I know, personally I like that. I like that there's around 30 years of expertise and experience with the 'FIRE' engine (not least on FF!) and that its flaws are well known, easy to live with and fix. I like the simplicity of it all. The safety thing in particular, now I know that the 0 stars doesn't mean much and is mostly to do with the lack of 'fancy tech' which doesn't do much either practically speaking. But it's how light and how soft the suspension is leading to it lifting up at the rear in the crash. Things like that I suppose, and I'm no Panda sceptic other than that. It's more to do with having a child in the back these days which was never an issue for me in the past to think about, an empty back seat and boot was plenty of crumple room. Other than that, the running gear is grand to me. I just took satisfaction in how well both my Panda's ran.Yep. Lots of talk about the age of the Panda running gear being 21 years old but does it matter?
I was genuinely excited in 2019 to get my new one with air conditioning!!! Not that it ever killed me to live without it. I sicken myself sometimes when I look at other potential cars and automatically think snobbishly about 'well I can't buy that, that doesn't have an auto-dimming mirror, that would be a downgrade from my Avensis!' mentality. Going back to a Panda, to putting my lights on and wipers adjusted as I drive.. there's a beauty to the simplicity. Those things never bothered me in the past. I'd like to go back to that.Everything on top is just micro-changes and in-built obsolescence masquerading as needs.
I could understand 2007, - 2011 with the iPhone with how drastically they were improving each year and the competition. But it's a shame they've backed themselves into a perpetual need to deliver something new every year. The shareholders won't be happy if they don't, and I suppose it didn't build Apple into what it is today (financial size wise) either... But what's worse is people buy into it! I'm a pretty techy person of the Apple variant, but most people around me aren't and they trade in every year when their network app tells them they can.Pity the phone companies trying to flog their latest models as the specs converge - they have only the obsolescence (4 upgrades support) to force continual upgrades by their capricious consumers. Which brings me to a radio advert on Fab FM (Greatest hits radio). A dealer advert swooning over you with models to which you can 'upgrade'. What? I can upgrade my car? Alas, it appears to involve hundreds of quid per month and a visit to the VW dealership, rather than the more prosaic and familiar upgrade path (a sigh/frown, family bag of Doritos and a restart, depending on your download speed).
I still don't get the economics of folks trading in their cars annually or even every 3 years. Tax?! I'm not rich enough to understand all that jazz.
Fiat have shown through the 2007 500 and even the 2011 revamp current Panda that they can have a commercial success and respectable brand image and a place in the world for doing something insanely well with the same 'old' running gear and as long as it puts a smile on peoples faces and works well, nobody complains. They've just taken it a bit too far this last 8 years with such a lack of R&D and new models, or attention given to the Panda and 500 that kept them alive and well. I like the 500 Electric, but the 500 (normal model) buyers aren't the same buyers of the 500 E. Pricing is just on a different planet.
By now I'd have hoped there would be at least a new body on the largely same current Panda platform even with the new Firefly engine, or some kind of half decent Hybrid system - I don't care if the rear-view mirror, dome light and suspension bits are identical to the 2003 Panda if need be. I'd have bought it and I bet a lot of others who owned the Panda / 500 over the last two decades would have as well.
If it wasn't for Stellantis, it would be so much easier. To wait and see what they bring out next. It'd still be a Fiat. but no more will that be the case.