General Another one bites the dust!

[Goudrons]

Well it had to end!
I never imagined he'd keep it so long, but after 6 years our boy has finally chopped in his 2012 Panda Pop.

He traded it in for a 2018 Fiesta Zetec at a large car supermarket in Kent.
He did a Hammond at exhange and let slip he named the Panda Poppy to a very attractive young lady in a very tight and short black dress who was doing the exchange, I lmao
So now there's only two Pandas in the family.

On the way back from the exchange I started to tot up what the Panda cost over those 6 years to keep on the road.

It had 4 tyres plus tracking
Set of front pads, discs and new brake fluid.
Battery
4 services I did myself
2 Anti Roll bar droplinks
Set of front wiper blades
A couple of bulbs and a coolant flush.

I did all the servicing and replaced the bits and bobs myself.
I shopped around for genuine Fiat filters and just stuck in whatever oil was cheapest at the time (though right spec and grade) so we didn't lavish cash on it.

It cost £4500 in 2015 and he got £1800 trade in.
It also never failed an MOT of even got a single advisory.
Not bad for 6 years motoring considering he actually learnt to drive in it.

The Fiesta seems to drive really well, irons out the rough road but still handles quite sharply (even though he left all the service history and owners manual at the dealers, I can't blame him, I was a bit distracted myself at the time)

He's amazed at the witchcraft of making cold air come out of the dash and telling the car to phone everyone up, though this last trick is starting to wear thin with his mum! I saw it coming and turned my phone off lastnight.

 

[FiatMatt94]

Even though the Panda is basic I would rather keep mine than trade it in for a Fiesta. My uncle has a 2015 Fiesta Zetec & I wasn't very impressed with the overall quality of the Fiesta compared with the Panda, considering he paid £8,995 for it at about 18 months old where as my Panda cost £7,995 pre reg with delivery miles. My grandad always had Fords where as my dad has always had Fiats but grandad then changed from Ford & got a 1995 Cinquecento, said he loved it, was great fun to drive & he never went back to a Ford

 

[Goudrons]

He was a bit put out that there isn't anything in the Fiat range that suited his needs.
(don't mention Punto, that last model is older than his is)

I'm not really a Ford fan myself, I did flirt with the idea of a Fiesta ST a few years ago before I bought my Abarth and I did consider the Fiesta Vingale again last year before I bought my Clio.

I have to say, Ford has upped their game in the lastest version, ok there are some scratchy plastics low down, but everything you touch has a fairly good feel to it.

You can also see why it appeals, the driving dymanics are really very good even in the less speced/powered models. It's supple but you can still feel whats going on with the grip.

What else is out there for a young chap that doesn't look like granny's shopping trolley or too girly that's cheap enough on insurance without him tapping into mum and dads policies?
Not much is the answer.
The 3 door Corsa looks ok but they are a dull drive and he wanted 5 doors which is granny tractor territory.

A Polo or Ibiza were just too expensive to get the latest platform models with the better safety kit and the Fabia already looks like it's wearing grandads moustache.

i20 or the Kia Rio? It was hard enough to get him into work, I can't imagine driving a retirees motor is going to keep him there.

Mini, too expensive, too unreliable, too uninsurable.

Citroen C3 or Peugeot 208, both are petit-déjeuner des chiens!

 

[The Panda Nut]

So now there's only two Pandas in the family.

I'm sorry this is JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I can see that for a young man a Fiesta may seem more up to date and its probably a bit safer in a crash so you are just about forgiven. Next car change is going to cost you a lot more depreciation though so you will learn the error of your ways..

 

[timmycm850]

Hi All.

You have to try different things to work out your preferences.

He will always remember Poppy though.


I did spot a low insurance car relatively cheap to buy that has a really good spec, yes its NOT German, MG3 of all things

Tim

 

[Goudrons]

I'm sorry this is JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I can see that for a young man a Fiesta may seem more up to date and its probably a bit safer in a crash so you are just about forgiven. Next car change is going to cost you a lot more depreciation though so you will learn the error of your ways..

It wasn't my decision!

I don't think the depreciation will be that bad.
First off he didn't pay over the odds for it from a Ford stealer, it was below book at a car supermarket.
All we had to do is constantly refuse all the add ons for a couple of hours, which wasn't hard. They wanted £699 for GuardX, what sane person wouldn't say no to that every minute of every day?

Then you have to remember there's thousands of new younger drivers every year and they all want a cheap to insure car and run.
The Fiesta is something like insurance group 7 or so, (though they go as low as 4 or 5) a similar engined Suzuki Swift is a massive 25.

