Fiat Grande Panda Review 2025

The Fiat Panda is back! Well, sort of. The car we’re talking about here is the Fiat Grande Panda which, much like its predecessor, seems determined to prove that cheap, small cars can be fun. But beyond its cutesey looks and bits of bamboo in the cabin, does it offer substance to go with the lightheartedness? Find out with our full Fiat Grande Panda review.

Before going any further, we should point out that the Grande Panda comes in two distinct flavours. There’s the Fiat Grande Panda Electric, which we’re covering separately, while the subject of this review has a combustion engine and Hybrid badging.

While the Electric version is true to its name, the Hybrid bit slapped on the end of this car’s designation seems disingenuous. As with other cars thusly titled from the Stellantis empire of brands, it’s not a full, self-charging hybrid, allowing for extended electric-only driving. Rather, it’s a mild hybrid with a very small battery and motor assisting the 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine. 

Speaking of those other Stellantis brands, each has an equivalent model in the range using much of the same bits and pieces as the Fiat Grande Panda Hybrid, so if you like the drive system but not the boxy styling, you could instead opt for the mechanically very similar Alfa Romeo Junior Ibrida or Citroen C3. Want more ride height? Then there’s the Citroen C3 Aircross and Vauxhall Frontera which are also made from the same box of components as this Fiat. 

Pricing between each is pretty similar but the Fiat is by far the cheapest, coming in at just over £18,000. It’s pleasing to see any car dip under the £20,000 mark these days and the Grande Panda seems determined to show that cheap can also mean cheerful rather than nasty. 

The Fiat manages this with loads of quirky details both inside and out, such as the massive, embossed Panda logo spread across the doors, retro video game-inspired pixel-like headlamps and embossed Fiat badges on the interior door panels. Also inside, you’ll also find a material called Bambox which is made from one-third recycled bamboo, although it only features on the top-of-the-range La Prima version.

It’s just as well that the Fiat Grande Panda does all it can aesthetically to brighten your day, as when it comes to actually driving the thing, it’s underwhelming and — at times — frustrating. Mostly, though, the Fiat Grande Panda Hybrid’s a welcome injection of fun into an area of the car market many manufacturers are moving away from and where the remaining alternatives are pretty dreary.

Often you’ll find a car is compromised in one area to make it better in another. For instance, it might be set up softly so it leans quite a bit in the corners with a payoff in terms of comfort when you’re just cruising along. This isn’t the case with the Fiat Grande Panda.

It feels firmer than it needs to be, jostling its occupants around over imperfections in the road surface and speed bumps, yet when you are on a smooth surface and fancy driving a little quicker, darting in and out of traffic in urban environments, the Grande Panda never really feels that happy.

Body roll isn’t so bad, at least, but the Goodyear Efficient Grip tyres our test car was fitted with, aimed at lowering the rolling resistance, could do with offering more traction in the wet. The steering, meanwhile, is numb.

More than anything it’s just not a fun thing to drive, which is a shame, when cars aimed at urban use usually are.

The ride does mostly settle at cruising speeds but it’s still not a particularly comfortable car to be in, with a decent helping of wind and road noise present. The soundproofing is clearly lacking in this family of cars, as we’ve found the same in related vehicles from the Stellantis group of brands, including the latest Citroen C3.

In the UK, there’s a clear choice to make for the Fiat Grande Panda — you either go electric or petrol with mild hybrid assistance. Some countries are getting a petrol-only model with a manual gearbox, but Britain isn’t one of them.

Under the bonnet of the Grande Panda Hybrid is 1.2-litre three-cylinder engine combined with a small, 29PS electric motor and a 48-volt battery. Total power output is for a total of 110PS.

You won’t be going great distances under electric power alone here. Fiat says the battery allows up to 0.6 miles of operation with the engine switched off and only at speeds of under 18mph. It’s only really when you’re parking, coming to a stop, or just setting off that you’ll notice the little electric motor propelling the Grande Panda.

The engine side of the equation sounds strained when at full throttle and although the Grande Panda feels quick enough getting up to speed, it makes quite a racket doing so. At least the vibrations passed into the cabin are more subtle than we’ve found in three-cylinder Renaults and Dacias. 

The six-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox is never in a hurry to shift ratios and it feels like it takes an eternity to kick down a gear when acceleration is demanded. The whole package might leave you yearning for the times when a car of this type had an underpowered but revvy engine with a manual gearbox. Then again, the ease of city driving with an automatic will be preferable for many.

