I managed to get a short test drive of the Panda Cross yesterday afternoon and thought you all might like my first impressions.
The car seems well screwed together and has an immediate impression of being solid and hard wearing. I'm not too impressed by all the plastic bits on the bodywork. I drove a dark green car which has bright sand coloured "protection" panels along the sides. I suppose they would be useful if the car was regularly used off road, but look a bit Fisher Price to my eyes. They would look much better if moulded in a colour to match the paint scheme. They also rather clash with the grey plastic trim at the front and rear. The plastic tray on the roof doesn't seem to have any particular function but the roof bars could be useful. The seats are nice and supportive, but strangely, with all this emphasis on off road potential, the middle seat panels are a pale cream colour which would soon get dirty.
The tiny spotlights look a bit silly in the huge plastic mounts. They seem to be this size as they also carry a pair of pressure washers directed at the headlights. Underneath the engine bay is a huge tubular metal sump protector. This is a much more serious affair than that fitted to the petrol 4X4 and should be really useful off road. The spare wheel bay was empty - the sales staff thought there was only a get you home inflator kit, but like the rest of the car's spec, they hadn't received any detailed information from FIAT.
The demo car had a spilt/folding rear seat, manual aircon, curtain airbags and a leather steering wheel. It may, or may not, be fitted with Bluetooth and electric windows. There was a panel missing from between the seats and lots of wires were visible. The salesman explained that this is how the car was delivered, which is a bit worrying. The car was very low on fuel when we drove away and we were a bit surprised when the voice of a nice Italian lady filled the car with some sort of warning message (I don't speak Italian) and a little icon started flashing on the dash panel. This meant that we could only drive a few miles at quite a steady pace.
The engine, as expected, is a little gem and pulls strongly from very low revs. Once warmed up, it's quiet but there seemed to be a lot of road rumble from the low profile tyres. We didn't get the chance to drive on any fast A roads but it wouldn't surprise me if long journeys became quite tiring from the noise. There's a "diff lock" button on the dash but obviously we couldn't really try this out apart from seeing that a little light came on when pressed.
I came away from the dealer with more questions than answers. FIAT seem very slow in telling the dealers exactly what the spec will be and what is "extra". The saleman we dealt with was very good, but only had the pre-release general info fax from FIAT. The UK brochure is still being printed and the car still hasn't appeared on FIATs website in the UK. The car is £11,995. We were told that this price included everything that we saw on the demonstrator. Frankly, I have my doubts. If you look at the websites for FIAT France and FIAT Italy, sliding back seats, metallic paint, bluetooth etc. are at extra cost. (Cross 17,900 euro, sliding seat 250 euro, bluetooth 350 euro, metal paint 400 euro, Total 18,900 euro which would be £14, 862!) If this is true, the Cross as we saw it would actually cost around £13,000, which is starting to get more than a bit pricey. You can get a 4X4 petrol from FIATSupasaver.com for £7695 - the difference would buy an awful lot off petrol at today's prices. When I asked the service manager about likely servicing costs, there was a lot of tooth sucking and head shaking, but reading between the lines, I get the impression that the Cross could cost nearly double the 2WD Panda diesel to service. There's also the question of depreciation which could be horrible. I'm starting to think that this is a classic case of buying used - there might be quite a few Cross demo cars coming up for sale in six months time?
I do have FIAT data on fuel consumption, which is more cheery news.
Urban 42.1 mpg
Extra Urban 67.3 mpg
Combined 54.3 mpg
and CO2 of 136 would would make road tax £120 a year.
I liked the car a lot and it would be ideal for us. We have a small summer house in the forests of Sweden. A standard size 4X4 is simply too big for the 20 Kms of tracks leading to the house. The Cross would get us in and out whatever the weather conditions, I'm confident of that. BUT at the moment we do this sort of thing in a bog standard Citroen C3 diesel, so do I really want to spend potentially £14,000 for the added security?
I'm waiting for FIAT to send me more price information before we decide to ask for a longer test drive. What's worrying is that when I rang FIAT UK Customer Relations to ask for a price list, the young lady there quite firmly told me that the Cross was NOT available in the UK. When I explained that we had in fact driven one that very afternoon, she told me I was "confused" and that it was an ordinary Panda diesel. When I insisted on having the right facts, I was promised a return phone call "within the hour". I'm still waiting.
It makes you want to cry.
Today, after a lot of work by my local FIAT saleman, I've managed to get some more pricing info for the Cross. I have tried FIAT Customer Relations (again) who promised to ring me back with full information (again) but haven't bothered (again). Typical.
Anyway, the standard car is £11,995. For this price you get orange paint, manual aircon, ESP, a leather steering wheel and gear knob, locking diff, 15" alloy wheels, space saver spare and a CD/MP3 player.
Extras are:
Split/sliding rear seat £200
Bluetooth £200
Metallic paint £375
Side airbags £200
My salesman worked this out from the vehicle consignment note which accompanied the car when it was delivered. Crazy way to do business, but we got there in the end.
The demo car which I drove would cost £13,020 with the extras fitted. We cannot find a price to upgrade aircon to climate control, but a guess would be £200 as for the FIAT 500.
There is currently a 0% finance offer from FIAT on the Cross, which might be considered essential for a potentially £13,500 car.
