General Dynamic Eco vs Dynamic
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General Dynamic Eco vs Dynamic
The Dynamic Eco has neither roofbars nor alloys as standard. Basically you get the 1.2 60hp Euro4 engine (so £30 road tax), 13" steel wheels with 155x80 ecotyres, A/C, the larger type manual door mirrors, remote locking & rev counter. Arguably the best value Panda ever - it has everything you really need, without having to pay for the stuff you don't. They could be bought new for around £6700 in 2010.
Mine is coming up to 34000 miles. It's behaved faultlessly & thus far I haven't had to replace anything apart from oil & filters. A shade under 55mpg overall; this is about as cheap as motoring gets.
But then again, other folks may have a different wishlist
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IIRC the engine change from Euro4 > Euro5 happened in late 2010; mine was registered 1/9/10 & has the 60hp Euro4. The last of the Mk3s were rebranded again (I think as the myLife) & the options list changed slightly; the rev counter was dropped & alloys added, and the price went up by a few hundred pounds.
Driving around town, the 60hp engine is slightly more flexible than the 69hp variant, but you need to be ecodriving to notice it. The difference between the two engines is probably not worth worrying about - I've got one of each & in normal driving don't notice anything between them. There's no difference in economy either; on comparable journeys, I get similar numbers out of both cars. The Panda only looks worse than the 500 in my sig because it's used for the daily commute in traffic.
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The same as normal dynamics
Yep, though I believe ALL dynamic Eco's have A/C as standard - it was an option on earlier Dynamics.
Perhaps the most important difference for many will be the £30 road tax.
IIRC it also marked the switch from semisynth oil to fully synth, probably to get the internal friction down enough to squeeze 119g/km CO2 out of the emissions figure. You also need the skinny tyres to achieve this with a Euro4, which is presumably why the Eleganza was never made in a £30 tax version.
This is just a guess, but I'm thinking the change to the Euro5 engine made it possible to fit 14" wheels & still keep within 119g/km, thus enabling the last of the Mk3 Pandas to be given alloys as standard & still qualify for £30 tax.
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All sounds about right. They did manage to get a slightly lower tax band on the later Eleganza's, but not the £30 band like you say.
They may be basically the same, but the pre-Eco versions will cost at least £1000 more in road tax over the life of the car. That's about 15% of the initial purchase price when new.
An entirely artificial reason but one which gives the Eco a price premium on the secondhand market.
The reason may be artificial, but the larger hole in your wallet when you tax the earlier models is very real.
I doubt you'd notice any difference when driving them, and I doubt you'd notice much difference in the real world fuel economy, either. Udtrev's pre-eco Panda was right up there with Maybelline & Pearl.
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Thanks - was more concerning the 'goody' list than sipping petrol to be honest. Great value cars all round and though the car market is obsessed with resale value at 3 years old, you'd be hard pushed to beat 1.2 Panda resale values for cars 3 years+ in age.
If you can live with the higher road tax, one of the last of the Eleganzas would make an excellent 'keeper' and you should be able to find a decent secondhand one for a keen price. In the current market, if you buy privately you've a fair chance of picking up a mint 3yr old Eleganza with 20k on the clock for around £4000, that's tremendous value for money.
They're not generally cars which get thrashed & you've a better than average chance of getting one which really has been owned by a little old lady from Keswick.
(Keswick is the Panda capital of the UK; the combination of a dealer on the doorstep and a population which seems to consist mainly of tight fisted old gits means they outnumber 500's by about 5 to 1).
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I don`t know much about the earlier Pandas as I had a Seicento Sporting Abarth. All I can tell you is what my 2011 MyLife Dynamic (which was the top of the 3 MyLife models) has as standard.
Aircon, new larger mirrors which are electric (for positioning AND heated), rails, 14" Alloys, colour co-ordinated mirrors and door handles. Remote locking, MP3 CD player, trip counter, electric "cigar" socket. Front fog lights, side ribbing strips and height adjustable steering wheel.
Oh, and no spare wheel (not even space saver). Instead, it`s got one of those repair kits and compressor which fixes the wheel to make it good enough for 50 miles or so.
Does that help?
Aircon, new larger mirrors which are electric (for positioning AND heated), rails, 14" Alloys, colour co-ordinated mirrors and door handles. Remote locking, MP3 CD player, trip counter, electric "cigar" socket. Front fog lights, side ribbing strips and height adjustable steering wheel.
Oh, and no spare wheel (not even space saver). Instead, it`s got one of those repair kits and compressor which fixes the wheel to make it good enough for 50 miles or so.
Does that help?
I have an '09 Dynamic Eco.
So steel wheels, no roof bars (but I added a pair), aircon, trip computer, rev counter, manual small mirrors, double din stereo, and £30 road tax with a 1242cc engine.
Seems to do better on fuel than my last car the 1.2 500 pop, I prefer the seating position and ride and mum (who's a creaky 78 year old) can get in and out with relative ease, which is why I bought it.
So steel wheels, no roof bars (but I added a pair), aircon, trip computer, rev counter, manual small mirrors, double din stereo, and £30 road tax with a 1242cc engine.
Seems to do better on fuel than my last car the 1.2 500 pop, I prefer the seating position and ride and mum (who's a creaky 78 year old) can get in and out with relative ease, which is why I bought it.
Compared to the 500, access, visibility & load carrying capacity are all significantly better in the Panda. It's far more practical as a town car
.For city driving, the 60hp Euro4 is slightly more flexible than the 69hp Euro5.
