We must have at least 10 to 15 Panda owners on here now.

Given that they are an "unusual" choice of transport (my wifes words not mine) why did you buy one?

When I was 9 my Dad bought a new Mk1 Uno 45. In the showroom I remember climbing into a Panda and the only thing I wanted in the world was for him to buy it instead of the Uno. Even back then I loved the simplicity of the car. I always wanted one since then and that as well as the neighbours Croma is what got me started on Fiats.

So what's your reason?

at the time i owned a nissan micra (the one i crashed), and i was at a car boot sale (our family run business), i had an advert on my table for an automatic car wanted (for my mother) and an elderly lady said she was looking for an automatic also, and she was tring to sell her fiat panda, i gave a test drive, thought it was an unusual car, and then my mam said she didnt want it (too small - she got a renault 19 instead), i thought i could buy the panda to sell on (i buy cars, do them up, then sell them on), it was only £300, so i bought it, but soon afterwards i smashed up the micra, and i have kept the panda ever since, and the elderly lady has become a friend of the family. (sorry if this was a long winded response).

As well as the Driving Instructor's Renault 5, I also learnt to drive in my late mother's Panda 750L. When I passed I became a named driver on it and it eventually became mine, which I still have, though it isn't roadworthy.

The Panda had been bought the previous summer in an 'emergency' (a friend offered it and it was bought on the spot very cheaply) as she needed something to get to work in, as her Renault 20 TL had been written off. She loved the Panda as it was smaller and less powerful than the Renault (2 litres).

So that's basically why I love Fiats, but why I especially love Pandas. Which is why, when I saw the 45CL in the state it was last year, I couldn't resist saving it.

I was looking for a first car. The options were either a Micra (K10), a Citroen AX, a Cinquecento or Panda, or anything else that was cheap and maybe worth a look. I set a budget of £600 and got hunting, but focused on cars under £400.

I found a red AX which was fine outside, but a closer inspection revealed it was rusted to buggery, probably why it was £200. All the Micras I looked at were full of filler. The Cinquecento I drove was lumpy, had barely any brakes and a clutch stiffer than old Araldite. During my searches the Panda was very much at the back of my head, but I spotted one on the autotrader website and decided to have a closer look.

Everything seemed to be in place, 41k miles, twin sunroof, 12 months MOT (but no tax) and the advert said there was service history too. Went down the following day for a look, after getting some pretty promising insurance quotes. It was pretty tatty on the outside, plenty of scratches, needed a wash and polish, and the interior was pretty poor too. It was up for £420. After a long drive, I fell in love with it. The narrowness, the growly engine, the registration plate and the open-air thrills. When it came to doing the deal the service history never materialised, so I slapped him in the face with £350. After some umming and ahhing, I was driving off in my Panda, which I got for £360.

I'm glad I got it, it's got infinitely more character than all of the alternatives and it doesn't look like it'll be losing any money any time soon either.

FuzzyPanda said:

it doesn't look like it'll be losing any money any time soon either.

Click to expand...

Famous last words.

Simple, cheap, light, can be made to handle well, and fits big engines. It's not safe at high speeds though . Most people will know my story

I was drunk and ebay was on......

...and he was called juppy and then we had to get a second mortgage!

Jim

Okay, I'll bite.

November 30th 1989.

My Skoda Estelle had recently blown the engine up so I was looking for something else.

I saw an advert in the paper for a black Ford Fiesta so I went to Swithland's in Bulwell to have a look. It appeared to have been polished with a Brillo pad so I had a look round, and in the corner was a gorgeous white Panda. New, but pre-registered with 53 miles on the clock.

It was surprisingly roomy inside, and more importantly MY WIFE LIKED IT. A no-brainer then. A test drive revealed that even when new the handbrake was for show only, but I liked everything about it, particularly how really nippy it was. £5000 cash later and it was mine!

The rest is history ...

God I miss her. When she was finally scrapped I felt I was losing a family member.

May she rest in peace: G781 TUT, 30/11/89 - 09/03/04

Years ago, a mate bought a rather rusty 1000 Panda as a cheap runabout, until it stopped one day and he told me I could have it if I could take it away, so I pitched up to find the dizzy cap had fallen off, by that stage my mate had bought another motor so the Panda was still mine. I was driving a 24v Granada Cossie at the time and the timing chain was on the way out so it seemed a good idea to drive the panda until such times as I could get the chain sorted out.

All was fine until the night the bonnet flew up and scared the crap out of the ex-wife, she refused to get in the car again and the panda ended its days as a field car.

A few years and 1 divorce later, the (then) GF was looking for a car to replace her fiesta, I spotted a panda in the paper and went to have a look, the GF hated it on sight, she had a test drive and hated the lack of brakes cos there was no servo, the clunky gearchange. but I was in love with the growl from the engine, I also knew the bloke who had did all the servicing in the book, so I had to have it, and £250 later I did!

