General P-day!

[Dangerinleyland]

Well I traded in my white base model Up! for my white panda lounge TA today and I have no regrets what-so-ever. The panda is infinitely more fun to drive (and being a TA a good deal faster too). I like the slightly raised driving position and the visibility is excellent. Such a light airy space. Was in a new polo the other day and it was SO cramped!
The red trim and ambience on the inside looks great and although the materials used aren't amazing quality, the overall cheap (but well made) and cheerful vibe is great. Fiat know how to make small cars.
Even my worry of the standard non adjustable drivers seat has been banished. I'm 6'1" but find the head room fine.
These motor point pandas are pretty sweet deals. Mine had 4miles on the clock, registered late Nov - £3000 off list. Nice.
Pics to follow.

 

[jamesbrownontheroad]

Great stuff, glad to hear that the Panda could tempt from what was presumably quite a new Up!

There aren't many folk on here who've driven both extensively, so it's good to hear another confirming the Panda is more entertaining. The Up/Citigo/Mii was the closest contender when I was shopping around, but the PCP financing deals simply weren't competitive at any of those marques' dealers. I suspect that the deal you got would be hard to find on a new Up.

Here's to many happy years motoring

 

[Dangerinleyland]

 

[Dangerinleyland]

 

[nigelspanda]

the twinair petrol engine is a very pokey engine also you can hardly hear it at 70-80 mph ,as I was driving motorway speeds with eco mode on still kept up 70 mph although when I had to slow down it was slow to get back up to 70 so I put it back in normal mode until the correct speed I wanted then switched eco On

 

[deeyup]

The panda looks so much better than the Up!
Good decision chopping it in.

 

[Dangerinleyland]

I agree deeyup. Up is a good but rather boring car.
It tries too hard to be a grown up car and so loses the joy a small car should have. The panda doesn't take itself too seriously and because of that becomes a more credible car.
No contest in my opinion and I'm not a vw hater, my other car is a vw!

 

[4x4Panda]

Why is the 2012 Panda taken so long for people to actually to start buying them? In all honesty, I can't recall when i last saw one and they have been out for a year or more! I now see more new model 3-series than the outgoing one so it is possible to launch a damn-good new car and actually get them on the roads quickly. Somehow, I think FIAT are screwing up at a minimum the marketing, probably the showroom experience as well and definitely the manufacture and delivery.

It even annoys me that i feel so down about a car I should feel so up about! And its not an Up!

You can see form my Italian car history that I have some affinity for the products of the FIAT group, but they do a damn good job of pushing me away at times.



(sorry, rant over, and apologies for hijacking this thread!!)

 

[deeyup]

I don't think the list price helped things.
People are used to getting healthy discounts on panda, and they just didn't exist for the 1st 9 months.

 

[Super Uwe]

Yeah, as deeyup says the initial list price was too high on reflection. When the initial prices were released I didn't think they were too bad - at least in comparison to the 500. But clearly they were too optimistic. £8900 for a basic 1.2 Pop simply wasn't cheap, hence why they are all available now for £7500 (a much, much better price for what is a really good car).

Likewise all these pre-reg deals that we are seeing offer superb value for money. Dangerinleyland's car is an absolute bargain to be honest, a brand new TwinAir for that price is astonishing!

I still think that FIAT were hoping to convert a few more potential/existing 500 owners with the updated design of the new Panda. Not sure that's happened really.

As for the marketing side of things, I guess they did try a bit at the start, but clearly the Panda was not marketed anything like the 500L has been. The 4x4 seems to have been promoted a bit more though, which is good as there is clearly a big interest in it (as we have seen on here!).

 

[Dangerinleyland]

I think you're right about the marketing. I can't even remember any adverts, TV or print, for the Panda. When I was looking around a year ago for a car and eventually got the Up! I wasn't even aware that the new Panda was coming out. There was a lot of fuss about the VW but nothing about the Fiat. Shame as I could have gone for it back then (although the discounts now made it possible to get a higher spec car and I only lost 800 on the Up! for nearly a years motoring).

I hardly see any on the road, usually once you start thinking about a car or buy one you see them everywhere but not with this. Shame as it's an amazing little car.

