I know I said a lot plus about the Panda in the past. The twin air engine is fast yet we all can read issues with this vehicle everyday on this platform.

I feel suffocated every time I am behind the wheel of this car, simply too many things to complain
1. Uneconomical engine
2. Trims and mouldings already falling apart with our British summer.
3. Poor clutch design
4. Rattles on exhaust already
5. 1 & 2nd gear feel too dry and direct, really not smooth at all
6. Maximum torque @1900 rpm, why there is vibration even at 2000rpm on 5th gear?

I left the car with Perrys of Aylesbury and they left me the car with more damage, very unprofessional people. They should be selling veggies not cars.

Although I like the twin air engine for its extra oomph , the dealer/fit and finish of this car is bad. With not even 6 months or a year, we all have pillar bubbling trim . I have door moulding coming apart too. Now today I hear rattle on the exhaust.

Phew another trip to the dealers.
My destiny is doomed with this motor.

Wished I could have bought a mito or something else.
Does Fiat UK understand that for us to choose fiat brand, there must be something special with us, the customers. Why don't they feel responsible for what they sell to us. If anyone feels the same way, drop me an email and let's stand for a petition.

I want to cry.

I thought Fiat was giving you a new car, replacing your faulty one?
Did this ever happen. ?

javnas said:

My destiny is doomed with this motor.

Wished I could have bought a mito or something else.

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If you had wanted industry-leading quality, reliability and a top-notch dealer experience, you should have bought a different marque (although probably not an Alfa). Fiat are not known to excel in any of these areas and the company at present bears a worrying similarity to BL in the 1970's. Exciting, innovative designs let down by shoddy quality, intermittent supply issues with both cars and parts, and abysmal dealer support from the manufacturer..

A great shame, because they do make cars with a certain unique something which leads many folks to put up with standards of quality and service that, frankly, should have been put in the dustbin thirty years ago.

This thread makes interesting reading for a prospective owner like me. I had gained the impression from the press that modern Fiats are reasonably well built. Is this to do with the shifting of production back from Poland to Italy perhaps? Has the 500 suffered similarly or is it just the Italian built Panda?

To add a little balance, show me a car forum for any car that isn't full of people highlighting build and reliability issues. It is the same on the VW Up forum, although saying that the two that we have in the family have been 100% reliable. When I was in the motor trade I always used to advise people I knew to avoid buying a new model during its first two years of production. It is almost as though the manufacturer lets the first batch of customers finish the development process for them!

I have a strong feeling that javnas really does not like the car, therefore every issue however trivial will be magnified. Clearly, the Panda twin air does not suit him or his aspirations.
Anyway, some people will never be truly satisfied with anything whatsoever.

Utter rubbish.Fiat show absolutely no resembelence at all to BL.I catagorically detest everything BL did and standfore.BL are mostly to blame for the state of this countrys motor industry.They destroyed the car game,and more sadly the commercial sector too,the likes of guy and AEC.All to prop a failing car game with crap products run by corrupt management.These have been my thoughts for a long time and quite clearly before i watched DAS AUTO last week,which blew the whistle good style.
Yes there may be issuses and yes the dealers arnt brillant,but then again they are not Fiat Factory.People seem to forget how just about any other vehicle suffers with issues.I must be one of the lucky ones,now on second 500,both been bomb proof.My commercial vehicles-Fiats and Ivecos,bombproof.My personal cars-Fiats,all been good besides one body computer which was my own fault.The car was out of warranty,the dealer mucked me about,Fiat made a contribution to the next new car i bought of them.
Ring customer service and complain.

I think there have been one or two issues with the new Panda since moving production back to Italy, but nothing really serious. From observation on here they are:

*Faulty boot releases - widespread, though these seem to have stopped occurring now
*Rough edge/miscolouring to the dashboard trim - intermittent problem
*Bubbling black exterior door pillar trim - fairly widespread & on-going
*Heated seats wired wrong way round - only a couple of incidents on here, other cars arriving with them correctly wired.
*Pop-trim cars with Easy wheel trims - seems a bit random, don't know if its cured
*Gear selection issue on 4x4 model - only one incident reported. Resolved by dealer although parts supply poor
*Incorrect exterior door handles - one review I read suggested a car was delivered with black door handles on one side & body coloured on the other. This was resolved quickly.
*Rattles - a batch of cars had rattles behind the dash, but this seems to have stopped being reported now.

So yes, not perfect, but none of them are major show-stoppers that'll leave you on the hard shoulder. The faults seem centred mainly around parts that could be new for this Panda - the major mechanical bits are shared with the old Panda and/or 500, which are known as pretty reliable. Other problems are down to sloppy build or lack of quality control, which is nothing new from Fiats Italian factories, but are not horrific problems either. The 500 & last Panda has been delivered with less niggles, but the Polish plant is one of Fiats best performing.

