Panda number 3

Just picked up my third Panda. This one is a Dynamic Dualogic in yellow and noticed a few changes from the last two (Dynamic Dualogic in black & Dynamic in red with alloys).

Ride is noticeably firmer not a bad thing for my taste. Mirrors are now electric, and there is remote central locking but the boot light has gone (no great loss) and the filler cap no longer locks (not a good thing). The Radio/CD is a lot better mainly because I didn't need to spend hours reading the manual before I got it set to Radio 2!!

Congrats on the new ride. The most important thing in Pandas is the boot light if previous message counts are to be believed!

Have you trained the central locking to automatically lock the doors on take-off? I think mine was disabled on delivery, but just a few weeks reading the manual had it solved. It's not a feature everyone likes, but a few years ago I had EVIL PEOPLE try and get my boot open at traffic lights. It was in Barbados mind, I can't believe that would happen in Yoorop. <cough>

I too had to buy a locking filler cap, a snip at eleven quid. Ok, I've forgiven Fiat, the rest of the car is so good.

Oh I forgot. Have you found the 'speed limiter' warning setting? I had mine set to 80 mph, but after a day having the bleeps and the warning light and the 'EXCESSIVE SPEED' message come up on the motoway I turned it off. Not that I ever break speed limits, mind.

Same here! Had it set to 130kmh (since that's the limit here) but when I was using GPS I noticed that the speedometer is off 10%! Now, with that knowledge obviously the thing is beeping all the time and I'll have to either turn it off or set it at ~145kmh

By the way: what's the deal with those locking caps? I haven't got one, but I also can't figure out why I would want one!?

Are people stealing gas from cars or what? Must be a New Thing then, haven't heard about it happening here (and it's Romania for Christ's sake!)

Thanks, I'm going to look into getting the doors to lock as you move off and finally buy a small watering can to fill that awkward to get at screenwasher bottle.

I think Fiats are equipped with an 'anti-syphoning' device so you cant steal fuel with a piece of plastic pipe.

But I would hate anyone to drop sand or sugar into my tank, follow me until I broke down, then rob me. It was happening in Spain last year, when quite a few people had their tyres punctured at autovia gas stations, and were then followed and robbed when they stopped. It's just cheap insurance for keeping people at arms length........

Lock it up. Then you sleep better at nights.

I know some people that this happened to. Another ploy is to drive into the back of you. Then when you get out to check damage, you get a knife pulled on you and robbed.

Don't think I would ever hire a car in Spain... Wouldn't want that to happen to me...

There are plenty of warnings about the puncture scam around, seems to happen a lot at Autovia gas stations, when you go to pay, somebody drills a tiny hole in your tyre, follows you till you stop.

A freind of mine, driving down to Alicante, stopped for a nap at a service station, got punctured. Emptied the boot out to get the spare wheel, got 'distracted' by villains who stole his camera, money and passport. He's a big guy too, says there were four of them.

I went down to Alicante on a bike a couple of years ago, got approached late at night in a gas station by a car that obviously had been following me, but forewarned by my buddy, I had a nasty looking tyre lever to hand. They left after I waved it around , screaming 'GO AWAY!' in fluent English.....