Well, after 2 new front tyres were fitted, the tiny nose was pointed in the direction of a local dual carriageway for a necessary journey...

...and I must say it wasn't too bad! It sits at 60 quite happily, tailgating the HGV's.
Now since my last car was a V6 auto, I didn't expect tyre shredded performance, but the little thing buzzes along quite well. 70 would be cruel I think...

Can't say it was terribly comfortable after a while, but then small car+large male=chiropractor, nothing new there

This is shaping up to be a very happy little car, with a happy owner.

What a clever little thing.? I wonder if I should bring it in at night and get a large basket beside the radiator for it...

Either 1.1 or 1.2 will happily thrash along quicker than that. 60 is comfortable, but so is 70, so you can keep up with other traffic (the law-abiding ones anyway). Time taken to achieve 70 will depend of course, with factors such as gradient, wind, and aircon playing a part. They will zip along much faster, but the noise and effort required from the driver gets tedious quite quickly. My 1.2 regularly does medium motorway journeys, all at 70mph.

Its Italian, it loves revs! and still be economical to boot I will sit at 70 plus in my 1.1 on my 120 mile commute on Motorway or dual carriageway. if on a normal cruisey type journey 65mph is a nice speed faster than a speeding lorry, slower than an outside lane hogger.

Glad to hear you've got her wayward handling sorted with a new pair of boots, and you've fallen victim to the Panda's undoubted charms. There's just something about them. Three years with mine and she still puts a smile on my face

If it failed MoT on lower suspension arm bushes, then it's standard practice to change the entire arm - she should have a pair of shiny new front wishbones.

I agree with the above, they're happy enough at speed, and the engine's tough and happy to spin. Not the most aerodynamic of things, so I tend to pin it at 3000rpm on motorways at an indicated 66mph (probably more like a real 62mph), just because at 70mph it uses a fair bit more fuel and gets noisier.

Myusername said:

Can't say it was terribly comfortable after a while, but then small car+large male=chiropractor, nothing new there

Click to expand...

You're certainly not the first to comment on this, and it took me a while to find a comfortable position, mostly because of the strange bar at the bottom of the seat back digging into my lower back.

I (and I know others have found the same) now sit more upright than I'm used to, with the seat base pushed further back and the seat back brought further forward. I find it perfectly comfy on long journeys. For a small car, there's a surprising sense of space from the front seats.

Well try as I might, I couldn't get it in the front door to sleep by the radiator, so I've done the next best thing and given it a polish.? The passenger side has been clouted by something, so the door bottoms are a bit ripply, with some paint scores on the sill.

Now I could get all perfectionist and source 2 replacement doors, preferably in the right colour, and maybe a rear bumper where its had an indifferent repair previously, and then...

...STOP STOP STOP! It's an old car, just find some paint to touch up the sill and smile at the rest. It's on the passenger side anyway so I don't see it...

Our 2007 1.2 gets to 75 then takes off again. I have to really watch the speedo or it will be at 90 before I know it. The engine is very under stressed so letting it spin won't do any harm.

The 100HP will happily get to those speeds but power is a bit more linear so easier to keep to a licence friendly speed.