General New Panda tomorrow

[Coolie]

We're picking up a new Panda tomorrow. Nothing special, Panda 1.2 Pop. Lovin the basic / functional thing, with a splash of style and substance.

We got a white 1, with red interior, a red dash, and silver mirror caps. Not sure if that's a normal colour combo - coming from a stock car.

Landed 5years 0% finance and a sizable discount, 62plate pre reg - 72mls on the clock, and needs the std £7500 advert lettering removing. Got mats, boot liner and fuel chucked in too. Dealer seems ok-ish, but attention to detail and general bendover backwards is missing I'd say.

I've ordered some door rubbing strips for the car, can see supermarket trolley dinks otherwise, and I reckon the interior seats need scotchguard to keep those seat looking fresh (red).

This is our first Fiat - so here goes

 

[Super Uwe]

Hi Coolie,

Welcome to the forum!

Sounds like yet another great deal (makes me feel a bit jealous actually given that we paid pretty much full list price when they came out last year...typical eh!). How much did you end up paying for it then (if you don't mind me asking?).

As for your spec, interesting that it comes with a red dash and silver mirror caps. They're defo non-standard for the Pop.

Having that particular matching dash and seat combo will look brilliant IMO - my sister-in-law has a Colour Therapy 500 in Pasadoble Red, and the red seats/plastics look really smart.

Anyway, the Pop is basic but to be fair it all depends on what your needs are. We personally would not want a car without aircon as we do a lot of miles (nearly up to 14k already and still a few weeks to go before the first year is up). So that's why we went for a 1.2 Easy. But if you just want a basic, good quality car to get around then the 1.2 Pop is perfect.

Am sure you will enjoy owning a FIAT, the Pandas and 500s in particular are great little cars. The dealership experience is often a real mixed bag, what you've described is quite common sadly. But you will often pick up little bits of info on here in terms of who's good, who's bad etc.

Enjoy!

 

[catnash]

Its a great little car, would love the red dash on my white one.

 

[Dangerinleyland]

Coolie, hope you have a great time picking up the little beauty!
I have a white panda with the red seats and dash coming hopefully this weekend! Think the white and red combo is a winner! Put pics up when you get it!

 

[javnas]

Panda seems to be the theme nowadays, 3 store, panda car, cool Chinese panda accessories. Yep panda everywhere, respect. Well done Fiat for choosing Panda for your brand.

 

[nigelspanda]

Good to you for choosing Fait and a Panda at that ,Hope you get many years motoring pleasure

 

[Coolie]

Thanks for the comments and views

Handover was interesting - can't quite workout why none of the sales staff knew the service schedule for the car (even I knew the 12mths / 12,000mls answer was wrong!). They'd forgotten a couple of the agreed and documented parts of the deal - which i held them too. After from car ws clean enough by dealer standards.

Drove the little friend home - what a chirpy chappey the our Panda is, like it.

Got it home, and treated it to a proper coat of Meguiars Wax and a few points of detail cleaning. Seatback protector put in place to avoid my little 1 kicking the red seats! Got some Diamondbrite interior fabric protector to apply for the weekend - so that should keep the funky seats looking nice.

Read the manual this eve, and made few changes to the setup.

Feel like we've bonded with the little fella . And it was bonus picking a car up in sunshine instead of pouring rain!

I'll post some pics at the weekend - need to fit the side rubbing trims too. In response to 1 question - we paid £7867 with 5yrs 0% finance, which included a few extras from the dealer to seal the deal.

Here's to cheerful, hassle free, cheap motoring - so far so good!
1 question - do Fiat sell OE mud flaps for the Panda?

 

[javnas]

I'm looking for OEM mud-flaps for the Panda, there seems to be nothing out there.

 

[catnash]

Same here looking for mudflaps, was at the dealer last week and nothing, Might be going for sparco's in red, they looked good on the African Panda.

 

[jamesbrownontheroad]

Congratulations on your new delivery.

