General What did you do with your Panda today?

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General What did you do with your Panda today?

I too took mine to be serviced (20,000km). Was quoted 950 lira for this service, ended up paying 730 lira instead, with an engine clean (silicone spray and wipe) thrown in, and repairing the sump guard that I banged in on a rock for only 15 lira. It helps to be on good terms with the dealer staff I guess. Had a little adventure while collecting the car in the evening, as they were listing off all the things done to the car the last entry was "removed rocks from seat rails". During our travels, my wife collects a rock from each beach we go to, and I had forgotten to remove them from the car before taking it in, and apparently also dropped two somewhere. I explained this to the staffer, and he went on a phone call rampage, calling everyone who touched the car while it was in to try and locate the rocks. Turns out someone along the chain of people who interacted with the car figured they were special and put them in one of the cupholders.
 
The largest part of the "pleasure" of owning a vehicle is the experience it offers or not. Cars are **** investments, but if your dealer cares and treats you well, the cost of ownership simply doesn't enter the equation.

I've been a BMW owner for most of my life. When I walked into their workshop I was treated like royalty. They knew who I was, before I arrived, they served good coffee and were more than happy to take me to work when I took my car in for a service, for one simple reason - the likelihood of me purchasing a BMW again was all but guaranteed. And I did so many times over.

So why didn't I? Space and cost! I have an incredibly tight parking space and my BMWs got knocked and dinged way more than I could care for and as lovely as that 5 star service was, it was built into the price of the vehicle. Nothing is free.

I love my Panda. It is such an honest and modest little car. And it gives me such pleasure to drive.
 
Treated the Panda to roof bars, then had a day trip to Aberystwyth, to take my youngest to University.
(Multipla's waiting for a new MOT).
Despite the load, and four passengers, achieved an indicated 50.1 mpg on the way up and 46.8mpg for the day (after the sat nav brought me on a twistier route home).

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I wish I was starting my degree in Aberystwyth all over again! Mind you, that long walk up Penglais Hill in the pouring rain lost its appeal after a while!
 
Loaned the panda to my sister. Damn, I bought the thing, partly so that I would not get attached to it. It's a cheap Italian car after all.

I have failed. I strangely miss it.
 
Excellent post. Bought my kit today. Need it to hardwire in my Roadangel :)


I fitted a hard wire connection kit for my car cam to today.
Finally got rid of the hanging cable from the rear view mirror.

If anyone else fancies doing this then here's a few pointers.

If your camera takes the standard mini USB connector then this is without doubt the easiest option.

Buy a nextbase kit like this one.

£12 from amazon

To make things easier remove the glove box.
There's 7 torx screws to remove, six the same t25 and one larger t30 which is at the very back of the glove box to the right of the fuse hatch.



There are 3 under the glovebox.



The other 3 are left , right and centre at the top




Centre is not pictured. It's up where the latch locks when you close the glovebox lid.

Lower the felt too.




By pulling out the 2 plastic plugs


Use the piggy back fuse that's included in the nextbase kit to get power from the fuse board. The fuses on the right are key operated live. I chose the 7.5amp to piggy back onto.


I used one of the bolts that holds the the fuse board in place to connect the earth.
You can see the black cable above the sticker in this pic


I then used a cable tie to gather up the slack and keep it all tidy.

I didn't take any pics of the a pillar cover removal.
It just pulls off. Pull the door shut rubber away to make things easier.

The cable just follows the route of factory cables up to the headlining. Then just push it up along the screen to where your camera is.

Looks infinitely better than a hanging cable and frees the 12v cigar socket too.

 
Had 2 new tyres fitted (front) , then changed the wheel trims, to gloss black to match the car colour, stealthy look
 
Used the Nextbase kit to hard wire my Roadangel. All working, just need to push the wire down the gap where the front screen meets the dash.

Also removed the roofbox & fitted brackets to the wall to hang it off.

Finally, gave it a waterless wash & wax / seal.

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Tomorrow, the interior will get a clean & I'll finish off routing the wire before cleaning interior of the front screen :)

Surprised I had the energy after the NEC Classic. Thankfully, have have good meds :D
 
I like the idea of hard wiring the dash cam. Mine has a big cigar lighter adaptor which really annoys me.

I guess the Nextbase kit will fit any dashcam ? Mine is not Nextbase but is mini usb as far as I remember.

I already have the wiring in place so - is it possible to get a cigar lighter socket to hook into the fuse box ? Or simpler to just start again with a whole new wire ?
 
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