Having a lock-up with thouands of magazines bought over 30-odd years I've virtually stopped buying car mags, but, had a look at reviews of the new Panda in Auto Express, What Car, Evo and Top Gear.
What surprised me was that the two mags I would have thought would have given a bread and butter car like the Panda a generally good review didn't, and more performance focussed publications such as Evo and Top Gear wouldn't have been particularly interested. Yet, reports I read in both Evo and TG both gave the little FIAT good reviews.
Go figure.
On a personal note, At Christmas I had the use of an Alfa Giulietta 2.0MJ 170 for a week and then a couple of months later a Golf Bluemotion 2.0 diesel. The Golf was very competent and took bends in difficult conditions really well despite running on quite "eco" tyres. What was a little strange was how highly geared it was, barely pulling 1750 revs at motorway speeds. But somehow I didn't really like it. Admired it, yes; liked it? No.
The Alfa by comparison was ostensibly more sporty although possibly not much quicker and in 5th would pull higher engine speed, but what was more sensible was that it had a 6 speed 'box as opposed to the Golf's 5 speeder.
The Golf's trip computer told me it had done 64mpg over nearly 400 miles while the Alfa's said 49. Bit of a difference you might think, but when I filled them up the VW had given 54mpg while the Alfa returned 52mpg.
What a magazine report can't tell you is how the car feels to you, and to me I'd choose the Italian every time, and so it is with the Panda. My MJ will be replaced next year with a new model, probably the Twin Air.