0.9 90 Twinair 4X4 5dr Hatchback

Eye watering wait for spare parts.

At 5 years old this car broke down and needed a replacement gear cable. Fair enough! Towed to my usual repair garage (not main-dealer) I was warned that if a spare part was needed it could take about 2 weeks to arrive. I thought that was terrible but the part took 5 WEEKS to arrive!!

This is apparently because the car is unusual, relatively rare, and some parts are not kept in stock. I was horrified. Thankfully I had just retired so was able to manage without a car. Otherwise the £350 bill would have increased by 5 weeks worth of car hire fees.

I immediately set about replacing the Panda as I didn't want to live with this problem looming over every service, mot or repair in the future.

Otherwise the car had done a fair job and is a good 4x4 for someone wanting a small car.
I spent a lot on replacement brake disks and springs seemed to break frequently.
It doesn't have variable speed intermittent windscreen wipers and I really missed them.

The moral of the story is, if you normally keep a car for several years or buy an older used vehicle - think about the supply chain for replacement parts. Some manufacturers/makes fare much better than others.

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