Ford sell them by the thousands and used they sell like hot cakes, we know as we've been trying to buy one.
There's a Fiesta specialist near Chatham and we called on a friday to look at a couple that just came in stock, before we left to go there on saturday morning they phone back as they took a deposit on all three friday afternoon, by phone.

Finally, this one will be well cared for (under threat of death from Mother) and fastidiously serviced (looks like that will be by my job).


As for the two Pandas left in the family.
One is my sisters and she's a Fiat girl, through and through.
She's on her 4th Panda (an Easy+) and 7th Fiat. Every car except she first (an old Mini) has been Fiat.
She did look at a Nissan Note once as she liked the look (she thought it looked like a big Panda) then told the saleman if it had a Fiat badge she would have bought it. He looked rather gutted!

The mother in law has SWMBO's old 2014 Panda Lounge. She's been eyeing automatic cars recently, maybe even electric but I think she knows the Panda will see her to the end of her driving days, so why waste the money.

I was tempted to give him the trade in value and keep his Panda myself.
It fleeted through my mind to turn it into a small van by removing the rear seats and fitting a partition and towbar and use it to lug my trials bike and kit around to events, then thought, bugger that, just carry on using her in door's Vitara, it's cheaper!

 

[Marcus Daly]

I ran a Fiesta of recent vintage as a hire car for a week and I thought it was absolutely terrific. Ride and handling in a completely different class to the Panda, although to be fair it is a much bigger/pricier car. I couldn’t fault it.

 

[gar074]

My son has a Fiesta Active which he's very happy with. It's supposed to be a crossover, but it's a very tame one. Got a whopping £7k off a pre-regd one last year, but having said that, they're silly money at list price. Typically, he was attracted by the B&O variant (like father, like son), which tbf does sound very good indeed.

 

[FiatMatt94]

It wasn't my decision!

I don't think the depreciation will be that bad.
First off he didn't pay over the odds for it from a Ford stealer, it was below book at a car supermarket.
All we had to do is constantly refuse all the add ons for a couple of hours, which wasn't hard. They wanted £699 for GuardX, what sane person wouldn't say no to that every minute of every day?

Then you have to remember there's thousands of new younger drivers every year and they all want a cheap to insure car and run.
The Fiesta is something like insurance group 7 or so, (though they go as low as 4 or 5) a similar engined Suzuki Swift is a massive 25.

Ford sell them by the thousands and used they sell like hot cakes, we know as we've been trying to buy one.
There's a Fiesta specialist near Chatham and we called on a friday to look at a couple that just came in stock, before we left to go there on saturday morning they phone back as they took a deposit on all three friday afternoon, by phone.

Finally, this one will be well cared for (under threat of death from Mother) and fastidiously serviced (looks like that will be by my job).


As for the two Pandas left in the family.
One is my sisters and she's a Fiat girl, through and through.
She's on her 4th Panda (an Easy+) and 7th Fiat. Every car except she first (an old Mini) has been Fiat.
She did look at a Nissan Note once as she liked the look (she thought it looked like a big Panda) then told the saleman if it had a Fiat badge she would have bought it. He looked rather gutted!

The mother in law has SWMBO's old 2014 Panda Lounge. She's been eyeing automatic cars recently, maybe even electric but I think she knows the Panda will see her to the end of her driving days, so why waste the money.

I was tempted to give him the trade in value and keep his Panda myself.
It fleeted through my mind to turn it into a small van by removing the rear seats and fitting a partition and towbar and use it to lug my trials bike and kit around to events, then thought, bugger that, just carry on using her in door's Vitara, it's cheaper!

I can remember being 17 & passing my test in December 2011 with the ridiculous prices for insurance because my sister gave me a pug 106 for free, was in quite good nick but they wanted nearly £4k just for the insurance so she had that back & whilst looking for another car I came across a K reg Toyota Starlet for £295 & I soon learn't that japanese cars were a lot more to insure than europeon cars so is no surprise that a Suzuki Swift is group 25 which is mental for a small hatchback. In the end I settled with a pink £300 cinquecento kept it for 8 months, an old lady pulled out in a peugeot & wrote it off, insurance paid nearly 3 times what I paid for the car :slayer: & I moved on to next Fiat. Like your sister I have always had Fiat's with the exception of a Old Mini which is being very slowly being rebuilt after 7 years ownership. I would of loved to have seen the look on the Nissan dealers face.