We've had a Panda in the family since 2004 and it is absolutely brilliant!

Bought new it's a 1200cc petrol with air con, roof rails and centre rear seat belt as options.

It's done about 80,000 miles incorporating every type of road and driving style that about 5 regular drivers (including learners). It's even taken 4 adults on a touring holiday in Scotland (with a roof box).

Always manages about 50mpg, utterly reliable, and only recently required more than routine serviving when the radiator was replaced. Fantastic, reliable, good fun little car that frequently gets driven flat out when you can have fun without risking your licence.

Responding to your specific questions;

Bouncy ride, bad over bumps - yes, bouncy but controlled

Poor wheel grip - no, and with winter tyres a 2wd marvel in the snow

Body roll - yes, but only if you drive too fast (we do)

Noisy, especially at speed - in my experience; yes, compared to a large saloon. no, compared to other small cars

Steering too light and rather dead, wheel too thick for women - turn city button off and no

Failures: steering motor and clutch master cylinder. Leaking windscreens - None of the above

If you can get a good deal on the 'old' shape Panda buy one, In our experience you are very unlikely to regret it.

Owned a Panda 1.2 for 2 years. Excellent build quality, nothing went wrong, very comfortable for small car, great driving postion, easy car to drive and park. good dash controls

Bad points:

Fiat dealers usually low rent. Steering wheel is not nicest except in Sport model. Handling could not be described as sporty. Pointless city mode for steering. Women if passengers tend not to like them they roll a bit and have zero image.

On the whole owners love them, I still regret selling mine. But dont pay list obviously they are usually heavily discounted, never pay more than 6K for a new one. They will depreciate especially with new model on the horizon.

Shhurely some mistake!!! The reason Pandas and 500s are so good is that they are built in Poland. Italian factories are of course legendary for their quality control, thats why we all love Alfas.

I have only owned my 53 plate (so one of the early cars) 1.2 dynamic for 9 months now and I am really quite chuffed with it (see caveat below about our Colt). Great forum at www.fiatforum.co.uk which lists all the reliability issues you have already covered in your original post plus I would add that droplinks seem to bit the dust probably due to speed humps and my gearbox gaiter trim has split (which also seems to be a common alebit minor comestic issue) however having had a "quality" VW product before it, it hasn't broken down nor suffered any failing off bits unlike the "quality" VW product.

Does 50mpg day in day out, is in Vanilla yellow colour which isn't the best for a 40 year old male for street cred but beggars can't be chosers and the passenger air bag can be turned off for kiddies. Yes it rolls abit, although my 3 years that part of it, but parts are cheap, so is insurance and resale values seem to be alot better than the bigger but strangely more unreliable Punto.

I like the steering wheel thickness personally. The seat do tend to wear badly though (as in threadbare) and discolour easy aswell if not looked after, but the 1242cc FIRE engine has been around for ages and as an added bonus is a non interfearance engine in my 8v (note not the 16v though) so the cambelt will be replaced when I get stuck at the side of the road. The fancy central locking system also seems to have a question mark over it (mine is a manual central locking - as in you use the key to open all the doors). Plus like a Clio I had, there is no door lock on the passenger side which is a bit of a P.I.T.A when asking my little one to stand by his passenger door whilst I run round to the drivers door to unlock them and then back to him to open his door for him. The boot isn't connected to the central locking system either (on the fancy one it is) so you still have to open that manually with the key even if you have open the car.

Ironically my F.I.R.E engine is very hesitant when giving it the beans, this apparently is a characteristic of them (marketing for a fault) and didn't rev as well as a 1997 Punto hire car I had which quite simply flew, so test your Panda before buying (I just dawdle nowadays due to the cost of petrol and having my little boy in the car).

Our other car is a Colt and as much as I like my Panda I don't love it like our 2006 Colt 1.1 Attivo so that maybe an alternative for you (different size and cost I know but worth it). To finish though, there is a 2010 1.2 Panda Eleganza on autotrader right now for £5200 which looks great value given the kit/spec.

Let us know how you get on. All the best

Edited by Avant on 29/08/2011 at 23:40

New Panda..........

www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/271822/...a

The long lists of faults on the Fiat forum is off-putting but I had a half-day test drive. The car was fine in town but the motion was a lot too fussy on the open road and it rolled too much on corners. It addition, the driving seat was too narrow for my XL big end. (I pointed these faults out to the sales manager when rejecting the car and he claimed never to have about them before, in spite of having sold "thousands" of thse cars.) I next went to look at the new Kia Picanto but it seemed very tinny by comparison and looked an ugly little brute, with its high waistline. I will try the new Panad when it arrives.

Just replying to this to see if there's a problem: Bintang says he is having trouble making a new post.

Bintang - try replying to this post and see what happens. You can't edit or add to an existing post after a certain time has elapsed (I'm not sure how long) since your original post. Just do a new post.

Edited by Avant on 08/09/2011 at 22:58

Yes of course. Bintang E-mailed us as he seemed to be having a technical problem in posting.