Panda 1.1 or 1.2 is generally considered a city car that is too uncomfortable and too slow for motorways. OK. I have just returned from holidays. I did about 5000 km in my 1.2 Panda 90% on motorways between Prague, the Czech Republic and Gargano Peninsula in Southern Italy. That is driving from Prague via Munich, Brennero, Verona, Bologna, Rimini, Ancona and Foggia within two days and after a week the same thing going back home.

I think nobody has ever test driven Panda like this / you usually end up with road test that are based on several km in a town plus a few on a motorway, that' s it. Now I have the right to claim what your Panda is really like when driven hard around Europe, flat out 90%.

One huge stereotype says that Panda has not enough power. Bullocks. Between Prague and Foggia, I think I only needed more power like five times when I hit some very steep uphill sections on motorway. In reality, this "little" power in real life on real motorways of Germany, Austria and Italy means . listen carefully / that you are prevented from speeding! The little power only means that you won't keep your 150 kph in Italy where you hit some hills and you have to slow down to legal 130. In other words, I kept my little car at 140 kph (just a bit about the legal limit ) almost non stop. And when I got bored in Germany and there was no limit, for some fun, I drove at 160 kph for a while. So forget the stereotype about lack of power. Yes, lack of power if you want to really drive fast and furious on the twisty B roads of Gargano. But then YOu can still be on the limit in every hairpin or tight bend and have fun / I have had never so much fun driving like driving Panda in Gargano, where there you go through about 300 tight turns in a minute!

Back to the long distance thing. Panda - although fast enough for European motorways is really NOT comfortable for me as a tall lanky guy. On such long distance trips, it was either my knee or my foot or my buttocks that suffered. Luckily, never all these at the same time. I had to stop and jump out of the car after each 2 hours of driving and my body felt OK again. I don't know what's wrong with Panda driving position, never had this problem in Escort. If you move the seat back, you cannot reach the wheel, if you are comfortable at the wheel, your feet and knee are too close. And the seat is not fine for my skinny buttocks.

Anyway, no matter how slowly you drive, you are never ever bored / driving Panda everywhere, in Alpine tunnels at night, through hilly Abruzzo, throuth narrow streets of Italian towns, on twisty B roads of the Apennines is FUN, FUN, FUN.

The average petrol consumption through these 5000 km was 6.5 l per 100 km, sorry cannot count the British way. You do the counting if you like.

I hope this little road test told you something about your car. And yes, it was only me and my girlfriend, no family and AIR CONDITIONING made the trip much more comfortable than in my previous Escort where we almost died of the unbearable heat.

One last thing: the jumpy, funny, little, narrow, cheeky piece of this car that seems so inappropriate for long distance motorway driving in fact means that you will never suffer from the sheer boredom of Mercedes, Audi, BMW even Mondeo and Passat drivers who drive around the speed limits. Imagine driving in Panda at 30 kph for 6 hours on a motorway. That is as boring as it is for a BMW driver doing 130 on a motorway. 130 in Panda equals about 230 kph in BMW. Think about it.

I've done Leeds to Valencia and back in the 100hp in the last 2 weeks, Christ it was hard work, legs ached and sore backside.

whats wrong with the driving position, how should it be fixed? even 100 HP cant adjust the distance of the wheel from the driver? I guess that would solve the problem, we just have long legs

but my back was cool, it also depends on the shape of our spine i guess

We have had 5 weeks in Italy with our multijet, a sporting with stripes and RHD so achieved celebrity status as neither are common where we were. Stripes are only acceptable in Napoli it seems.

If you have a height adjustable seat it helps alot with the driving position for tall people although ours isnt and at 6'1 have spent about 35hours at the wheel this week.
The multjet is better on the hills of europe and could keep 140 up anything switzerland had to offer on the motorway, we crossed it 3 times 3 different ways. This didnt seem to clear the egr though!

We also didnt have air con which was as bigger problem as the stripes where I live in Italy as 35C is hot in a black car.

I've found the Panda to be a brilliant long haul warrior!

I have the 1.2, and did a trip from Littlehampton to Newcastle non stop about a month ago, it took 6.5 hours averaging 59 mph.Granted my ass was dead, but I didn't find it tiring at all.

The 1.2 has plenty of power for cruising 70+ but I tend to keep it at 60 and take it easy.

One trick I learned was to get behind a coach, the National Express ones seem to like to get a move one, and let them punch a nice big hole in the air for you - I was doing 70 mph and getting over 70 mpg at one point!

what are "stripes"?

as for coaches, I have never come across a couch that would run faster than 65 mph - my target cruising speed is about 90 mph

my panda has adjustable height seat but it doesn t solve the problem with long legs, short hands

just done 850 miles in Ireland in a 1.2 and it was great - well behaved on all sorts of roads at all speeds and fuel economy of well over 50 mpg - I prefer cars that take a bit of 'driving' rather than just doing everything for you!!!

My 1.2 dynamic has now done 73k miles, averaging 24k miles per annum since I bought it, and apart from the timing issue I've got, it's been excellent!!