I have owned my 1.3 MJ for twelve months now and think its has been enough time to give a fair reveiw.

As a low mileage city user (I have a works van), I bought a panda for my social use and have found it to be the perfect choice. It's a great city car, good on diesel and I have just paid £35 for a years tax. It is a lot more nippy than I expected.

I used it to go on a family holiday to north England (from Brum), with a full boot and tank, two adults, a 14 year old and a 11 year old It performed fantastically well, not just only on fuel but speed and comfort. Driving round town its a joy to drive I even got a 10 foot trampoline inside it and all this for a car under £5,500(it was 6 months old)!

If i was to find something to moan about it's that the passenger side mirror is not fantastically placed and filling the windscreen wiper bottle could be easier, but all in all for a car under £6000 its a great deal.

Hi ,Ive driven the 1.1 Panda and it has a nice ride and quite good handling,whereas the 100hp rides like its on concrete ...Does the heavier diesel engine have much of an effect on the handling and ride ...?

ytareh said:

Hi ,Ive driven the 1.1 Panda and it has a nice ride and quite good handling,whereas the 100hp rides like its on concrete ...Does the heavier diesel engine have much of an effect on the handling and ride ...?

Click to expand...

It makes the front end a tad nose heavy, increasing understeer to an extent.

Other than that, same roly poly handling as the 1.2 et al.

hugoagogo said:

filling the windscreen wiper bottle could be easier.

Click to expand...

Buy a funnel, problem solved.

306maxi said:

Buy a funnel, problem solved.

Click to expand...

Surely it'd make more sense to buy a car where this part of the design had been thought out with a bit more sense.

The washer bottle is an improvement over the Seicento, so evolution works.

Good review, the car does what it is meant to do, cheap motoring.
I find ours more than spacious enough most of the time and great economy for running about.


If I was feeling negative about our 45000mile car I would moan about:
- Bodykit and stripes coming off. (fiat UK added parts)
- Boot handle failed
- Front Discs needed replacing
- Key switch unit failed
- Paint peeling off the wiper arms
- Squeaking heater fan
- Seat base has gone soft
- Water pump just started to leak
- Handbrake cables split
- Blocked EGR (possible)

Those are the bits I feel shouldnt have happened in a lightly used 4 year old car, a few other things that have been needed could happen on any car or are just unlucky so cant really moan about those.


I think the list price is up towards £10k now for a diesel dynamic, a bit dear for what you get.

trackdayqueen said:

Surely it'd make more sense to buy a car where this part of the design had been thought out with a bit more sense.

Click to expand...

Yes but it's hardly a deal breaker and not the worst thing in the world