

Tailgate to rear of front passenger seat = min 115cm, max 130cm. Measurements based on the front passenger seat being right forward/back. Again, you could probably add in another 5/10cm as well if you jigged around with stuff on the diagonal for example.

Although I've only had the car for a week, I have to say it looks like it is going to be spot on for all of our needs. And the more I get to look at it the more I like it - it's a chunky cheeky scamp!

 

[Ulpian]

Well it certainly drives like one

The capacity and general convenience, at a reasonable price, are just even more marzipan and icing on the delicious cake. Some people hate marzipan apparently, but I adore it. That's cars for you

 

[suniil]

Super Uwe: Thanks for taking time to measure and respond.

Tailgate to front of dash/glovebox = 200cm --> more than enough for 99% of flatpack stuffs, with the exception of IKEA 2360mm tall PAX wardrobe

Tailgate to rear of front passenger seat = min 115cm, max 130cm --> Daughter's piano is 140cm including the bag, which I hope it can be stuffed inside . Other thing is Dad's wheel chair, which can easily go in.

 

[Thunderbug]

Lovely colour & dash, that's 1 chunky looking steering wheel

 

[homeward]

Picked up our new 1.2 Easy in Sweet Dreams Turquoise on Saturday - very pleased with it so far!

Have taken a few pics of the cargo box/folded passenger table so that people can see what it's like.

Ta!

Hi!

Thanks for posting the pictures! Really useful... -- as we've just ordered the TwinAir Lounge Dualogic in the same colourway; and with the same seating options.

Going to be a while, though, before we collect it, sadly....

Cheers...

 

[Super Uwe]

Hi!

Thanks for posting the pictures! Really useful... -- as we've just ordered the TwinAir Lounge Dualogic in the same colourway; and with the same seating options.

Going to be a while, though, before we collect it, sadly....

Cheers...

Sounds like a great choice! Shame you have to wait a while but I am sure it will be worth it.

The Dualogic in the TwinAir is highly rated by those who have it on the 500 section, so I am sure it will be equally as good in the Panda.

 

[homeward]

Sounds like a great choice! Shame you have to wait a while but I am sure it will be worth it.

The Dualogic in the TwinAir is highly rated by those who have it on the 500 section, so I am sure it will be equally as good in the Panda.

Agreed...!

We had a very extensive drive in a manual TwinAir Panda, last Monday (courtesy of the very helpful Joel Wall, at Grays Garage, in Warwick... -- who stayed well over an hour after closing time, to help us...): and found the engine to be willing, entertaining, and much more powerful than you'd initially imagine! It's going to be a challenge to keep the economy up, when it's so much fun to thrash...!

Driving the 1.2 500, afterwards -- to have a go with the Dualogic gearbox -- was then a little disappointing! Although I have to say that we were very taken with the gearbox itself... -- just found the 500 a little twitchy and underpowered....

Thanks again...

 

[Super Uwe]

Always nice to hear a good story about customer service from a Fiat dealer; makes all the difference doesn't it?

I can well imagine the 1.2 500 felt a bit disappointing after the TwinAir test drive - possibly it might have felt a bit different if you'd tested them the other way around. Anyway, it doesn't matter as you've ordered the TwinAir now!

The economy on the TwinAir is always going to be a contentious issue, but essentially what you will find on the 500 section is that the vast majority of 1.2 and TwinAir owners seem to achieve real world average figures of between 45 to 55 mpg. The 1.2 probably fares slightly better in most cases, but that's no surprise as there is no turbo boost option, haha!

 

[Philip Young]

Running in the London-Cape Town project Twin Air carefully, using mineral grade oil (changing the oil on delivery from what was put in on the production line to help running in), and completing the first 1,000 miles, including quite a lot of steady motorway driving, has not seen a better mpg figure than 42 mpg. We hope to see this improve slightly as we add the miles. It could have been better, but the trouble is that the engine is such fun, and despite a concious effort to keep off the turbo, the engine is working fairly hard all the time...

 

[Super Uwe]

Running in the London-Cape Town project Twin Air carefully, using mineral grade oil (changing the oil on delivery from what was put in on the production line to help running in), and completing the first 1,000 miles, including quite a lot of steady motorway driving, has not seen a better mpg figure than 42 mpg. We hope to see this improve slightly as we add the miles. It could have been better, but the trouble is that the engine is such fun, and despite a concious effort to keep off the turbo, the engine is working fairly hard all the time...

Yeah, your experience sounds pretty similar to most on the 500 section for the first few thousand miles.

No doubt it is a bit disappointing though, even in our new 1.2 we are getting around 50mpg on a mixed cycle (the official average being 54.3mpg). Appreciate it's early on but it should still be getting somewhere nearer the official figures IMO, especially if you're trying hard!

Still, the TwinAir is all about fun and no road tax - I can well imagine it's hard to leave the turbo alone though, haha!

 

[pilgrim42]

Just replaced my trusty Panda MJ with a Sunset Red Panda TA and coming up to 700 miles of mainly A-road running. First calculated brim-to-brim fill-up gave 47.6mpg, the second 47.0. The computer readings are surprisingly close, under-reading by about 1mpg. I don't use S&S or the Eco setting. A deliberately restrained economy run (dead flat terrain on a glorious sunny day, and not exceeding 50mph) gave a computer trip reading over 90 miles of 57.6mpg. The Multijet gave me 72mpg over the same route last year. Obviously, the Twinair won't give anything near that in general use, especially when I boot it to get that "tractor on steroids" engine note, but it does show what a gentle foot can achieve. I am surprised at how high 5th gear is on the TA: almost the same as the MJ at 24mph/1000rpm, which means that it's a true overdrive gear, since maximum speed will be achieved in 4th gear (around 20mph/1000). If 5th could pull 5500rpm, the car would be doing 132mph!
There's a rough patch at 2000 rpm, especially in 5th, which makes cruising at 50 on undulating A-roads tiresome, and best done in 4th. However, it doesn't seem to penalise fuel consumption too much.
I found the steering slightly over-servoed compared to the MJ, ( but of course the engine will be lighter than the Diesel) and the brakes definitely so, but I'm now getting used to them both.
Hope these observations are of interest.