Hi all.

I'm considering buying a Panda with dualogic, but I would like to hear from current dualogic drivers.

How does it drive?
Have you had many faults/errors?
Is it economical (Fiat states that it's actually more economical than the manual version)?

If you have positive feedback (like no problems and so on) I would love to hear that too.

So come on, help me

I'm on my second Dualogic and find the gearbox a little gem either in auto mode or manual. Try doing a downchange from second to first in slow traffic and listen as it blips the throttle whilst changing down - lovely. Also unlike a conventional automatic it isn't hell bent in changing into top at about 30 mph.

Problems only one on the first car I had the "gearbox fail" message come up wich sure got my attention as I was doing a good speed at the time. However it continued to operate normally. Investigation showed that if I operated the screenwashers then the message went off - a bad earth connection that was.

I have heard of some cars having the wrong brake switch fitted which can confuse the gearbox.

Will I buy a 3rd one? Well the likely answer is yes.

There we go Santa, treat yourself to a Dualogic Panda for Christmas

Had my duallogic for 4 months so far, no problem at all, i love it!!!

The only problem i find is not the car but those silly dealers!!!! Fiat has got to sort those dealers out if they want to keep people buying their cars...... these dealers are really driving people away!!

Care to explain?

T14086 said:

Care to explain?

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in my country, the service center said they were trained on the mechanical part of panda when they were in Italy, not electronic parts, i.e duologic stuff, thus when comes to problem with duologic , they are blur.

in fact they follow my advice (?? guess i am better??) what to check which resolved problem that they are not able to.

Was actually refering to Joker288's 'silly dealers' comment,but thanks for that Ahhl

Same here: best auto gear box ever! Pertty smart too. When going up on a hill it'll rev more; when braking it'll brake using both the engine and the brakes. No other auto box does that, that I know of.

It is economical, but I don't know how it compares to a normal panda. It should be more economical since it uses the 5th gear as soon as possible (at about 55kph / 35mph). That's in ECO mode by the way. In not-ECO mode it's a lot sportier..

No problems (had the car for 6months now). I've been to Italy with it and back (5000km) and it was just great. It's really not just a city car.

Thanks for all the info.

I'm going shopping in a few weeks time, so keep the stories coming.

Soepy said:

Same here: best auto gear box ever! Pertty smart too. When going up on a hill it'll rev more; when braking it'll brake using both the engine and the brakes. No other auto box does that, that I know of.

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I have a friend with a Mitsubishi Colt 1,5 Allshift, now i'll have to see if his does it the same way.

Soepy said:

It is economical, but I don't know how it compares to a normal panda. It should be more economical since it uses the 5th gear as soon as possible (at about 55kph / 35mph). That's in ECO mode by the way. In not-ECO mode it's a lot sportier..

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According to the info from Fiat, it should be more econmical with dualogic, but i guess that's because of the ECO mode.

Santa that's not like you... why don't you get your elves to build you one

Don't tell me you bought all my christmas prezzies last year

Nah only joking, good luck and if/when you get it, post up some pics for us all to see

Ok, i'm going to test drive one on friday.
Is there anything I should be aware of with regard to the gearbox?

santa said:

Ok, i'm going to test drive one on friday.
Is there anything I should be aware of with regard to the gearbox?

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Just make sure you try it both in ECO and non-ECO. It's quite different. I usually have it in ECO mode, but when driving in hilly areas or when there's a lot of traffic I turn off ECO to make the car respond faster.

One more thing: don't be afraid to floor it. The pedal is not linked to the gas. It's just a way for you to tell the car how fast you want it to go. So if you want to go fast, just floor it

Forgot one thing: keep your foot on the pedal when it's changing gears! I had the reflex of letting the pedal go when I felt a gear changing coming up, but that would totally confuse the Panda

I love the Duologic. Buying again, I would consider the hill stop option, as this prevent the car rolling back on hills.

The other thing which confuses the duologic is that say you are manoevering slowly backwards into a parking space, and you then want to go forward to straighten up, you must bring the car to a halt with the brake first before changing the gear selelctor - or the car instrument panel bleeps/flashes message and the gearbox totally disengages and will not re-engage till you put foot on brake and select Neutral till the bleeping/flashing stops. I find this having to ensure the car has come to a complete and total stand still with foot on brake before changing the selector between Reverse and Forward a bit of a pain. It's something one will condition oneself to do.

TechVillage said:

I find this having to ensure the car has come to a complete and total stand still with foot on brake before changing the selector between Reverse and Forward a bit of a pain. It's something one will condition oneself to do.

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But kinder to the gearbox of any car be it manual or automatic to come to a halt before asking the transmission to go in the opposite direction.

PandaUK - thanks for your rather obvious point. I said when I was parking - we are talking at speeds of less than 1MPH here, not aggressive gear changing at 5MPH. And this is just occaisional, when going from reverse to forward. Some thing I have seen everybody do when going between directionsat some point when parking at speeds of less than 1 MPH. In fact the torque at those kind of speeds is far, far less than some giving the car some mild spirited welly.

TechVillage - my comments were meant more for those who think they are Michael Schumacher in the parking bays at Tesco.

The thing that gets me is that if I'm stationary at traffic lights in neutral and forget to press the brake before selecting 1st is not the visible warning on the instrument panel but that damn buzzing warning tone. The Dualogic I have now chimes 10 times before stopping the previous Dualogic only did 4!

Anyway a great gearbox and makes Panda driving good fun.

I have the dualogic and would like to mention that you don't need to actually make the car stop. It's enough to have the brake pressed, even if it's just a little.