Panda (Classic) 1993 Fiat Panda Fizz "Pandino"

FDNY21 said:

Been starting to look at light grilles, bonnet vents (4x4/Sisley), and mudflaps for the car. If my driving test goes well then maybe it is time to treat myself, and Pandino!

Been getting in lots of practice as the test comes up soon. Wish me luck, I've just got to be condfident

Speaking of treating Pandino, however, a new Bosch front wiper has just gone on. Now I actually have functional wipers that don't just smear!

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Good luck!!!

FDNY21 said:

... I am planning that it won't have to come to having to do another test!

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From my wife test experience I can tell that modern car ( 14 plate fiesta diesel in her case) are much 'easier' to drive. Pandas are much more fun and joy but them bloody examiners had changed they way of thinking completely and did forgot how 'proper' car must be driven. Unusually higher road noise level, not comfy suspension setup, lack of dash board not to mention air bags, metal box feeling trigger them in to unnecessary anxiety mode so every single 'minor-minor' fault will be picked up but as they don't feel that comfortable it can negatively influence their decision with unfair final results.


Good luck with the test.

kolza said:

From my wife test experience I can tell that modern car ( 14 plate fiesta diesel in her case) are much 'easier' to drive. Pandas are much more fun and joy but them bloody examiners had changed they way of thinking completely and did forgot how 'proper' car must be driven. Unusually higher road noise level, not comfy suspension setup, lack of dash board not to mention air bags, metal box feeling trigger them in to unnecessary anxiety mode so every single 'minor-minor' fault will be picked up but as they don't feel that comfortable it can negatively influence their decision with unfair final results.


Good luck with the test.

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That does make sense. Sound deadening and general safety are much more advanced in modern cars. In the case of the Panda... sound deadening? What's that?

Thanks for the luck, Kolza!

MaxOnline said:

Good luck!!!

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Cheers, Max!

lukmek said:

be positive! you CAN do it:slayer:

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Be positive, pay attention but relax... thank you Luca, yes I can! :slayer:

The test went well! Thanks to all for your support. Pandino is insured now. See you all out on the road!

Congrats young'un

Wow! Well done!!!!![emoji322][emoji322][emoji322]

Well done!

FDNY21 said:

Pandino is insured now.
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If you're the main and only one driver on the policy any chance you could tell how much it is to insure panda for new driver with full licence? and how does it compare with your friend polices for much more modern cars?

Cheers to all for the congrats!

kolza said:

If you're the main and only one driver on the policy any chance you could tell how much it is to insure panda for new driver with full licence? and how does it compare with your friend polices for much more modern cars?

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I got various quotes, cheapest were always Admiral... starting up with exterior mods and only me, it was £1700. Removing exterior mods actually made it go up to £1800 which was strange. Adding my father on as another driver (me still being named) dropped it to £1200. One phone call later and they dropped it to £1000 for us. And that one still had exterior mods declared too.

My friends pay £1-2k I believe, most of them drive 10-15 year old hatchbacks, only a couple of them have newer ones and those ones are probably closer to £2k for insurance. But this is bearing in mind that my friends passed before I started to drive/do my test, so it may be possible these quotes were even higher before - especially my mate that has an MG ZR, he paid an extortionate amount for insurance on that!

Adrian Flux wanted a sweet £3k and no lower for me to upgrade from the provisional to full insurance with them. Very quickly refunded the rest of my provisional insurance and went over to Admiral. No black box or anything, pretty good going, with a capped mileage high at 8,000 as well!

Moral of my story/experience... Adrian Flux for provisional, Admiral for your full licence as a new driver

FDNY21 said:

The test went well! Thanks to all for your support. Pandino is insured now. See you all out on the road!
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Congratulations,I couldn't believe it when I took my test and the instructor said you have passed,I said are you sure,then I thought what the hellI am I doing he must not have not noticed I rolled back a bit at the hill junction when I let the handbrake off.I was a disaster I had over 30 lessons mainly because I could not get my right and left correct,one one driving lesson my instructor said as we came up to a mini island turn right and I thought that's a bit stupid but I must do as he says,he went mental and banged his hands down on the dashboard,what he meant was go round the island and take the right turn !

Was driving home today, in the traffic just driving along, when suddenly I saw a giant pothole... I had no time to react, and went straight into it. There was a big shock through the front left of the car, and I could hear air coming out of the tyre. I pulled left at the next roundabout and went to inspect the car... it didn't look too good. No air in the tyre anymore.


Spare wheels are very handy, so immediately my father and I got to work on changing the wheel over to the spare. When the steel was off, we could see it wasn't just the tyre, but the steel had actually bent from the sheer force of hitting the hole at about 20mph!


We got the spare on after a bit of a wrestle with the old one, and here she is. Good as new... bar the tracking.


I'll see what I can get sorted out in the coming days. I've made reports to the council and to the non-emergency sector of the police, and I've made a claim to my local council insurance to try and get reimbursed for the damage caused. Wish me luck. Look at this bad boy! Lots of other people have suffered damage due to this one as well, so hopefully it all gets sorted as soon as possible.
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Good luck mate I trust you got the depth measurement as well? If it's over 100mm they are obliged to pay out. Check your shock absorber also and rear wheel's inner rim if that went down the holes as well.

