I dont know where all this stuff about Pandas being unreliable has sprung from. I have now around 10% of my total miles, of experience with Pandas now aroud 160,000 miles in Pandas various, and have found them to be far more reliable than anything else. Overall Fiats have been by a country mile the most reliable cars I have owned and used. Ford and Vauxhall have run them a close second though I admit. PSA words fail me how poor, and Renault were mixed, some very good and others not. The number of failures on all the Fiats I have had had been easily tbettered my VW group products and way way better than PSA products. The two new Pandas had no warranty claims. they do not rattle and nothing has fallen off. Clearly they are not as solidly made as many other products, in the assembly methods are old school but they are lasting well. My Bravo suffered a gearbox bearing issue at over 108000 miles but was repairable. Both the interior and exterior could have passed for an under 20K car with ease. The Panda 100 had a worn seat bolster at 106000 but a repalcement seat was fitted for modest cost. it too was in pretty near as new condition bht needing a gearbox overhaul at the time I sold it. As pretty well nothing else had gone wrong with it in all its time, the cost of repair was bearable, and I really wish I havd hung onto it. I do try and ensure my cars are kept clean and polished inside and out and serviced bang on time, I tinker as well so they get a bit extra but the result has been 12 years of remarkably trouble free motoring which is something that seems quite common on here but not everywhere. The only reason I can see for the reported reliability issue is the number of these cars owned by people who are not keen motorists and who have done low milages passing their cars into the market in a poor state. whereupon they are used more and suffer not entirely inexpected cambelts and head gasket failures, worn clutches and damaged gearboxes. Many elderly peole just drive the car and do the minimum of service work as they feel with low miles their is less need and hence the results, Im sure if you looked at BMWs in their later life similar issues arise. Ive no doubt that a properly kept BMW would last forever if maintenance was kept up. As a much higher cost item I reckon it takes longer before the inevitable rot sets in and possibly more owners are car positive, so any survey of young and mid life reliability shows this typre of product to be better. As Panda costs are less its still a better financial proposition than something "better for ordinary people. In any event Pandas are more fun to drive than nearly anything else, dont take my word for it EVO magazine said the Panda 100HP was the most fun you can get for under £100,000. Its sad that we have lost the benefits of these small econmical lightweight cars due to the la remarkable lack of foresight. Its not where we need to be going at this moment when its this sort of ICE vehicle that is less damaging than many.
Nobody with a functional knowledge of cars would actually try to say that (at least) the 2003-current Panda’s are unreliable by any means.
Motoring magazines and video channels - whose opinions are very much bought by certain large German and Korean brands that can only dream of touching the Panda/500 sales levels in Europe combined can say it all they want. Real owners of the cars know otherwise. So do Fiat, who definitely know how to ‘beat a dead horse’ and continue to sell the same thing, with as little change as possible, but one of the only reasons they can do that and stay alive is because what they are selling is fundamentally good quality and robust.
Fiat don’t cheap out on quality of core parts. They use old, maybe unexciting but certainly non complex parts. Where other working class brands like VAG have over engineered the most unnecessary, simple parts leading to headaches for DIY home mechanics and owners alike, Fiat has stood by proven technology and frankly it’s done a good job and is totally suitable for its everyday road car products. The honesty of its products in not trying to be sporty, or aggressive or overly technical is probably why so many are loyal to the brand and its products. We all fear that won’t be the case now in the PSA / Stellantis future.
I must have spent around £2,800 on my first Panda which was between 10 and 15 years old whilst I owned it. Absolutely nothing I replaced would raise an eyebrow even on a similarly aged Toyota - and that car very much was neglected and mercy to the hands of crap mechanics over its life.
Contrast that to my uncles decked out 2015 GTI Golf which has had an absurd number of warranty and out of warranty repairs (notably £600 for a new head unit he paid out of pocket). My grandmothers 2015 Panda Pop, absolutely nothing other than oil, filters and tyres. Both bought new. The Golf was 5x if not more the price at the time and as much more desirable as it’d be to all of the most insufferable drivers on our roads, it’s not 5x more reliable or better made.
And on BMW, I learnt that the new ‘BMW Supra’ model - like other BMWs, uses an internal ‘LAN’ system for fast communication between its endless computer units. Versus the old CANBUS system we’ve all come across in most cars. Because of that, it can’t be on battery power for more than 18 minutes before running a new, fully charged battery flat. Hardly, by any average car owners measure, more reliable or useful. I don’t know what technical benefit it achieves but it definitely isn’t going to stand up to owner approval when it leaves them stranded by the road side years down the line even after a new battery… I can live without a lot of the advantages this ‘new tech’ and approach brings because of the silly costs. I’m sure it’s a lot of consumers like me on that which is why Fiat can still make a best seller out of ‘old tech’ for as long as the government will let them sell it.
