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Why is driving it the hassle?
Had mine for three months now and love it. Sure it's not perfect, but certainly a great little driver. (What car is perfect?)
General Would You Buy A Fiat Panda?
- Thread starter Rob Kay
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General Would You Buy A Fiat Panda?
Why is driving it the hassle?
Had mine for three months now and love it. Sure it's not perfect, but certainly a great little driver. (What car is perfect?)
Still enjoy mine, it has its little foibles but for the price I think its an excellent little car with bags of personality.
What do you drive now out of curiosity?
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^This.
No car is perfect and the damping isn't the best on bumpy roads but you can "punish" the engine to "discipline" it
. As said for the money what else can you buy that is fun and can't be caught on bends/roundabouts?
Thanks everyone for your thoughts, haven't purchased anything yet waiting for something local and lowish mileage to pop up at reasonable money
Rob
wha#ere are you based..?,
Charlie - Oxcford
Ha ha , now you know why I'm a bit of a 100hp hater ! Roads are challenging over here in places to say the least .
1.1 engine is actually more fun to redline than 100hp which gives peak torque well below 4.5k rpm in my opinion . MJ well able to keep up on motorway and I'd guess could easily do 100mph .100hp does NOT feel safe on motorway at three figure speeds , certainly on wet roads. It is a track car for the road and has a very narrow window of driving pleasure at which it is sublime .That window is too narrow to justify use as daily driver ( in Republic of Ireland anyway where back roads are badly maintained)
1108cc FIRE engine ( and presumably ) 1.2 has got to be one of most 'thrash able ' engines ever .Long pedigree of these small Fiat engines in Motorsport use here in Iteland for that reason . I believe the rev limiter is just a manufacturers precaution and they can easily go way higher than 7000rpm .
In near a quarter century's driving few motoring pleasures compare with repeatedly pushing 'Cento Sportings to red line on the right roads , although 1.2 Punto Sporting Mark 1 was a nice engine too .Its memories somewhat spoiled by turning into a three wheeler one morning ( fortunately no harm done to me )
1108cc FIRE engine ( and presumably ) 1.2 has got to be one of most 'thrash able ' engines ever .Long pedigree of these small Fiat engines in Motorsport use here in Iteland for that reason . I believe the rev limiter is just a manufacturers precaution and they can easily go way higher than 7000rpm .
In near a quarter century's driving few motoring pleasures compare with repeatedly pushing 'Cento Sportings to red line on the right roads , although 1.2 Punto Sporting Mark 1 was a nice engine too .Its memories somewhat spoiled by turning into a three wheeler one morning ( fortunately no harm done to me )
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I disagree with your 100HP motorway comment - got mine up above 100mph on the autobahn a few times and it always felt perfectly safe and stable - the only slight fear was of someone pulling out on me.
I do however agree with you about it being bad on back roads - luckily I'm young and can live with it!
Hmm well I might have been a bit faster and there may have been rain but it felt decidedly unsafe compared with other cars I've driven before at very high speed .To its credit on a certain kind of fast sweeping 40-50mph bend it felt invincible ,there are even stories of them passing Ferraris on track days but nor was it particularly impressive on really tight bends or roundabouts when it let go / tyres started to complain at slower speeds than a 1.1 which relished roundabouts
You'd be right to fear someone pulling out as brakes aren't particularly great either and kangaroo while preventing heel and toe-ing .
And back backs aren't necessarily synonymous with old age
I don't think the 100hp would ACTUALLY cause spinal compression/deformation ,it only FEELS like it's doing so !
I can't see them reaching the big mileage of their 'plainer' sisters due to more complex suspension and engine in fact most of them seem quite low miled but I presume there are a few over 100k but how many over 150k ( with same driver/vertebrae discs?!)
You'd be right to fear someone pulling out as brakes aren't particularly great either and kangaroo while preventing heel and toe-ing .
And back backs aren't necessarily synonymous with old age
I don't think the 100hp would ACTUALLY cause spinal compression/deformation ,it only FEELS like it's doing so !
I can't see them reaching the big mileage of their 'plainer' sisters due to more complex suspension and engine in fact most of them seem quite low miled but I presume there are a few over 100k but how many over 150k ( with same driver/vertebrae discs?!)
Sweetsixteen
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Hmm well I might have been a bit faster and there may have been rain but it felt decidedly unsafe compared with other cars I've driven before at very high speed .To its credit on a certain kind of fast sweeping 40-50mph bend it felt invincible ,there are even stories of them passing Ferraris on track days but nor was it particularly impressive on really tight bends or roundabouts when it let go / tyres started to complain at slower speeds than a 1.1 which relished roundabouts
You'd be right to fear someone pulling out as brakes aren't particularly great either and kangaroo while preventing heel and toe-ing .
And back backs aren't necessarily synonymous with old age
I don't think the 100hp would ACTUALLY cause spinal compression/deformation ,it only FEELS like it's doing so !
I can't see them reaching the big mileage of their 'plainer' sisters due to more complex suspension and engine in fact most of them seem quite low miled but I presume there are a few over 100k but how many over 150k ( with same driver/vertebrae discs?!)
I tend to stick to an indicated 80 on the motorways here anyway just in case there are any police around.
There's a certain road near me with some kind of deformation in it that when I hit it at 60mph it basically compresses me into my seat and then launches me into the headlining (I'm 6'3 so there's not a huge amount of clearance) and that certainly feels like spinal deformation.
I'm not entirely sure what to make of that comment
See.. I don't understand this.. mine feels very stable and safe at legal motorway speeds and a lot higher, the brakes are easily as strong and fade free after heavy use as any of the much heavier golf gti's I've owned and as for cornering speeds... well I've entered corners at silly speeds wet and dry and never ever felt like anything bad was going to happen.
I can understand what you say about the back roads in ROI as they are pretty bad and generally worse than most equivalent roads in the UK but my 100hp has just over 70000 miles on it now and it gets driven hard a lot but also maintained properly and it feels better put together and has less rattles than my wife's 13 plate 20000 mile ds3.
