it's here

i drove one today fiat dropped it off at my work and 3 others according to the particular car transporter driver

it has the multijet 1.3 not sure if it's 75 or 90 i'm guessing 75 as it will fall into the 35 quid tax bracket

blue and me

crazy plastic bits all over like on the panda cross

nice 15" wheels

air con

and e.l.d that stands for electronic locking diffs aparently but it does not have any locking diffs it simply uses the abs breaks the wheels that are spinning to aid traction to wheels that have grip

basically the opposite of what a normal diff does powers the wheels that are sinning so considering the normal panda 4 by 4 goes anywhere this thing will be unstoppable

has a button marked eld to turn the system off and revert back to normal abs so you can have some drifting fun i assume

so it looks like at last you can get hold of a 4 by 4 turbo diesel panda in the uk

salesman say it will go for around £13.000

Great news! But at £13,000, maybe I'll wait!
Any photos?
Pete

Herts Hillhopper said:

Great news! But at £13,000, maybe I'll wait!
Any photos?
Pete

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i was guna get some on my phone but salesman niped it away quick before someone crashed there car at the sight of it lol it's a bit funky shall we say

if i see it again i'll get some snaps never know i might be pdi'ing it tomorrow

You said 'plastic bits like the Cross' -- so is it the Cross?

Sounds interesting, although 13k seems a bit steep! Notice you said it has Blue and Me - is that the proper one (as found in the Grande Punto) or the primitive "Bluetooth" one that's found in the other Pandas?

Oh, and what was it like to drive?

Chris

I think I saw one of these outside the front of Thames Fiat in Croydon yesterday. Same headlights as the Panda cross from the glance I got. The round one's with plastic around them, not square?

Jon.

Herts Hillhopper said:

You said 'plastic bits like the Cross' -- so is it the Cross?

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erm probably i never thought to ask our salesman what it was actually called

i assume the cross is a diesel 4 wheel drive in other countries so yea it probably is a cross

i thought the cross was a normal 1.2 4 wheel drive with crazy plastic bits

well i only saw steering controls for the phone so it may just be bluetooth for the phone

il try get some pictures and more information tomorrow

yes round headlamps

there pretty clever actually there split in the middle dip at the top main at the bottom so brighter than normal lights with h4 bulbs as they have 4 bulbs totalling more than 200watts

Was it like this?

Dan500 said:

Was it like this?

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Yea. Thats the beauty :yum:

yes indeed that's the one

same colour also

the alloys were nicer thou on ours

not sure on the front - it looks a bit like the elephant man

sammiboo said:

not sure on the front - it looks a bit like the elephant man

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I know, It's great isn't it. Now ordering a brochure

Bo**ocks if I had only waited 6 months :bang::bang:

Will def have one when it's time to change over :worship:

BTW the cross does have electronic locking diffs so is it possible the seles bloke didn't know all of the answers?

Sorry, but the Panda Cross's 'ELD' does not lock the diff, despite its name -- it merely applies the brake to a spinning wheel (rear only). This is well covered in other threads and well-described on various websites.
[such as here: http://www.italiaspeed.com/new_models/2005/fiat/panda_cross/mechanicals.html -- half way down left side]
But, by applying the brake to lock a spinning rear wheel, the drive is transferred to the other rear wheel, creating the effect of locking the diff. This is why Fiat showed it off using offset ramps [see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MCdm4vMwwM], so that there was always a rear wheel in the air but the car carried on driving.

Since all this is done using (1) the rotational sensors and (2) the hydraulic pump of the ABS system, I am sure there must be a way of retro-fitting it (maybe even something as simple as programming it in) to a 'normal' 4x4 Panda (as I have also commented on before in previous posts). Now the Cross is here in the UK, I may be able to extract the answer from a UK dealer as to how this might be done.

Just looked again at the Italian site and it appears that they have LD (Locking diff) don't know if that is different? Sorry read it again and it's not.

Alan.D said:

Bo**ocks if I had only waited 6 months :bang::bang:

Will def have one when it's time to change over :worship:

BTW the cross does have electronic locking diffs so is it possible the seles bloke didn't know all of the answers?

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When will that be Alan

As soon as the MJ is worth more than the finance....

Alan.D said:

As soon as the MJ is worth more than the finance....

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Lol.

Hello hello Amanda! Is everyone defecting?

Chris