 

[Moultoneer]

I think you're right about the marketing. I can't even remember any adverts, TV or print, for the Panda. When I was looking around a year ago for a car and eventually got the Up! I wasn't even aware that the new Panda was coming out. There was a lot of fuss about the VW but nothing about the Fiat. Shame as I could have gone for it back then (although the discounts now made it possible to get a higher spec car and I only lost 800 on the Up! for nearly a years motoring).

I hardly see any on the road, usually once you start thinking about a car or buy one you see them everywhere but not with this. Shame as it's an amazing little car.

I agree, Fiat 500s are everywhere but the Panda seems almost an endangered
species in comparison despite being so much more practical, yet still stylish enough to appeal (unlike many other functional vehicles)

I suspect Italy's current political stalemate isn't helping Fiat's cause



Chris

 

[Pilot Ralph]

I think you're right about the marketing. I can't even remember any adverts, TV or print, for the Panda. When I was looking around a year ago for a car and eventually got the Up! I wasn't even aware that the new Panda was coming out. There was a lot of fuss about the VW but nothing about the Fiat. Shame as I could have gone for it back then (although the discounts now made it possible to get a higher spec car and I only lost 800 on the Up! for nearly a years motoring).

I hardly see any on the road, usually once you start thinking about a car or buy one you see them everywhere but not with this. Shame as it's an amazing little car.

I started looking for a new car and had a few on the list including the "up" but was out driving and happen to pass the fiat garage with the new 4x4 on display. My fist thought was what was that!!! After some investigation found out about it etc and the rest as they say is history.
If they advertised it more they would def sell more. Even when I went back to the garage there were no pandas of any type on display but every colour of 500 you could get.

 

[Dangerinleyland]

I also found it really hard to find a panda to even sit in when I was interested. Many fiat dealers near me didn't even have one in stock to show. Not many people will ever want to buy a car they've never seen. Seems uk dealers don't believe in it or something.

 

[nigelspanda]

I am seeing a lot more Mk3 pandas on the road these days so perhaps in 3 years from Now we will be Seeing a lot of Mk4 pandas

 

[rgk78]

I also found it really hard to find a panda to even sit in when I was interested. Many fiat dealers near me didn't even have one in stock to show. Not many people will ever want to buy a car they've never seen. Seems uk dealers don't believe in it or something.

I spent a couple of hours last Saturday in the Fiat Garage ordering my new TA 4x4 and in that time 3 people came in asking about the Panda 4x4 and they had to apologise to all of them because they had nothing on display. The interest is there but they seem to be banking too much on the 500 and the bulbous 500L.

 

[Dangerinleyland]

'Bulbous' is the perfect way to describe the 500L. Really don't like it. Hasn't got the look right at all. If they'd have pushed panda it'd have soared in sales. Although owning one feels like following a cool band that no-one has heard of. It's almost more cool cos its under he radar!

 

[triumph7]

'Bulbous' is the perfect way to describe the 500L. Really don't like it. Hasn't got the look right at all. If they'd have pushed panda it'd have soared in sales. Although owning one feels like following a cool band that no-one has heard of. It's almost more cool cos its under he radar!

couldnt agree more - one of the reasons I have a 4x4 on order

 

[Super Uwe]

I'll be honest with you, I quite like the 500L!

When it was first mooted, I had the standard outrage about it being called a 500. But as time has gone on, I've just decided to accept it as it is.

I sat in one last week when I went to our dealer to book our Panda's service, and it is a really, really spacious car. All the more impressive given that it's virtually the same length as a new 5-door Punto. If you strip away all the 500L marketing, it is a desperately practical car IMO. How about that eh!

But it's all academic though as it's simply too expensive for us. I think the basic 1.4 Pop Star at £14,995 is still good value, but it's a good few grand more than what we could ever afford. Also, the gearstick position is really low (compared to the 500/Panda), so that would probably put us off a bit too as it's such a quality feature to have IMO.

 

[deeyup]

I spent a couple of hours last Saturday in the Fiat Garage ordering my new TA 4x4 and in that time 3 people came in asking about the Panda 4x4 and they had to apologise to all of them because they had nothing on display. The interest is there but they seem to be banking too much on the 500 and the bulbous 500L.

The problem lies with both Fiat and your dealer. Fiat are so pushing the 500L that they have little time for anything else at the moment.
Your dealer would have been given for stock 2 demo 4x4 Panda models, and really should have kept them for their purpose, demo's.

Unfortunately some dealers just want to move them on as fast as possible to get their money back.