Whats your ideal Fiat Panda Engine

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Whats your ideal Fiat Panda Engine

What's your ideal Panda engine?


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Ajwilf

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Nov 5, 2014
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With three different engines to choose from what's your favourite and why?

I am making the decision and currently swaying towards 1.3 diesel. as I love camping and plan to lug a load of camping gear round at times and don't want to slow down on the hills. economy is also important to me.

what's important to you.
fuel type?
Speed?
torque?
economy?
reliability?
sound?
 
Much depends on what use the car will have when not out on camping trips - if it is predominantly town motoring the diesel will rule itself out on grounds of future DPF and EGR issues, the 1.2 as it currently stands seems to have driveability issues in Euro 6 guise which leaves the Twin Air as pretty much Hobsons choice !
 
Much depends on what use the car will have when not out on camping trips - if it is predominantly town motoring the diesel will rule itself out on grounds of future DPF and EGR issues, the 1.2 as it currently stands seems to have driveability issues in Euro 6 guise which leaves the Twin Air as pretty much Hobsons choice !

Agree with all of the above.

I've ordered a twinair panda as I loved it on the test drive - it's got the low down power like diesel but none of the DPF/EGR drawbacks. I specifically hunted down a well run in used model to see how the engine aged and was a big improvement on the very low mileage examples I'd test driven before.

I've had plenty of diesel vehicles in the past but won't bother now my mileage doesn't justify it.
Try and get an extended test drive in all three if you are unsure, it's a matter of taste after all.
 
I'm a fan of the 1.3 diesel in the panda think it suits the car, bit noisy but the torque gives it hilarious mid range (for a panda). Not a fan of the TA personally, it has character, it has reasonable speed, but rather diesel like characteristics to drive, makes a similar amount of noise but unlike the diesel has a drink problem. The 1.2 was just a bit flat after the other two, lacking in torque and power, also with the issues fiats having (watchdog) i'd probably avoid it till their is a fix.
 
Thank you so much for all of your feedback. I live only 3 miles from work and go in 3 times a week. so i take on board the issues with the DPF filter in the diesel. However despite this i do regular long journeys on motorways and A roads visiting friends and my god children so i do clock up an approximate average of 12k miles a year. (which i am currently doing in my 2.5l turbo diesel ford ranger and only getting 20-25 miles a gallon eek!) so i figure if i keep with diesel i could save at least £1500 on fuel a year.
With my current vehicle power is never an issue whatever speed i do, i put my foot down and i will move faster quickly. I appreciate i will be giving up alot of this with a smaller less powerful engine no matter which one i go for. But my thoughts are, if i was loaded up with camping gear and hit an incline on the motorway the diesel with the most torque would be the most capable.
(i have memories of my 1 litre petrol mark 4 ford escort slowing despite being hard down on the accelerator.)

On another note i am loving the idea of doing a mega road trip round Europe with a group of people i read an old thred written a year ago with some people thinking of this.
 
I've run an '05 Panda MJ for nine years and 92,000 miles and I have to say that, for the mileage, it's the most reliable car I've ever owned in the 40 years I've been driving....hang on, did I just say 40 years? Er, yes, I think I did. But it's the truth. Since 2005, apart from normal service items and a couple of batteries I've had to replace one pair of anti-roll bar drop links, a pair of brake discs and a handbrake assembly. The only noticeable expense has been when I had the camchain replaced and, while I was at it, the belts and (because it wasn't worth not doing) the water pump. I also had the EGR valve replaced at the same time as it was a bit clogged up by then, despite an almost daily 13 mile motorway run twice a day.

I think it's recently developed a wastegate issue, but I'll have to wait and see on that one. Being an '05 it doesn't have a DPF but I think there isn't a diesel car made today that doesn't have problems with that.

I may well change mine next year and, at the moment, the TA is looking favourite as it's currently the most powerful Panda as the MJ was in'05, and, I don't seem to be doing the mileage I thought I might do. Having said that, one of the issues the original MJ had was that it only generated 145nm of torque which the TA does now, so the midrange might be as good as it was in the diesel. The current MJ puts out 195nm so despite the extra weight the new MJ should be quicker still.

So for me, as long as the build quality is as good on the new one as the old model, I'd be a little caught on the horns of a dilemma between those engines and, at the moment, I feel the TA is favourite as apart from the lower initial price, it must be lighter at the front than the MJ which can only be good for handling and driven sensibly is probably not much less economic than the oily one
 
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