Ah, I think I'd better print that out and keep it as an instruction manual ... Right, I must adapt my own gung-ho attitude to slow and steady, and I suppose at my age that would be more dignified anyway - it's just that Panda 2 seems too, well, pretty (and yes, refined) at the moment to inspire the same confidence. I'll get over it!
Here's the worst bit though:
The Panda 169 is great to thrash off road because it has the attitude (read - technical specifications) to deal with it. The Panda 312 is great to thrash on road because it's such a damned surprise how well it behaves on road, especially with good road tyres in the twisties. That being said, the 312 is a bit of an odd ball because while the 4x4 system is technically superior to the older model (it can transfer torque to the rears much quicker and more efficiently than the old viscous coupling system or even the hydraulic solenoid valve of the Cross of the old Panda), I have only really felt that it is better on three occasions, and I will provide that anecdotal evidence as follows.
1. I managed to climb to the top of a ski resort mountain in a blizzard with snow tyres (the original Continental M+S tyres) and no chains while everything (and I mean everything, including military Land Rover Defenders, one Range Rover, two Discoveries (a Disco 4 and a Disco 3), a Passat 4Motion and a '90's Jeep Grand Cherokee were all stuck in the ditch by the side of the road. The whole road was paved but it started with an inch of snow, was covered in icy patches, and towards the summit we were plowing through snow deep enough that I had trouble opening the door and getting out when we parked up by the hotel, all the while going through various grades of hills and a bendy mountain road. This was all done with ELD off and all the nannies on because I wasn't about to get excited and try to drift champion my way to the top and end up rolling down to my death. Traction control, ESP and 'smart' diff all worked together and we climbed the mountain in second gear, foot to the floor, at 40kph and it simply wouldn't go any faster (all the lights blinking fervently at me). Sure, it simply wouldn't accelerate (probably would have if I had turned ELD on and let the wheels spin) but it also never bogged, never understeed or oversteered, never braked me into a ditch and was never unpredictable.
2. Deep mud, fat friend in the car (fat as in he's worth 2 passengers, was 18 stone then and probably close to 20 these days) and the simple urge to get past this small bog and be on our way. We go in well enough, ELD on, get some speed up and try to bash through in second gear. We bog down towards the way out, and a few rapid rocking gearshifts between reverse and first get us unstuck and on our way (to the detriment of the clutch and gearbox). Unfortunately, the path we have set ourselves upon is a dead end because the same road I had gone by with my 169 4x4 has been closed due to the erection of a new cell tower base station. Turning back, the 312 gets bogged down right in the middle of the muddy section. A good 10 minutes of reverse/first action gets us back on the road with my hefty passenger never having to set so much as a toe in the brown stuff. With the 169, through the same bog, I had to use the floor mats for traction because the rear wheels would only engage a moment after the fronts slipped which kept making me lose momentum, which simply made the reverse/first rocking motion and escape impossible without outside (floor mat) assistance.
3. I'm a stubborn old git and when the wife said we couldn't climb a hill with our old Panda I gave it my best shot but succumbed to very fine loose, dry, claylike dirt and the steep grade of a hill. 6 years later I tricked her into thinking we were taking a shortcut (the scenery and paved road markings had changed) and went for the same route again in the current (312) Panda. ELD on, the poor thing spun all four wheels until it found some sort of rock or sediment under all the fine, loose clay dust and sprung forth towards the sky (since we were pointed up) only to find that my 'shortcut' took us from one location to the other exactly 1 hour longer than it would have taken on the perfectly fine paved road that we had always taken since we failed to make it up the hill last time. Sure, we encountered some fantastic views, met some very amicable mountain goats and lived through the constant anxiety of a puncture from the sharp rocky road on the way down but little did we know we were 'driving' on what is actually part of the Lycian Way, one of the most significant footpaths in human history.
For reference, the images are an assortment of what the 312 Panda has been through including the mud/bog, the Lycian Way (including the 'road' and the views), the blizzard (both when it started and I helped out to attach some snow chains and the end result at the ski lift at the top of the mountaint. Unfortunately I didn't have a smartphone or digital camera when I had the old Panda 4x4 but if I come across a photo of it (with the fat wheels and tyres, I know theres a photo of that somewhere because I used it to sell it) I'll add it.
) are usually thwarted by the TC killing the power. At first I thought it was because the driveway was a bit greasy, but it also happens in the dry. The car just bogs down for 10-15m, even on full throttle, before picking up its skirts. It's nothing to do with being in too high a gear - it happens in 2nd or 3rd. Never had it before on any other car.
