General Panda Road trip

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General Panda Road trip

Joined
May 10, 2012
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Location
Kent
I took my 09 1.1 Panda (Lulu) on a 3500mile Road trip this August with some friends. Over a couple of weeks it went through France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and back to Dunkirk.


Lulu was heavily loaded and had between 3 and 4 people in her at all times.


She had no problems with motorways and was able to keep up with traffic easily cruising between 75 and 85mph all day some days and the satnav recorded 100mph briefly.


For a car with only 54bhp she did really well, the only times I wished she had more power was when I got trapped behind lorries
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and needed extra acceleration to pull out, and a couple of times on A-roads when overtaking was difficult. Average mpg was in the high 40s low 50s even after non stop driving days spent flat out. I was surprised just how comfortable the seats stayed even on the longer drives.


No major mechanical issues. The driver side window has started to make a terrible noise, but that is probably just a loose clip and one of the side light bulbs worked loose and had to be pushed back.


Fiat Panda, not just a city car, also a grand tourer.
 
Great trip. Love the mountains bordering Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic.
Good test for a Panda. Friendly people.

Broke down in Poland once and a woman saw us and came over. When we explained that we needed a mechanic she said that her husband was one, but he was away in Germany and wouldn't be back till the next day. She put us up overnight, gave us a great breakfast, and when her husband returned he fixed our vehicle and completely refused to take any money. Bit like modern Fiat dealers really!
 
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No major mechanical issues. The driver side window has started to make a terrible noise, but that is probably just a loose clip.

Sounds like a great trip. I have also been pleasant surprised by the Pandas motorway performance.

Please tell if you got a solution to the window problem. I also have a problem with my driver side window. Sounds like it's rubbing against small stones when closing (dosent say anything when opening).
 
Sounds like a great trip. I have also been pleasant surprised by the Pandas motorway performance.

Please tell if you got a solution to the window problem. I also have a problem with my driver side window. Sounds like it's rubbing against small stones when closing (dosent say anything when opening).



I've not opened up the door trim yet to have a look, but the symptoms seem very similar to this: https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/151...ay-how-do-i-removing-door-card.html?p=1601409 so I expect it to be something very similar. I'll have a look towards the end of next week when I've got some free time, the window still works and despite the horrible noise isn't scratching so I'm not treating it as urgent.
 
Cool, sounds like that's also what's going on with my window. Thanks for the link :)
 
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