The Panda is a cracker - although it's expensive new but has excellent residuals as secondhand demand exceeds supply. The ride quality of the (slightly taller) Cross varient is particularly good for a small car.

The problem with the panda 4x4 is that you have a choice of either the 0.9 TwinAir, or the 1.2 turbo diesel, both of which are prone to reliability woes. If you intend to replace the car beforethe warranty is up, and assuming you had a friendly and helpful fiat dealer nearby, i might be tempted by the 0.9, but otherwise, i'd be more inclined to find a really nice previous generation with the simple old 1.2 (which you can get in the 2wd current panda, but not the 4x4).

If you plan to keep the car for a long time, then i would suggest looking into jimny forums or owners clubs to find out what can be done to improve the very bouncy ride. This is the main flaw with the car, and be in no doubt that it would prove considerably more reliable than a panda 4x4.

Another option could be the new suzuki ignis, which in mild hybrid form is, i believe, 4x4. I don't know if the system in this car would be useful for your requirements, but it would be worth investigating as it certainly has the ground clearance and higher driving position you need. It does also have a bouncy ride though, but is unlikely to be as bouncy as the jimny!.

The biggest current area of growth for new cars is in small SUV's, possibly the cheapest would be the kia stonic or hyundai kona, but both may well be bigger than you want, such is the way of new cars these days!.

The only other thing i could suggest is getting in touch with a reputable Japanese car import specialist to see what they could offer you as the Japanese traditionally have a huge selection of small 4x4 vehicles, or 4x4 versions of existing small hatchbacks. These would generally be very well equipped and very reliable (as are pretty much any Japanese made cars!)

You are quite limited in what fits your bill if the size of car you're looking for is as small as a supermini or city car and petrol-engined. After that, the next batch of 4WD cars size-wise are (petrol-engined only):

Mazda CX-3 2.0 (N/A) Sport Nav 4WD 150

Audi Q2 2.0 TFSI Quattro 190 (its Q3 sister is available but that's even bigger)

Vauxhall Mokka X 1.4T 140 4x4

Jeep Renegade 1.4 Multiair 4WD

Peugeot 2008 1.2T with 'Grip Control' (HJ-valued reasonable alternative to 4x4 if combined with decent all-season tyres, though seems to be better on snowy roads etc rather than going through muddy fields).

To be honest, other than the Jeep, I doubt if any of the above are really suitable for actual off-roading, more like poor road conditions, as long as they are paired with some all season or winter tyres when required. Of course, the Jeep isn't exactly a great car, especially on-road and isn't renowned for the makes reliability either. I suspect none are really small enough anyway, and not cheap either, though perhaps going through a broker and at the right time of year (probably not now, but you never know) you might be able to pick up something within that group for £16-17k new (probably only the 2008), most of the rest nearer to low £20ks if you're very lucky.

I suspect the Panda will be more suited to your needs if size is a major factor, not sure about the Ignis, which, size-wise fits the bill, but, to me at least, doesn't look like it could handle off-roading very well. Small car 4x4s seem to be out of fashion these days - other than those mentioned (and the smallest 3dr Land Rover Defender), I can (thus far) only think of from the past 20 years was the Toyota RAV4 3dr, Mitsubishi Shogun Pinin, Subaru Justy (very old late 90s version) and Suzuki Grand Vitara 3dr & SX4, none of which set the world alight (putting it mildly) and are no longer produced.

What doesn't help many 'modern' 4x4s primarily designed for the road is, other than they mostly don't have the setup for actual (proper) off-roading, they come with low profile tyres as standard, and may not be able to accommodate higher profile tyres that work better in such conditions, because the manufacturers believe (often correctly) that the cars won't be used off road more than parking on a school field for a boot sale, and if people wanted a 'real' 4x4 they'd buy a specialist one, all of why are bigger.

(You must mean the Audi Q2 Andy - hope you don't mind my edit!)

Edited by Avant on 10/03/2018 at 23:30

If ExA35Owner is true to his nom de clavier, he'll know how convenient a really small car can be. A35s were lively for their day (late 1950s) and far better to drive than the contemporary side-valve Ford. I suppose the spiritual successor now is the VW Up.

For anyone who finds the Ignis too small, Suzuki have the answer in the Vitara and the SX-4 (which seem to compete with each other).