Mud flaps are must have; over the lifetime of the car you'll probably save the cost of them in washer fluid for the back window. Having the wheels so close to the corners of the car means they throw a fair bit of muck up onto the rear window.

 

[JTD_Liam]

Thanks for the comments and views

Handover was interesting - can't quite workout why none of the sales staff knew the service schedule for the car (even I knew the 12mths / 12,000mls answer was wrong!)

Slightly poor them not checking the service schedule for a model they're about to hand over if you ask me. I'd always make sure I knew that sortof thing when I sold cars.

However, in fairness Fiat have been a bit frenetic with service schedules over the last few years. If I remember rightly, across the Fiat range they've been a variation of 12,000 miles or 12 months, 18,000 or 12 months, 18,000 or 24 months and 21,000 miles or 24 months and reading our 500 service manual suggests there are even more variations for other models such as the Qubo (developed with Peugeot-Citroen) and the old Sedici (developed with Suzuki), so there is more than one schedule to remember.

 

[Super Uwe]

Seatback protector put in place to avoid my little 1 kicking the red seats!

Just spotted this now - do you have any in particular that you can recommend? We have the sand/beige interior which as you can imagine is a pig to keep clean, not least because my little boy loves to wipe his shoes on the back of the driver's seat, haha!

I am no "clean car enthusiast" by any means, but it'd be nice to try and keep the driver's seat clean....

 

[Coolie]

Just spotted this now - do you have any in particular that you can recommend? We have the sand/beige interior which as you can imagine is a pig to keep clean, not least because my little boy loves to wipe his shoes on the back of the driver's seat, haha!

Yep, i got 1 from Halfords - £9.99, Dino Stuff and Scuff Seat Back Protector


Slightly fiddly to tie the bottom ties to something solid under the seat, but now complete, fits great. (need to avoid the wiring and springing under the seat when tying).

 

[Coolie]

Congratulations on your new delivery.

Mud flaps are must have; over the lifetime of the car you'll probably save the cost of them in washer fluid for the back window. Having the wheels so close to the corners of the car means they throw a fair bit of muck up onto the rear window.

Agreed, but nothing seems to be ava for this model yet, so i guess its a suck it and see for now.

 

[Coolie]

Congratulations on your new delivery.

Mud flaps are must have; over the lifetime of the car you'll probably save the cost of them in washer fluid for the back window. Having the wheels so close to the corners of the car means they throw a fair bit of muck up onto the rear window.

Agreed, saves all the tar and mud on the sills, and means less washing, but nothing seems to be ava for this model yet, so i guess its a suck it and see for now.

 

[Coolie]

Picked up 3 cans of Diamondbrite interior protector off eblag - delivered today. so will apply that to all the soft material areas and leave to air with all the door open overnight. Hopefully that will help keep the funky red seats looking great for a few years.

Much cheaper than paying the deal loads of wedge for the same service, and i don't like the exterior protection they use either - prefer to polish and wax every couple of months.

Final job on protection, got the side door protection trims today. they are designed to fit on doors with fittings on the doors. however, dealer advises, remove the plastic prongs on the back face of each trip and fit with specific trim fitting adhesive tape. Got a workshop who will fit them next week.

 

[Coolie]

A few pics of the new motor.

Got the interior Diamondbrite protected today. Side door protectors to get fitted this week at some point.

 

[deeyup]

You should buy those lounge alloy wheels off javnas. It would really set it off.

 

[javnas]

Oh yeah, pm me anytime. However really nice car.

 

[Super Uwe]

Looks really great with the red interior trim. Still at a loss as to how the red fascia has ended up in a Pop though, but I wouldn't complain!

There have been a few odd things going on, I remember a few months back seeing some other Pop models (mainly pre-reg ones) which were being sold with the "piano black" dashboard/stereo housing rather than the standard matt finish that yours has. And some others have had Easy wheel trims rather than the Pop ones.

Maybe FIAT has been so keen to build Pops that they ran out of the standard parts and had to pinch some others from the warehouse, haha!