The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
No stars ear mate we left them on the yuro-bus....Yes, the UK is geographically in the continent of Europe, gold star
General Potential Panda…
- Thread starter SB1500
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General Potential Panda…
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Oh I know! They were just trying to twist my words regarding how I’d referred to the UK’s best selling car over a period of time, and then referred to Europe’s best selling car in the city car segment over a period of time so I had to make the differentiation.
Still, we’re on the continent of Europe. But (to me personally) gladly out of the political spiel commonly referred to as Europe! Sadly we’re still following along with a lot of their car related legislation - emissions, EV craze etc. might just take a while for us to go our own way on that one.
For sure, I did make a few enquiries. The safety thing is all that nailed the coffin on the idea for me though. Not happy about that, but that’s the sole reason I didn’t opt for one despite much time spent planning for it.
Some of the older models seem to be a hit with the car molesting usually younger guys. I don’t know why. Usually they stick to VAG products.
I’m on a few CT200 groups now. As you can imagine, any Prius derived drivetrain is going to be far from fast or sporty and yet there’s questions daily and photos of people putting spoilers on them… lowering them… all the clown car kit under the sun
Annoys me that the police and ‘strict emissions’ stuff can’t do anything about the eyesore of old lowered diesels with black suit all over them and the cancerous smoke and fumes blown out of them at every green light.
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I had four company cars over several years with that drivetrain—an Auris, a third gen Prius, the CT and a fourth gen Prius. The CT had a completely different "personality" to the others. I suspect those who say "it's just a Prius" have never actually driven one.
Agree with you that it's not a "sporty" car, and Lexus's attempts to characterise it as one (stiffer suspension, lower ride height, bigger wheels) were bad enough without all the other "clown kit" some second and third owners have subjected them to. I went the other way and specced smaller wheels on mine (a no cost option)—this greatly improves the ride about which all the journos at the time were critical.
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It’s a very nice car I think. It’s about as sporty as I need it to be (a few little visual pieces, the drive mode with the fast pedal feel and little red light details). It’s as fast as I need it to be - more than competent for sane driving, although ‘slow’ by heavy footed people standards. It’s incredibly quiet and smooth compared to my other cars. Very, very efficient compared to the thirsty Avensis. Very sharp handling compared to my previous cars. Seems to be pretty safe, albeit without all the high tech (kind of annoying) warning systems the Avensis had. I think unless you’re REALLY into one core thing like speed, or tech, or tiny/large size - then yeah it’d fall down quickly. But if you just want a good measure of everything, it excels.
Very different to my old cars but just enough of everything to make it one I think I’ll hold on to after 5 years of chopping and changing around.
Don’t get me wrong, I miss my Fiat’s. If it weren’t for Stellantis I’d perhaps have waited for the next Panda model with the faith they’d make it 2024 safe for its size which would have been enough for me to accept. But if I have to choose another non Fiat brand, Toyota is the one because I’m not a huge fan of how any other car brand looks in any case, I prefer the soft lines and curvy ness of the retro modern Fiats. So if I can’t have that, I’ll make the decision solely based on practicality and reliability etc. that’s where the Japanese win. And I don’t regard random trips to the dealer as ‘fun’ so I settle for ‘boring’ by people who regard them as that haha
