The Panda finally came to Australia for the first time a couple of years back, but due to poor sales has now been withdrawn again. I drove one in France earlier this year and loved it (a diesel), so when we needed a small car, I pounced on a near-new (2500 km) manual Panda twin-air, which I picked up last weekend in Sydney.

I live about 80km north of Sydney and headed off for the drive home. After about 15 mins of driving the ESC warning beep and light came on. Turns out this happens every time one drives the car - between 10 and 15 mins after starting. It resets once the ignition has been switched off. Of course this means lack of the ESC safety when driving, and no hill-holding assistance.

The stop-start feature was good at the many traffic lights and in the many Sydney traffic queues, until a stop on an uphill. It wouldn't restart on an uphill slope. It kept trying to restart and I finally got it going with a boot-full of throttle. I have since found that it just won't start normally on an uphill slope, stop/start or even just a normal key start.

Yesterday came the disaster of the engine stopping at the lights at the exit of one of the busiest motorways in Australia. Refused to restart, blocking traffic. Luckily the guy stuck behind me was willing to help me push it up onto the traffic island. A call to Fiat Assistance and an hour's wait followed. The service man replaced the battery - he claims that the Euro battery is not suited to Australian conditions, the acid boils, leading to voltage fluctuations which the computer doesn't like, and computer problems. Didn't sound that feasible, but he seemed to know what he was doing. It did start with the new battery in. I am not game to activate stop/start again, not game to park on a hill, not game to go far from home.

The rough idle of the little engine seems pretty excessive too - is that normal? It vibrates the GPS on the dash, and the engine shakes quite a bit on its mountings.

I will of course book it in with local Fiat Service, but I wonder if anyone has any reassurance/advice for a new Panda owner, or do I just accept the comments of others about buying an Italian car - 'what did you expect? Surely not reliability?' Should I have gone with the boring Korean or Japanese cars that represent 90+% of all the small cars around here?

Advice/reassurance welcome...

Sounds like a lemon I'm afraid. I've not had a single problem in 2 years with my twin air.

Some quite serious problems too with the hill start thing. I'd hand it back to the dealer.

Well, first of all welcome to FiatForum

It's great to see a fellow Australian Panda owner on here. There are far too few of us!

I'd honestly wait to see what the mechanic does/replaces before declaring it a lemon. The rough idle is normal for a Twin Air, though so that's nothing to worry about.

You mentioned that the S/S failed to restart the car... Was it turning the engine over, or was nothing happening?

Thanks Tom95.

Yes, the engine was turning over, but no start. The start/stop then retried repeatedly until one gave up and switched the ignition off. The Fiat Assistance guy did assure me that the replacement battery would overcome the starting issues, but I will refrain from being convinced until the Fiat dealer service has seen the car and confirmed that. I really like the Pandas, so am naturally disappointed with my first week.

I don't suppose it has a 2013 build date? I got my new Panda from Sydney last June. After a couple of weeks ended up with a dead battery, I guess since it had been sitting around for so long.

Start & stop didn't function in mine until the battery was replaced, and one afternoon it just wouldn't start - not even turning over. Roadside Assist was telling me it couldn't be the battery, so I was worried about it being a lemon too. But all good now!

Thanks very much for your reply, Ziitaur. Yes, it does have a 2013 build date. Mine seemed to be cranking strongly, but not firing. I am hoping the ESC error is just maybe a sensor. Hopefully it will all be sorted soon.