General Can a Cross be made to look "normal"!

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General Can a Cross be made to look "normal"!

lanciaman

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I have a petrol Panda 4x4 which has thoroughly impressed in this recent weather. Got it in October and it has basically been our only transport for the part month.

I am swithering whether to upgrade to a Cross - purely for the extra oomph of the diesel. Sorry to offend but I just do not like the styling of the Cross. Why on earth Fiat couldn't just do a normal 4x4 diesel is beyond me but there we go.

Does anyone know if it is possible (no doubt) and how much is involved to put a normal panda front end on the thing?
 
It would probably be expensive to buy all the bits to put a standard Panda front on a Cross. Then, the roof, side and rear mouldings would all look out of place and removing some of those leaves holes in the panels which are not found on a standard Panda.
Then, after all that, the car would be almost worthless to anyone other than your clone who also wanted a RHD non-Cross Panda 4x4 diesel.
Hows about you import a base-spec 4x4 diesel from the continent, used of course. After all, the main disadvantage of LHD in the UK, vision ahead when overtaking, is partly eased by the 4x4's higher stance and the performance, even of the diesel, doesn't lead to many overtaking opportunities anyhow. I didn't have big problems with overtaking in France and Spain on my recent 3,000+ mile trip recently.
I upgraded from a petrol 4x4 to a Cross two years ago and have not regretted the move. The improved fuel economy gives a more useful range. The extra oomph makes for a much more relaxed driving style. The additional weight of the car makes it more settled when cruising and whilst driving on snow. OK, it's more nose-heavy which makes it less chuckable when cornering but chuckability with minimal power isn't much fun anyhow.
Just make sure you get a hefty discount on a Cross or aim to keep it for many years to minimise the depreciation it suffers.
 
Anything is possible, so yes you could do it. But seriously why bother? It will devalue the car, not to mention what it'd cost to do, just doesn't make sense to do it really.

Two options I can think of:

A) live with the awkward looks of the Cross.
B) Buy something else.

Something to consider also is that the diesel does not have much in the way of oomph and has a very narrow power band. So I'm not sure you'll be massively impressed by it.
 
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Forget my suggestion of the used import.
I just looked at diesel 4x4 Climbings on ebay in Italy and France. Around £7,000 for 4-6 year old examples with 80,000+km on the clock.
 
Totally agree with you about the Tonka toy looks of the Cross. The price of new and used Pandas in Italy is very high. New diesel Climbing 16,400 euros/15,000 pounds - alloys standard but plus almost 2,000 euros for electric mirrors, split rear seat with moveable headrests, remote central locking, climate control and MP3 radio; new Cross 19,150/16,600 - most of the bells and whistles, which makes it reasonable value against Climbing, but 460 euros for upgrade to climate control and radio controls on wheel; two-year-old diesel 4x4 Climbing, only 3400 kms, asking price 10,900 euros - 9,000+ quid. The basic diesel 4x4s are very common in central Italy, and are used extensively by the mail, telephone, and forestry services.

By the way, does a new 4x4 diesel have the 75hp engine here, they've just sold out of the last of the lower-powered ones in Italy?
 
Horses for courses, I love the look of the Cross, I wanted one for the wife but we went for the 100hp instead as the snow doesn't really bother us enough to buy a 4x4
 
I bought a Cross about 3 months ago and apart from the sand coloured side panels I think the styling isn't that bad - so I sprayed the side panels to match the body colour (rain dance green) and it has really toned down the appearance. I used all the appropriate primers, paint and laquer and did it on the driveway in about a day - £100. I do use the vehicle off road quite a bit and so use heavy duty (black) seat covers which again tones things down (the seat material is also green with a centre sand coloured section). (Haven't worked out yet how to add an image to this message - sorry). So far the cross is the best vehicle I've owned and that's been quite a few including numerous 4x4's and crossovers! happy deliberating!
 
No diesel 4x4s in the UK, which are all Cross models, has a 75hp engine. They all have 70 hp motors.
New Crosses cannot be ordered from the factory now.
Is this true you cant buy a new Cross? Thought they were selling at long last?
 
I think the Cross (along with petrol 4x4, 100HP and Eleganza) are all no longer being built in the factory (at least for the UK, if not everywhere) as their engines don't comply with Euro 5 emission regulations, which every car being built from a few months ago had to comply with.

Fiat have played about with the engines in the Active & Dynamic model Pandas to make them comply, presumably as they are the biggest selling specifications, but all the others look like being dropped as soon as existing stock runs out. The fiat.co.uk Panda Configurator currently shows Euro 4 and Euro 5 Actives & Dynamics so i presume this is evidence of old stock being left. I can't imagine there's much of anything old left though, as it was a few months ago when the Euro 5 rules came in.

Probably down to cost, but a great shame as the Cross in particular seemed to be catching on a little after our snow fall in January/February and December. Fiat often shoot themselves in the foot like this though, so i'm not surprised.
 
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