I drove it until the tax and MOT ran out, by that time it was summer 2004 and I'd just bought another bike, so rather than let the Panda go, I parked it at my mums, and it's been there ever since! Even through the winter I would use the bike, because I was scared that if I got the car roadworthy the wet weather would not be good for it, especially as I live near the local gritter depot, and in winter the whole area is covered in salt.

To tell the truth, even though I had an Uno for a while, I always prefered the Panda, it felt like a real car, not some electronic monster.

My Mum's cousin had one. She needed a bigger car, and I bought my first one off of her.
I was young and the insurance was a pretty expensive addition. So the group one status clinched the deal.
Once you have one, it is hard to not have one.
Nice simple driving, like it was meant to be.

I first really took notice of them when i was about 10 and my dad bought a black 1000cl secondhand. It was one of the newest cars we had ever had, hell it was shiny! One of the earliest fire engined cars, rot soon started in earnest. Including the unhappy day when i put my hand through the scuttle panel. Dad was not amused. RIP C782FVR. When it came to buy a 1st car it made sense. I bought an impostor of a 1000clx. Which had a carburettor........Now im on to a real 1000clx which according to parts cd is a selecta.... ah well. Lots of character, at speed feels as if its going into hyperspace and it wants you to drive fast. Huge amount of space and an interior that doesnt feel the need to cover everything in cheap nasty plastic. Genuinely fun to drive unlike Ford Kas

Ok, finally, here we go:

our first Panda was bought new nearly 23 years ago for Sue to drive because we couldn't fit our youngest safely in her Morris 1000, and the Panda had luxuries like rear seat belts.
We got absolutely no sense at all out of the Ford dealer when we went to look at a basic Fiesta, so we went to the FIAT dealer and liked the Panda for all the reasons everyone else does.
We liked travelling in it so much we used to go on holiday in it in preference to the Volvo 240 I had then.

Unfortunately that CL went seriously rusty very quickly, but we enjoyed driving it so much we got another, which lasted a bit better.

As the family got bigger we strayed away from the Panda for a few years, then bought a CL for our eldest to use about 4 years ago.
I bought a CLX (recently sold on after 2 1/2 years) for our youngest to learn to drive in, a Fizz/CLX to replace the CL which died of rust last year, and a Parade for the youngest when she started using mine too much.

The neighbours think I'm mad. Perhaps they're right.

I had to get a car after 7 years of crashing motorcycles. I wanted something small without all the silly extras car drivers have.
As soo as I jumped in the seat of my little 903, with its roll of carpet where 'normal' cars have a dash, no extras, and the complete lack of interior- I felt like I was climbing into some kind of UN jeep or something.
The kid in me got the upper hand.
Must admit everytime I go out in it I feel like I'm going on an adventure.

e505jpy said:

I was drunk and ebay was on......

...and he was called juppy and then we had to get a second mortgage!

Jim

Click to expand...

I forgot about the other ones...

The Black Cl cause it was cheaper than a rental car (bought it on ebay for 250 quid, flew over to Bradford and picked it up at the airport and went on holiday to the lake district) and then became an even cheaper source of parts for juppy... The red sisley cause I thought Juppys's back axel was playin up (was both bearings and a wine-y gearbox instead) and then (As)Bo cause by that point I'd amitted that I'd a problem with buying pandas of ebay and didn't need a reason.....

"My names Jim and I've a problem with Pandas....."

PSNI
(Panda Society of Northern Ireland)

My mom wanted to buy a car she saw an advert in the paper, me and my mom went to see the car my mom didn't seem to like the car I was only 8 and I liked the car alot I begged my mom to buy it and then she bought it I now had the car since I was 16 I am now 18

Karmic_Nomad said:

Must admit everytime I go out in it I feel like I'm going on an adventure.

Click to expand...

Thats exactly how i feel, my dads ford focus just feels like its getting you from A to B, but the panda makes you feel like everything is an adventure, even just popping to the shops. (cant wait to go to turin in it )

christopher watson said:

(cant wait to go to turin in it )

Click to expand...

Are you still going that? Any time soon?

Jim

Some interesting Panda stories here.

In a similar way to other tales here, my parents had a SEAT Marbella 850 when I was about 10 years old. I could see the charm in it's simplicity and diminutive dimensions, so started looking into them and Pandas. Even then, I was reading Haynes manuals and understanding the spec changes and improvements and reading all about the FIRE engines and 903 pushrod.

Anyway, from then on I knew that there was nothing else for me except a Panda. Insurance was a joke at 17 when I'd passed my test, but at 19, I bought my beloved J-reg 900 Dance and I've loved it ever since. Still, it was about 9 years after I started looking at them that I finally got one!

It took me up and down the country between the West Midlands and Cornwall, over to Norway, from Lands End to John O'Groats and back in a weekend and just about anywhere else I asked it to go.

She's in temporary retirement now because I need to change the head gasket, but she'll be back on the road before too long! I miss the bouncing around and ability to exploit gaps in traffic that seemingly don't exist!

PandaManPaul said:

I miss the bouncing around and ability to exploit gaps in traffic that seemingly don't exist!

Click to expand...

I'm really bad at this! Think I might make a few less friends when I get a bigger car.