Dear HJ,
I'm a 51 year old married man with 3 adult children, currently driving a 3 year old Panda 4x4 Climbing in Dry Turquoise with a bright yellow interior which my son already calls "The Gaymobile".
I thought I could resist but, now that FiatSupaSaver have knocked £2500 off the price, I'm falling in love with the Panda Cross in Goa Orange with an interior in a mixture of black and bright orange. It has a completely mad and pointless plastic fitting running the length of the roof and rear light units like rocket motors.
What's happening to me? Am I insane or is it just my hormones?
Advice needed urgently, best wishes, Chris.
Edited by Pugugly on 05/09/2008 at 08:36
|
I think a lie down in a darkened room may be in order...........
Did you know that there's such a thing as a male menopause? Get ready for the hot flushes!
|
See a doctor.
Oh, you are one. :-)
|
www.netcarshow.com/fiat/2008-panda_cross/800x600/w...m It'd go down a storm in Brighton...
Nah, that's the sensible, mini-LandRover option.
I want Goa Orange.
tinyurl.com/55svcd
|
|
|
|
|
A friend of mine has a Peugeot Partner Combi Escapade (the slightly raised one with the headlight guards and the swirly decals on the side) and his adult son calls it 'Dad's gay partner' as in 'Shall we take Dad's gay partner today?'
|
|
|
Every man needs to be in touch with his feminine side
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Thats a bit to touchy tho
|
|
Does it have a hook for your handbag to stop all your lippie falling out as you negotiate the high kerbs at Dorothy Perkins???
|
tinyurl.com/55svcd
It was all going so well until they added the gangsta low-profile wheels
Edited by oldnotbold on 05/09/2008 at 11:25
|
I quite like it!
Should I be worried........
|
Mods
should we merge this thread into the "does this appeal to the ladies" one?
|
|
|
|
|
Since there isn't just one colour scheme of black and white with black circles around the headlights, why call them Pandas?
|
|
|
|
Not insanity; mild eccentricity. Get your cheque book out, get down to the dealers and stop wasting your time asking for therapy here.
|
|
It could have been worse, you could have gone for the Micra CC in pink.......
|
"It could have been worse, you could have gone for the Micra CC in pink......."
or a Range Rover Sport, or a Cayenne....
|
I think you're just panda'ing to your inner desires (groan)
MVP
|
I think we need some input on James May on this one, but I think given his piece in The Engineer where he said designing and making a profit from a supermini was more difficult than creating a supercar he'd say 'stick with the basic Panda'.
I did think Fiat had their finger on the limited edition pulse. Being a heterosexual male, which what one trainer called 'ambiguous body language' - I listen to trainers but could be looking absolutely anywhere, and having owned a Fiat Uno Turbo, I really liked the Eleganza Uno they did. I quite liked the 45S version.
Can this off roader you lust after really be any worse than the completely over the top Abrath branding? I was in my local big dealers the other week. The number of people milling about (as in staff) was amazing. Top heavy or what? Being attended to by some young man, between car and showroom he took a call on his mobile. Perhaps he was looking for another job?
Anyway, the stuck on pages by the doors on the Abarths seem very overwrought.
Limited Edition 'Gay' Panda?
Could be worse. You could be perving over the new BMW X6.
I think it's the £2,500 price cut that has you salivating. It's a bit like Supermarket BOGOF offers, you ended up considering things you'd not normally give a second glance.
|
Spend the money on therapy.
It will make you a better person.
:-)
|
Do stop worrying chaps. I'm sure you are chaps really.
What colour cars are is a minor aesthetic matter of no real significance to a serious person.
|
What I don't understand is what the Panda Cross is a cross between. I thought crosses were a sort of SUV mated with a hatchback: Kuga, Citroen Crosser, Qashqai and so on. 4WD looks in a 2WD, in some cases.
But the Panda Cross is a Panda crossed with a Panda. And we all know how reluctant Pandas are to mate. So what you have, I think, is a Panda with some bits of plastic stuck on. A bit of self-abuse, as it were.
And if you've already got a 4WD Panda, why would you want to change? Get an (even more) funny coloured re-spray if it will make you feel more in touch with your inner self, doc!
Edited by Optimist on 05/09/2008 at 15:30
|
I think that I understand this now. It is a car for today, one to cope with the rigours of city driving, complete with speed bumps and potholes, and also with life in the country with the occasional need for extra traction. All this in a compact body shell with an engine giving good MPG and low emissions.
Its image is that it says the driver is a person with a variety of interest, an individual, and yet who cares about the planet.
Every manufacturer should be in this market!
Ford could do a Ka Kross, and Vauxhall a Corsa Cross, it is the way forward.
|
|
|
And if you've already got a 4WD Panda why would you want to change?
Aside from possibly liking the look better, this one is (or so my dealer tells me) the only 4x4 Panda to be offered in the UK so far with the Multijet diesel which a lot of people reckon they should have put in the standard 4x4 in the first place.
That'd do it for me in OP's situation, I reckon, although I might not necessarily choose the orange...
|
That's right, Paul, the diesel-powered 4x4 has better acceleration and a higher top speed, the 1.2 petrol powered 4x4 can be very frustrating to drive outside the town. If the Panda 4x4 had originally been supplied in the UK with a diesel engine I would have bought it then.
I wonder whether the "Cross" terminology refers more to an ability to cross country than a cross between different types of vehicle?
|
May be the "Cross" signifies that the driver can swap between different types of dress?
|
I think it's kinda cute. Couldn't drive it in public though. Well, maybe in a "Chi Chi" Italian ski resort with a rental car sticker on it. Not in northern Britain though, you'd get yer 'ed kicked in round here.
;-)
|
I went for a Signal Orange Escort estate back in 1979.
It wasn't considered a 'gay' car, though - this could have been because, in those days, IIRC 'gay' meant something different. Or, it could have been because many others were driving around in a variety of lurid colours - anyone remember Peppermint Green? Remember ..... we were just emerging from a phase of brown cars.
|
If the Panda 4x4 had originally been supplied in the UK with a diesel engine I would have bought it then. >>
Come off it, doc, your original post said it was the colour you were after. Don't go all gruff on us now!
BTW. I am reliably informed that "gay" can mean "naff".
BTW again. What is "ambiguous body language"?
|
|
|
|
"You could be perving over the new BMW X6."
Indeed. I saw one of those on the road recently, and the only consolation for me was that it was costing the owner more in monthly depreciation than my car cost to buy. I thought the X5 was pointless and tasteless, but the X6 makes it look sane and sensible.
WRT the Panda, that's probably the only 4x4 I'd entertain. More use in a field than a fleet of X6's (or Range Rover Sports, come to that).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Whatever doctorchris is drinking I'd like a pint.
|
I've seen those bright orange panda's and i like em, and the brightly coloured 500's too with the wacky interiors, a refreshing change.
Lets get away from the acres of boring gloomy black plastic interiors with the statutory section of imitation plastic coloured aluminium (is that the right way round?) surrounding the wireless and heater controls, and please get us away from the sea of bland slightly metallic grey/dark grey/darker grey/even darker grey etc body paintwork too.
So Doc, get that cheque book out and be different.
|
I'm with the minority here, it actually looks good to me in Goa Orange. Bored senseless of dark interiors.
Get your cheque book out!
|
It's all "coming out" now eh ?
;-)
|
|
|
|
