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General Hello + new Panda TA 4x4

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General Hello + new Panda TA 4x4

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PandaMambo

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Hi everyone,
quick post to say hello and introduce my new white 4x4 twin air, a companion for my existing yellow 2008 1.2. (Bianca and Primrose, ! :D )

Bianca replaced a blue 04 1.2, and previous to that - many moons ago - my first car was a red original panda.

So far so good - just getting used to the different engine characteristics and feel.

best wishes
Roger
North Oxfordshire
 

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1100 miles into my TA 4x4 now and it's a huge improvement on my 08 1.3 MJ in every way except possibly motorway cruising ? I feel the MJ was comfortable in top gear at 80mph whereas the TA prefers 70 mph . Anyone else finding this ? Admittedly I do overload my car with people and stuff ....

Another thing : I haven't seen my stop and start kick-in yet . How long is it supposed to take ?
 
My TA feels OK at speeds well above 70 - smooth and quiet - as long as you don't look at the fuel consumption.

The SS should kick in when you come to a halt with the car in neutral and your foot off the clutch. Is it switched on? (button on the far right, underneath the radio). It sometimes won't operate if there's too big a load on the battery (eg when the air con's on full blast and the headlights are on), to avoid flattening the battery while you're halted with the motor switched off.
 
Last edited:
gar074 said:
My TA feels OK at speeds well above 70 - smooth and quiet - as long as you don't look at the fuel consumption.

The SS should kick in when you come to a halt with the car in neutral and your foot off the clutch. Is it switched on? (button on the far right, underneath the radio). It sometimes won't operate if there's too big a load on the battery (eg when the air con's on full blast and the headlights are on), to avoid flattening the battery while you're halted with the motor switched off.
Click to expand...

+1 on this, mine is nice and quiet at 70 up to 80, so far no motorway or long trips but it feels much more relaxed that the 1.2 MkII.
 
PandaMambo said:
Hi everyone,
quick post to say hello and introduce my new white 4x4 twin air, a companion for my existing yellow 2008 1.2. (Bianca and Primrose, ! :D )

Bianca replaced a blue 04 1.2, and previous to that - many moons ago - my first car was a red original panda.

So far so good - just getting used to the different engine characteristics and feel.

best wishes
Roger
North Oxfordshire
Click to expand...

Hello Roger. Good luck with your new TA. The TA 4x4 is unlike any car I have ever owned as the driving characteristics are so different. After just 4 weeks or so I love mine to bits and look for any excuse to take it out for a spin, preferably early morning. The 6 speed box is a dream and makes for a very sporty car even if to some the car looks a little mundane.

At 43mpg I'm not worried about the fuel consumption especially after owning a Juke. I switched the Start/Stop to off and it's staying that way. :eek:
 
ambient white said:
Hello Roger. Good luck with your new TA. The TA 4x4 is unlike any car I have ever owned as the driving characteristics are so different. After just 4 weeks or so I love mine to bits and look for any excuse to take it out for a spin, preferably early morning. The 6 speed box is a dream and makes for a very sporty car even if to some the car looks a little mundane.

At 43mpg I'm not worried about the fuel consumption especially after owning a Juke. I switched the Start/Stop to off and it's staying that way. :eek:
Click to expand...

Hi, and thanks for the post. I'd agree the TA is a different beastie to many other cars. I'm still taking it fairly easy but am already surprised at how quickly it can get up to speed. As you say 6 speed gearbox is good - very positive and feels good.:)
 
Our TwinAir 4x4 is comfortable, smooth and surprisingly quiet at 80-or-so, but fuel consumption will be hit hard by this (at this speed, Eco-mode is definitely best turned 'off'). With all the cameras and road-works on our motorways nowadays, though, I tend to keep it to 70-max....
 
Last edited:
gar074 said:
My TA feels OK at speeds well above 70 - smooth and quiet - as long as you don't look at the fuel consumption.

The SS should kick in when you come to a halt with the car in neutral and your foot off the clutch. Is it switched on? (button on the far right, underneath the radio). It sometimes won't operate if there's too big a load on the battery (eg when the air con's on full blast and the headlights are on), to avoid flattening the battery while you're halted with the motor switched off.
Click to expand...

That explains why I've never seen it kick in - I never put it in neutral at the lights!

Another thing - what does the Blue & Me TomTom 2 do that a regular Tom Tom wouldn't do ? It's working fine as a satnav . I'm pretty sure my phone is synced with the car and the TomTom - incoming calls work fine and I can see phone information in the binnacle - but what does the SatNav do that's special ?
 
ambient white said:
Hello Roger. Good luck with your new TA. The TA 4x4 is unlike any car I have ever owned as the driving characteristics are so different. After just 4 weeks or so I love mine to bits and look for any excuse to take it out for a spin, preferably early morning. The 6 speed box is a dream and makes for a very sporty car even if to some the car looks a little mundane.

At 43mpg I'm not worried about the fuel consumption especially after owning a Juke. I switched the Start/Stop to off and it's staying that way. :eek:
Click to expand...


don't you find there's a lot of gear changing around town ? I wonder if we'll get clutch wear issues ? Seems to me like I'm doing three changes when I used to do two ?
 
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My 4x4 TA's been to Italy and back four times now - would cruise all day at 85+, except for all those cameras, with enough acceleration in hand to avoid evolving traffic issues. Quite heavily loaded on the way back.

I find that I start in first as second requires too much clutch feeding for my liking, but the car's very flexible in second or third so no more gearchanges than Mrs b_u's 2wd MJ would have needed.

Don't think about the mpg.
 
Fiat Lux said:
don't you find there's a lot of gear changing around town ? I wonder if we'll get clutch wear issues ? Seems to me like I'm doing three changes when I used to do two ?
Click to expand...

I did think about this at first. I do 7/8000 miles a year only only and on a daily basis the traffic in this part of the world isn't too stopping and starting, so I am not worrying about clutch wear at the moment. Worth keeping in mind I agree.(y)
 
ambient white said:
I did think about this at first. I do 7/8000 miles a year only only and on a daily basis the traffic in this part of the world isn't too stopping and starting, so I am not worrying about clutch wear at the moment. Worth keeping in mind I agree.(y)
Click to expand...

There's a brief article in the latest edition of Quattroruote (Italian car mag) about Panda TAs (2wd) used as driving school cars having flywheel problems, rather than clutch problems,
 
Shaston said:
That's not good news.. I think they're fitted with the dreaded dual-mass flywheel (happy to be proved wrong)
Click to expand...

That's right. They had three failures at around the 40,000 kms mark - two below and one above. Fiat's guarantee - at least in Italy - is limited to 40k kms for commercial use so Fiat paid for two but not the third. This might appear worrying but there are hundreds of thousands of TA engines in Pandas (which outsell 500s three to one in Italy) and 500s, including huge numbers of hire cars, so it doesn't appear as though it's a common problem.
 
I wonder, is the dual mass flywheel the reason why the TA hesitates before applying the power after you change gear? (i.e. are they set up that way to protect the DMF?). I find it increasingly irritating that you can't do a really fast gearchange in the TA because of the hesitation when you give it some welly, which makes it bog down. Damn these fly-by-wire systems. They take all the fun out of driving.
 
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Fiat Lux said:
Another thing : I haven't seen my stop and start kick-in yet . How long is it supposed to take ?
Click to expand...

Mine stopped working a long time ago, along with the air con, I'm on 36k miles should've got both looked at but think my warranty ended before these became a problem and haven't missed either really (well the aircon on occasion perhaps)

(n)
 
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