The car seems well screwed together and has an immediate impression of being solid and hard wearing. I'm not too impressed by all the plastic bits on the bodywork. I drove a dark green car which has bright sand coloured "protection" panels along the sides. I suppose they would be useful if the car was regularly used off road, but look a bit Fisher Price to my eyes. They would look much better if moulded in a colour to match the paint scheme. They also rather clash with the grey plastic trim at the front and rear. The plastic tray on the roof doesn't seem to have any particular function but the roof bars could be useful. The seats are nice and supportive, but strangely, with all this emphasis on off road potential, the middle seat panels are a pale cream colour which would soon get dirty.
The tiny spotlights look a bit silly in the huge plastic mounts. They seem to be this size as they also carry a pair of pressure washers directed at the headlights. Underneath the engine bay is a huge tubular metal sump protector. This is a much more serious affair than that fitted to the petrol 4X4 and should be really useful off road. The spare wheel bay was empty - the sales staff thought there was only a get you home inflator kit, but like the rest of the car's spec, they hadn't received any detailed information from FIAT.
The demo car had a spilt/folding rear seat, manual aircon, curtain airbags and a leather steering wheel. It may, or may not, be fitted with Bluetooth and electric windows. There was a panel missing from between the seats and lots of wires were visible. The salesman explained that this is how the car was delivered, which is a bit worrying. The car was very low on fuel when we drove away and we were a bit surprised when the voice of a nice Italian lady filled the car with some sort of warning message (I don't speak Italian) and a little icon started flashing on the dash panel. This meant that we could only drive a few miles at quite a steady pace.
The engine, as expected, is a little gem and pulls strongly from very low revs. Once warmed up, it's quiet but there seemed to be a lot of road rumble from the low profile tyres. We didn't get the chance to drive on any fast A roads but it wouldn't surprise me if long journeys became quite tiring from the noise. There's a "diff lock" button on the dash but obviously we couldn't really try this out apart from seeing that a little light came on when pressed.
I came away from the dealer with more questions than answers. FIAT seem very slow in telling the dealers exactly what the spec will be and what is "extra". The saleman we dealt with was very good, but only had the pre-release general info fax from FIAT. The UK brochure is still being printed and the car still hasn't appeared on FIATs website in the UK. The car is £11,995. We were told that this price included everything that we saw on the demonstrator. Frankly, I have my doubts. If you look at the websites for FIAT France and FIAT Italy, sliding back seats, metallic paint, bluetooth etc. are at extra cost. (Cross 17,900 euro, sliding seat 250 euro, bluetooth 350 euro, metal paint 400 euro, Total 18,900 euro which would be £14, 862!) If this is true, the Cross as we saw it would actually cost around £13,000, which is starting to get more than a bit pricey. You can get a 4X4 petrol from FIATSupasaver.com for £7695 - the difference would buy an awful lot off petrol at today's prices. When I asked the service manager about likely servicing costs, there was a lot of tooth sucking and head shaking, but reading between the lines, I get the impression that the Cross could cost nearly double the 2WD Panda diesel to service. There's also the question of depreciation which could be horrible. I'm starting to think that this is a classic case of buying used - there might be quite a few Cross demo cars coming up for sale in six months time?
I do have FIAT data on fuel consumption, which is more cheery news.
Urban 42.1 mpg
Extra Urban 67.3 mpg
Combined 54.3 mpg
and CO2 of 136 would would make road tax £120 a year.
I liked the car a lot and it would be ideal for us. We have a small summer house in the forests of Sweden. A standard size 4X4 is simply too big for the 20 Kms of tracks leading to the house. The Cross would get us in and out whatever the weather conditions, I'm confident of that. BUT at the moment we do this sort of thing in a bog standard Citroen C3 diesel, so do I really want to spend potentially £14,000 for the added security?
I'm waiting for FIAT to send me more price information before we decide to ask for a longer test drive. What's worrying is that when I rang FIAT UK Customer Relations to ask for a price list, the young lady there quite firmly told me that the Cross was NOT available in the UK. When I explained that we had in fact driven one that very afternoon, she told me I was "confused" and that it was an ordinary Panda diesel. When I insisted on having the right facts, I was promised a return phone call "within the hour". I'm still waiting.
It makes you want to cry.
Today, after a lot of work by my local FIAT saleman, I've managed to get some more pricing info for the Cross. I have tried FIAT Customer Relations (again) who promised to ring me back with full information (again) but haven't bothered (again). Typical.
Anyway, the standard car is £11,995. For this price you get orange paint, manual aircon, ESP, a leather steering wheel and gear knob, locking diff, 15" alloy wheels, space saver spare and a CD/MP3 player.
Extras are:
Split/sliding rear seat £200
Bluetooth £200
Metallic paint £375
Side airbags £200
My salesman worked this out from the vehicle consignment note which accompanied the car when it was delivered. Crazy way to do business, but we got there in the end.
The demo car which I drove would cost £13,020 with the extras fitted. We cannot find a price to upgrade aircon to climate control, but a guess would be £200 as for the FIAT 500.
There is currently a 0% finance offer from FIAT on the Cross, which might be considered essential for a potentially £13,500 car.