AndyPanda4x4 said:

Good luck mate I trust you got the depth measurement as well? If it's over 100mm they are obliged to pay out. Check your shock absorber also and rear wheel's inner rim if that went down the holes as well.

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I've got size reference across with the measure and depth with a coke can which the whole thing fits in, definitely more than 100mm. There are chunks of what's left of that part of the road all over the pavement, it's absolutely crazy! Lots and lots of pictures taken, so I've messaged the council about a claim and send all my images in with it.

Many things to check! I'll have a look at the shocks and rim when I go to the car shortly. I also need to fix one of the lights, and then I need to see what I can do about this wheel and the tracking... all good fun eh

FDNY21 said:

when suddenly I saw a giant pothole... I had no time to react, and went straight into it. There was a big shock through the front left of the car

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Have you had the foot down on the brake while the wheel went it to the hole?


Ehh, the beauty of driving in purest form. Well done with the case number, Partsworld had new rims recently for £40-50 a piece but as Andy suggested - have the whole suspension strut inspected as more might need to go on the list.

Any wheel trims lying next to the hole hmm?

kolza said:

Have you had the foot down on the brake while the wheel went it to the hole?


Ehh, the beauty of driving in purest form. Well done with the case number, Partsworld had new rims recently for £40-50 a piece but as Andy suggested - have the whole suspension strut inspected as more might need to go on the list.

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Can't recall if I did or not I'm afraid... brakes work fine but one of my brake lights seems to not be going on, same with the red rear light too.

Vern has got some spares wheels if need be, I'll try and get it fixed though first.

AndyPanda4x4 said:

Any wheel trims lying next to the hole hmm?

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There wasn't any lying there yesterday, though won't be surprised if there are if it keeps going on like this! My father and I helped out a woman who did the same thing and exchanged details with a couple of other people who did it as well!

FDNY21 said:

Can't recall if I did or not I'm afraid... brakes work fine but one of my brake lights seems to not be going on, same with the red rear light too.

Vern has got some spares wheels if need be, I'll try and get it fixed though first.

There wasn't any lying there yesterday, though won't be surprised if there are if it keeps going on like this! My father and I helped out a woman who did the same thing and exchanged details with a couple of other people who did it as well!

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If you go past it regularly and there are some there collect them for me please

AndyPanda4x4 said:

If you go past it regularly and there are some there collect them for me please

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Pothole was swiftly filled in. Don't think any hubcaps will be falling off there for a little while now!

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Bulb
My rear right light/brake light wasn't working so I went to change the bulb. It shattered and went everywhere when I tried to take it off. It took a lot of force to get the thing out, here's what is left after I used some pliers to turn and pull it!


The new bulb wouldn't fit in but it was definitely the right one, so I filed down the inner metal a little bit and then it fit in. I put it all back together checked the rear right light and it worked fine. My mate said all the lights were fine once I got back to college.

I was back home and thought I'd ask my mother to check, and turns out the brake light wasn't working but normal rear right was. So I took it apart, gave the bulb a turn, looked like both contacts were still on the back, tried again, and this time the brake light worked but the normal rear right didn't!


After this, my father and I spent a while trying to get the thing out of the holder again. It took a lot to get it out, so I gave it a bit more filing and bent the two contacts on the rear down further and put the bulb back in after. It pushes harder against the contacts now, which is good, as when it was put back together, all the lights worked! Finally Cheers kolza for the message earlier :slayer:

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Wheel
A hammer has done the trick for now. It looks round again, so that's a start... 35 PSI was in there at cold tonight so there best be 35 PSI in the tyre when I check again tomorrow

Nonetheless, I should be going to a garage tomorrow to get the tracking/steering/balancing and wheel checked. I'm sure you'll all get to hear how it goes later

Hey this happen out side our house on the lane no damage to any of our cars but I got some yellow line marker circled all holes then wrote (HOLE) in big letters with an arrow , holes were fixed next day ha !

Sjvarley said:

Hey this happen out side our house on the lane no damage to any of our cars but I got some yellow line marker circled all holes then wrote (HOLE) in big letters with an arrow , holes were fixed next day ha !

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There's other things you can draw on it that get it done quickly too But it was so bad, I reported it straight to the non-emergency police and out of hours council and it was fixed the next day. Shame it caused damage to my car, but I went and got it checked today!

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Today, I went to one of the ATC garages in Swindon, it was a bit of a drive but I highly recommend them, the guys there are friendly and work well. They tried their hardest to get my steel back to shape but it's a goner, so I'll be getting in contact with Vern to bring along a steel when I meet up with him next month...

However, what the garage did do is move the new tyre from the damaged wheel over to my spare wheel which doesn't leak. So now, I have four wheels which don't leak and all have good tyres again! The wheels are balanced, etc Just need to sort the spare but that'll be done at the start of next month!

Took a quick snap of the wheel and hubcap back on Pandino at the garage now...