Here are a couple of probs for you to keep an eye on.

Daughters new panda's driver seat has a broken weld in the framework, The second fault only came to light when the sun hit the windscreen at a certain angle, we at first thought it was scratches, but it now looks like a flaw in the glass. SO MUCH FOR NEW CARS GETTING A PDI.........

Cheers Ian

I found that My Panda Cross, delivered in Oct 2009, had, along with the annoying 4x4 unavailable fault, several minor faults that should have been picked up beforehand. My Climbing, delivered in July 2006 did not have these faults.
I don't want to trivialise the faults on your daughter's car but they are annoying rather than causing a breakdown.
I suspect that the factory is probably operating at capacity now, what with producing the Panda and 500 as well as the Ford Ka, and standards are slipping somewhat.
A shame if it's happening, since the Panda is far better built and much more reliable than Fiat cars have ever been before and Fiat seem to be able operate at a profit where other manufacturers cannot. Good luck to them, I want them to remain in business to support my Panda through its lifetime.

it's only been three weeks but the only thing I've found to date is a minute paint defect at the bottom of a rear door - much smaller than a pin head - so no complaints from me about build quality.

Just a quick note to say that I have had a number of faults with my wifes 1.3 Multijet sporting. Some of which have been listed before on the site but I will list again ours. It has not put me off as I have got myself a 1.3 Multijet Dynamic with aircon and will be watching this.
1: The cars tracking was out from delivery. The fronts wore down in 6000 miles. We normally get 20K+.
2: The EGR failed and was replaced under warranty.
3: The washer jets keep comming out of the housing. Design fault.
4: The rear hatch release was replaced when the button stopped working and you had to use the key. Replaced under warranty.
5: Rear door gas stut failed and the boot wold not stay up. As above.
6: Near side shock absorber failed. As above.
7: Drivers door rubs on the top corner of the rear drivers side door top. Design fault.
8: Doors rehung both sides due to poor fitting of side skirts. Done under warranty.
9: Stripes peeled off. As above.
10: At 32K clutch slips some times in 3rd 4th or 5th anywhere from 1800 to 3500rpm. I found some plastic retainers loose behind the clutch operating arm rubber sleeve. Removing these did not help.
11: The unit suffers from a rough running when not on load from 50-65mph almost like dirty fuel.
Beside that the car has impressed me so when I got rid of my Mondeo ST TDCI I only need a small car as my comute dropped from the 900 mile round trip to the office to 40 I got my own Panda diesel.
Chipping the unit is a 10 minute job to connect in the units and only requires the removal of the MAF and air filter to allow full access to the connector.
The improvements are 2mpg and quiter running. Also a lot more torque and it goes well.