Hi All,
My wife received her brand new Panda Twinair Dualogic in June. Cherry red with the red interior. Here are my first impressions.
General: Good, everything works, looks good. The tinted rear windows adds an extra look of class.
Dualogic: I'm not an expert. It works as I expected. My wife says the car "goes backwards" when the gear changes. There is a moment when there's no acceleration, but not long enough to measure. In first gear and reverse you're never really sure when the clutch will catch. When we park the car at home we have to reverse over a kerb at low speeds, which is a bit difficult. I think we'll get used to it.
One thing I like is that you can "suggest" a gear change when its in automatic. For example I like using engine braking when approching a roundabout or a junction. With the Dualogic I can do an early down-shift without touching the brakes. So you have the best of both worlds. I suppose all robotized gearboxes are like this?
Stop-and-start: I was worried about the restart time when you have to jump into a traffic flow, but its fine. When you're holding the break the engine stops (if it feels like it), and when you release the break it restarts. Generally ignition happens about the same moment as when my foot gets to the accelerator, so the motor kicks and then the automatic clutch catches and you're off. There's a button to deactivate the stop-and-start, but it doesn't seem to do anything. I should probably read the instructions. If you put on the handbrake and release the foot pedal the engine starts again, which is counter-intuitive. When I arrive home I typically put the handbrake before switching everything off, so the engine starts again for nothing. Have to learn to change my habits...
The sales guy told us that with the Stop&Start battery you can't use jumper cables to start another car. He claimed that there was an extra resistance in the battery terminal or something.
Twinair: Again my fear was that the turbo wouldn't be fast enough to give real acceleration from a completely stopped state, like waiting to get onto a roundabout. I'm happy
Its a bit noisy, again a bit like a scooter, but not so much that I would have to turn up the radio or raise my voice to be heard.
Blue&Me: We took the option to be TomTom ready, however they don't give you the TomTom cradle. You're supposed to buy the specific Blue&Me TomTom. But TomTom always seem to want to sell you an extra subscription for something, they're a bit of a pain. I'd like to either use a very basic TomTom or plug in a Garmin (with the lifetime map updates).
Blue&Me does everything by bluetooth, but strangely there's no Android or iPhone app to interface with it properly. My wife has an iPhone, the hands-free calling works. When you connect the iPhone to the USB socket you can play music from the iPhone onto the car speakers and control it from the steering wheel. We haven't tried the voice recognition yet.
Eco Button: There is one Eco button - I was wondering it there would be separate ones for the Dualogic and the TwinAir. For the moment we're not using it, but I gave it a go. My first impression was that the engine sounded quieter, but when I tried to demonstrate to my wife the difference wasn't noticeable. We haven't driven it enough to be able to compare eco and non-eco modes.
Brakes: The brakes seem very sensitive, or maybe my other car has really mushy brakes. The first time I came to a stop-sign in the new Panda I hit the brakes and it felt like the car had hit a wall! Must be gentle!
Dislikes: I don't like the analogue speed indicator. Its small and the needle is thick, so its difficult to see your exact speed. The driver's seat can be raised and lowered - my wife raises it when she uses it and then I have to lower it or my head is pressing against the roof. When I adjust it, the driving position is fine, I just dislike that I have to do a lot of work even when I'm just changing the parking spot.
I'll update when I think of something more to say
My wife received her brand new Panda Twinair Dualogic in June. Cherry red with the red interior. Here are my first impressions.
General: Good, everything works, looks good. The tinted rear windows adds an extra look of class.
Dualogic: I'm not an expert. It works as I expected. My wife says the car "goes backwards" when the gear changes. There is a moment when there's no acceleration, but not long enough to measure. In first gear and reverse you're never really sure when the clutch will catch. When we park the car at home we have to reverse over a kerb at low speeds, which is a bit difficult. I think we'll get used to it.
One thing I like is that you can "suggest" a gear change when its in automatic. For example I like using engine braking when approching a roundabout or a junction. With the Dualogic I can do an early down-shift without touching the brakes. So you have the best of both worlds. I suppose all robotized gearboxes are like this?
Stop-and-start: I was worried about the restart time when you have to jump into a traffic flow, but its fine. When you're holding the break the engine stops (if it feels like it), and when you release the break it restarts. Generally ignition happens about the same moment as when my foot gets to the accelerator, so the motor kicks and then the automatic clutch catches and you're off. There's a button to deactivate the stop-and-start, but it doesn't seem to do anything. I should probably read the instructions. If you put on the handbrake and release the foot pedal the engine starts again, which is counter-intuitive. When I arrive home I typically put the handbrake before switching everything off, so the engine starts again for nothing. Have to learn to change my habits...
The sales guy told us that with the Stop&Start battery you can't use jumper cables to start another car. He claimed that there was an extra resistance in the battery terminal or something.
Twinair: Again my fear was that the turbo wouldn't be fast enough to give real acceleration from a completely stopped state, like waiting to get onto a roundabout. I'm happy
Its a bit noisy, again a bit like a scooter, but not so much that I would have to turn up the radio or raise my voice to be heard.Blue&Me: We took the option to be TomTom ready, however they don't give you the TomTom cradle. You're supposed to buy the specific Blue&Me TomTom. But TomTom always seem to want to sell you an extra subscription for something, they're a bit of a pain. I'd like to either use a very basic TomTom or plug in a Garmin (with the lifetime map updates).
Blue&Me does everything by bluetooth, but strangely there's no Android or iPhone app to interface with it properly. My wife has an iPhone, the hands-free calling works. When you connect the iPhone to the USB socket you can play music from the iPhone onto the car speakers and control it from the steering wheel. We haven't tried the voice recognition yet.
Eco Button: There is one Eco button - I was wondering it there would be separate ones for the Dualogic and the TwinAir. For the moment we're not using it, but I gave it a go. My first impression was that the engine sounded quieter, but when I tried to demonstrate to my wife the difference wasn't noticeable. We haven't driven it enough to be able to compare eco and non-eco modes.
Brakes: The brakes seem very sensitive, or maybe my other car has really mushy brakes. The first time I came to a stop-sign in the new Panda I hit the brakes and it felt like the car had hit a wall! Must be gentle!
Dislikes: I don't like the analogue speed indicator. Its small and the needle is thick, so its difficult to see your exact speed. The driver's seat can be raised and lowered - my wife raises it when she uses it and then I have to lower it or my head is pressing against the roof. When I adjust it, the driving position is fine, I just dislike that I have to do a lot of work even when I'm just changing the parking spot.
I'll update when I think of something more to say
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