Neither the Fiat Grande Panda nor the closely related Citroen C3 have so far been crash-tested by Euro NCAP. Infamously, the safety body rated the previous-generation Fiat Panda zero out of five stars when it was retested in 2018, but by that point it was a already very outdated car, arguably long overdue for retirement. The Grande Panda is a completely unrelated car using different underpinnings, so there's no worry about a similarly low score this time. 

Standard-fit safety equipment includes autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance and a driver attention monitor. 

The Fiat Grande Panda has a decent-sized boot, which is about 40 litres larger than the Electric version’s, with the lack of battery making for a lower boot floor. In the Hybrid, there’s 412 litres of boot space available with the 50/50 split-folding rear seats in use.

Towards the front of the Fiat's interior there’s a further 13 litres of storage spaces around the dashboard, including upper and lower gloveboxes. The centre console features a wireless phone charging pad.

Space in the front is fine, with reasonably tall windows making for an airy-feeling cabin. Room in the back is more at a premium, particularly in terms of legroom. Fitting three passengers abreast will be a squeeze.

If the vibrant, quirky nature of the cabin makes you forget about the Fiat Grande Panda’s rock-bottom price tag, the feel of the materials used will bring it right back to the forefront of your mind.

The coloured plastic stretching across much of the dashboard and along the interior door panels feels cheap and scratchy, interrupted on the latter only by some thin strips of fabric for the armrests. The Bambox had an inconsistent finish in our test car and we get the sense it might look worn over time, particularly as it’s cladding the upper glovebox which will be a frequent touchpoint in the car.

Speaking of which, the sea of shiny black plastic cladding the centre console was already covered in scratches in a car that must have only been a few weeks old. When will manufacturers learn that this is a rubbish material to use for car interiors?

The seat upholstery is nicer than everything else in the cabin, while the bold use of colour means the Grande Panda’s interior generally looks more expensive than it feels. Everything is put together just fine, as well.

The Fiat Grande Panda uses a 10.25-inch infotainment touchscreen, sitting in the same housing as the 10.0-inch digital instrument cluster — you get this setup on all three trim levels. It’s okay in terms of responsiveness and the menu system is easy to navigate. Pleasingly, you don’t have to use it for the climate control settings, with proper physical controls found below the display. 

All Grande Pandas get a wireless charging pad which holds phones more securely than some we’ve tried recently, even when you exit a roundabout in an exuberant fashion. There’s also a pair of USB-C ports in the front and a further two in the rear. 

The sound system is nothing to write home about but it’ll be fine for anyone who’s not an audiophile.

The Fiat Grande Panda Hybrid starts at £18,035 in Pop trim, while it’s £19,035 for the mid-spec Icon and £21,035 for the range-topping La Prima.

To chuck comparisons into the mix, the cheapest Citroen C3 Hybrid — which is more or less the same car underneath — is £20,115, while even the petrol-only C3 is more expensive than the lowest cost Grand Panda Hybrid, weighing in at £18,305.

Between the two we’d go for the Fiat. It’s a far more fun car to look at both inside and out, so you’re actually gaining by spending less and not really missing out on anything. Just bear in mind that the base Grande Panda Pop is very basic — it doesn’t even come with alloy wheels. 

Elsewhere, the full, self-charging hybrid-powered Honda Jazz starts at £28,060, the Renault Clio E-Tech Hybrid is upwards of £21,895 while the Toyota Yaris costs from £23,445.

Much closer to the Fiat in terms of price and mild hybrid arrangement is the Suzuki Swift — it's priced from £19,699.

As well as being cheap to buy the Fiat Grande Panda should also prove cheap to run. As an inexpensive, relatively low-powered car, we’re not expecting insurance to be particularly pricey, while the fuel economy stands at a decent 52.3mpg.

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is £195, the same as you’ll pay for any other car from the second year onwards as the discount for hybrids was ditched from April 2025.

Three trim levels are available for the Fiat Grande Panda Hybrid range — Pop, Icon and La Prima.

Standard equipment for the Fiat Grande Panda Pop includes: 

• 10.25-inch infotainment screen
• Cruise control
• Front and rear LED lights
• Manual air conditioning 
• Rear parking sensors

Upgrading to the Fiat Grande Panda Icon adds:

• 16-inch alloy wheels
• Roof rails
• Skid plates
• Central armrest
• Tinted windows

At the top of the range, additional features for the Fiat Grande Panda La Prima include:

• 17-inch alloy wheels
• Heated front seats
• Rear-view camera
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Higher quality fabrics including Bambox trim