General Every Panda secretly wants to be a 4x4

[hmallett]

Driving home from my parents in the dark last night (when it was quite rainy), we went up some back lanes for a few miles. There were some puddles, maybe 2 or 3 inches deep, which were all slowed down for.
However, I failed to see one in a dip, and hit it about 40mph. It turned out to be quite deep too, maybe 6 inches, and about 12 feet along the road. I've never experienced an entire puddle jumping in the air and landing on the windscreen before! There was "quite a lot" of water.
Continuing on, the car stuttered a bit and lacked power for the next mile or so. The clutch juddered a bit on gearchanges. I worried slightly.
Then it all went away, and the car ran fine. In fact it seems to be slightly better than it has been for the last few weeks! :chin:
I remain impressed at the Panda's durability for a cheap car.

Note that my air intake is entirely standard

 

[ScoobyChris]

Note that my air intake is entirely standard

Chris

 

[PNL]

Chris

Massive ones at that..:devil: can I have them for my fishing trips please Chris..:worship:

 

[doctorchris]

Fortunately Fiat have had the good sense to place the air intake high up above the radiator in about the highest position they can find under the bonnet on all versions of the Panda that I have looked at, not just the 4x4.
The chance of hydraulicking the engine is greatly reduced by this sensible measure.
I took my Cross through some very deep standing water on the roads above the Wear Valley last night and it didn't miss a beat. So nice to have a Diesel engine under the bonnet at last.

 

[PNL]

Fortunately Fiat have had the good sense to place the air intake high up above the radiator in about the highest position they can find under the bonnet on all versions of the Panda that I have looked at, not just the 4x4.
The chance of hydraulicking the engine is greatly reduced by this sensible measure.

Yep its an easy change filter on the panda 10 out of 10 to them for that one..so much easier than changing a standard filter on stilo..:bang:

 

[Sammyboy]

I can second that. I drive through a ford on the way to work. It has a marker telling you how deep it is in feet - i've gone through it at nearly 2 feet deep when we had the bad weather not long back and it was absolutely fine - made sure I made a bow wave. I've used mine extensively off the road. I've taken it down a rocky track and had it on two wheels with out getting stuck - got the pictures to prove it. I took it down this little lane that was only big enough for push and motor bikes. It squeezed down (just) with branches and rubbing both sides and big nettle bushes coming in through the open window. I stopped half a mile down as it was getting really thick mud and the traction control couldn't get enough traction to go forward. This is on worn standard tyres. I had to reverse half a mile up this track as it was wall to wall bushes and trees. The Panda looked quite cool covered in thick mud!

 

[DraigFlag87]

Your story reminds me of an experience i had a few months ago, I was filming at the time (Jesus have i got a vid for every topic?) and caught it on tape! It's titled "Panda Vs Flood" pretty self explanatory really, tidal wave over the car etc and yes, it struggled to get out with plenty of clutch juddering! Quite a bit deeper than i thought actually but car was fine. Jump to 46 seconds to see the splash!

 

[hmallett]

Jump to 46 seconds to see the splash!

That's nothing compared to what I hit!

 

[stephenbeetleman]

lol @ watersplash hehe ...pandas are pretty much indestructable you gotta love them!

 

[DraigFlag87]

That's nothing compared to what I hit!

Really? did you see the size of the flood? it covered the whole road and must have been at least a foot deep, if not more!

 

[doctorchris]

Ah, but you slowed down for this flood. You should 've hit it at 50mph like a man! Especially if a 6ft 6in farmer with a huge dog and shotgun was stood by it!

 

[hmallett]

Really? did you see the size of the flood? it covered the whole road and must have been at least a foot deep, if not more!

Yes I did see it!
Perhaps I should have said that what I hit looks a bit deeper (perhaps my intial estimate was a bit out), but how I hit it was much faster
You still had a chance of being able to see out the windscreen....

 

[DraigFlag87]

Ah, but you slowed down for this flood. You should 've hit it at 50mph like a man!

Yea but i remember one of my mates hitting a puddle at high speed, spun around and around for a bit, went through a field took down a fence and ended up wrapping his car round a telegraph pole. Another mate did a similar thing in his mums car but just pin balled of both walls either side of the road. Both mates were OK but cars were obviously destroyed! That's the thing here in Wales, we usually end up making the mistakes in order to learn from them, and as far as water goes, there's a lot of it and it's bloody dangerous, and the puddle i hit was basically a lake and i didn't know what was under it ( a tree probably! ) Oh yea i also had a write off due to slippery wet roads. Drive careful people.

 

[ivantate]

Anything that was much deeper would have pulled the front spoiler off a sporting if hit at speed.

 

[hmallett]

Anything that was much deeper would have pulled the front spoiler off a sporting if hit at speed.

I was nervous about that, so checked it and the foglights shortly after!