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General Hello 500X - goodbye Panda

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General Hello 500X - goodbye Panda

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babbo_umbro

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After 8 years and 86,000 miles I’ve parted with my Panda 4x4 TwinAir. Great-hearted little car - just as a small Fiat should be - and included 13 trips from Devon to our other home in Umbria, lugging numerous bottles of wine and litres of the world’s best olive oil without any problems. Never quite became the favourite like the Panda 100HP that preceded it. Don’t worry - the replacement is a 2-litre MJ 500X 4x4 (essential to get to our village in Italy and useful on the edge of Dartmoor), which I reckon is my 17th Fiat (plus various Alfas and Lancias) and the 24th in the family. Mrs b_u still has her 60-plate 1.2 Panda.
 
DGPunto said:
Welcome from another AWD 500x owner
Click to expand...

Thanks for that.

It's 66-plate 2-litre diesel with 9-speed auto. The choice of auto is really to try how they've evolved since I last drove an auto about 50 years ago (apart from hire cars in the States). I tried a 170HP Multiair but the engine/gearbox pairing felt more comfortable with the MJ - also the car was not too far from a cambelt change and the (non-Fiat) dealer tried to persuade me otherwise. The one I bought has had the belt done and was fron a Fiat dealer, also made me a much better offer for the Panda.

It seems to have most of the options and it will take some time to get used to all the settings. My first attempt was to prepare a USB stick to use TomTom HOME to update the map but I couldn't find any way to dump the data to the stick. (6.5 inch screen)
 
babbo_umbro said:
Thanks for that.



It's 66-plate 2-litre diesel with 9-speed auto. The choice of auto is really to try how they've evolved since I last drove an auto about 50 years ago (apart from hire cars in the States). I tried a 170HP Multiair but the engine/gearbox pairing felt more comfortable with the MJ - also the car was not too far from a cambelt change and the (non-Fiat) dealer tried to persuade me otherwise. The one I bought has had the belt done and was fron a Fiat dealer, also made me a much better offer for the Panda.



It seems to have most of the options and it will take some time to get used to all the settings. My first attempt was to prepare a USB stick to use TomTom HOME to update the map but I couldn't find any way to dump the data to the stick. (6.5 inch screen)
Click to expand...



Hi, I had a 2.0 MJ 4x4 9sp Auto for nearly 60,000 miles. Once I got a couple of early warranty claims out of the way it has to have been one of the best cars I've ever owned. Holiday trips down to the Mediterranean coast were a doddle, and all in all, quite economical. I'm sure it will fulfill your needs and that you will love it. The only thing is, unless it's changed since I sold mine, the SatNav on a 6.5" unit is only updatable via a Fiat dealership, and the price I was quoted was quite exorbitant, so I passed.
 
I have a 20,000 mile 1.4 multiair AWD which I've had for a couple of years - the 170hp auto version. The 9 speed auto can be a bit jerky, it's a widely used transmission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZF_9HP_transmission

So far mine has been good though it's not great fuel economy-wise, I assume your diesel is better. Overall a capable little car. Personally I really like the AWD, it's a shame that's been withdrawn from the UK now
 
DGPunto said:
I have a 20,000 mile 1.4 multiair AWD which I've had for a couple of years - the 170hp auto version. The 9 speed auto can be a bit jerky, it's a widely used transmission: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZF_9HP_transmission

So far mine has been good though it's not great fuel economy-wise, I assume your diesel is better. Overall a capable little car. Personally I really like the AWD, it's a shame that's been withdrawn from the UK now
Click to expand...



The fact that I couldn't get a new diesel, auto, AWD is the ONLY reason I didn't get a newer version of my car and defected elsewhere. I would have had an updated version of the same in a flash had it been available.

Economy-wise I averaged 45-47 mpg over 4.5 years
 
Alanw47 said:
The fact that I couldn't get a new diesel, auto, AWD is the ONLY reason I didn't get a newer version of my car and defected elsewhere. I would have had an updated version of the same in a flash had it been available.

Economy-wise I averaged 45-47 mpg over 4.5 years
Click to expand...

Did you consider the cousin car that has the same engine and auto gear box being the Jeep Renegade, same engine and gearbox now in the new Jeep Compass as well. Maybe this why FCA shifted the AWD 500X models onto Jeep.
 
Alanw47 said:
The only thing is, unless it's changed since I sold mine, the SatNav on a 6.5" unit is only updatable via a Fiat dealership, and the price I was quoted was quite exorbitant, so I passed.
Click to expand...

Yeah £130 upfront and updates annually for 3 years. Just done mine.
 
FiatFleetFamily said:
Did you consider the cousin car that has the same engine and auto gear box being the Jeep Renegade, same engine and gearbox now in the new Jeep Compass as well. Maybe this why FCA shifted the AWD 500X models onto Jeep.
Click to expand...



I did, but not for very long. Not a huge fan of the shape
 
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