Fiats CEO is working hard to modernise Fiats factory performance but, much like with British Leyland, their Unions and Government aren't really in the same decade. This is possibly what's causing these QC problems, but their CEO did say the Panda going back to Italy was an experiment - if Italy messed it up it'd put in jeopardy any future Italian production. Another factor to consider is that Fiats quality does seem to improve as production goes on - the Grande Punto was patchy, the later MiTo, Punto Evo and Punto 2012 are much better. Similarly Multipla improved as time went on, and Stilo was patchy but the similar 2007 Bravo is much better. It's not how it should be, but least you can work around it by buying a later model in a year or two if it bothers you.

Other than point 2 on Javnas list, I've not heard of any of those complaints from anyone else so I'm not sure what the issue is there but I would suggest that whilst not perfect, the Panda isn't really anywhere near as bad as is being made out. One particular car might be a lemon, but that happens with many makes of car, I don't think the Panda is universally a bad car, at all.

It does make you wonder, how many people on this forum actually own a new shape Panda (quite a few I imagine) and of those, how many have experienced quality issues? The percentage there might give some indication of how widespread these issues are.

The issue that annoys me most in a car is interior rattles and buzzes. I had read (in Autocar) that because the TwinAir engine transmits a lot of vibration that Fiat had isolated and screwed down the cabin of the Panda extremely well to avoid such problems.

I fully understand this is not a Leyland forum and without wanting to hijack this thread.Comparing Fiat with the so called giant is like comparing chalk and cheese.
The amount of times ive talked about this topic boils my p..s.

Do Fiat employees leave screw drivers inside doors on purpose?

Do Fiat build cars were floor pans are left open around the front?

Do Fiat management instigate strikes or stop caresels turning to stop production because too many cars are being made and people dont want them?

Does the Italian government keep bailing Fiat out every year with 1.5million bungs of tax payers money.

Lord stokes was a prick.Rant over.thankyou.

The panda is outselling the 500 over the same time period and with such large numbers sold you have to expect some issues or complaints.

A great shame, because they do make cars with a certain unique something which leads many folks to put up with standards of quality and service that, frankly, should have been put in the dustbin thirty years ago.

An excellent statement Mr jrkitching however if Fiat listened more to the staff at the dealerships (in particular the DET's) instead of assuming they know what the customer wants put right (which they clearly don't) then they might just get off the bottom of the JD power survey league! Until then I fear that Fiat will be experiencing a ever shrinking market in the UK

There has been problems with production staff.

There was an incident when a few cars were vandalised on the production lines.

deeyup said:

There has been problems with production staff.

There was an incident when a few cars were vandalised on the production lines.

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Oh really, that missed the Daily Mail website that I frequent at work

I'm writing to financial ombudman service to see what they say. Such a nice car to look at, it makes me be so proud when I drive it yet no real satisfaction. I'll have an impression it will always have problems and surely it will depreciate so much in couple of years. I don't know why the dealer pressed us in buying the twin air as we wanted the multijet. Really disappointed. My advice is to stay away from this engine if you do lot of city driving.

javnas said:

I don't know why the dealer pressed us in buying the twin air as we wanted the multijet. Really disappointed. My advice is to stay away from this engine if you do lot of city driving.

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I do wonder as to why you went with the dealer when you really wanted something else?!

What were your impressions of the TA [which you incessantly called 'absolutely fabulous'] after the test-drive of the demonstrator before committing yourself to the PCP?

why are you going to Aylesbury when you live in Walthamstow

Buy a Ferrari if you want satisfaction.One things for sure and you better prepare yourself for it-through out your ownership of it more things will go wrong.That is life,things do wear out.As for depreciation,sadly yes it will but again the same as the one parked next to it.Is this your fist car?

Stu DemonD said:

I do wonder as to why you went with the dealer when you really wanted something else?!

What were your impressions of the TA [which you incessantly called 'absolutely fabulous'] after the test-drive of the demonstrator before committing yourself to the PCP?

Click to expand...

Yes, you are right there.
Javnas, you made multiple posts when you 1st had your car with things like "twin air, amazing engineering" and how fun the car is etc.

It seems you've had a change of heart. Everyone else including me is happy with their twin airs. I think its pointless coming on here trying to drum up support for a petition only you want to make.

Did Fiat exchange your car as you said they would?

I'm happy too but given the fact it needs to much attention just after couple of thousand miles makes me feel that way. People giving me advice to buy a Ferrari, could he lend me some money please , I would certainly buy one!

Anyway only time will tell about fit and finish. We would all have some issues with this car at an early stage of its useable life.

On that I terminate this posts. Thank all.