The outgoing Fiat Panda

Fiat have been producing the Panda since 1980, it has always been a small city car. The 1st generation Panda was made up until 2003, in its 23 year history it received minor upgrades to keep it in line with modern design and technologies.

The second generation Panda, which is the current model, has been produced since 2003. The Panda, with its tall body and pillar style tail lights took its design cues from mini MPVs and SUVs. It won European Car of the Year award in 2004. The gear-lever is located high on the central dashboard, which is designed to make changing gears more comfortable than with a conventional floor-mounted gearshift.

A revamp in the line up during 2005 saw all Panda models equipped as standard with stability control, ABS, EBD and at least two front airbags. When Fiat released the Fiat Panda in Essex early in 2004 the car manufacturer was in great financial difficulties, it needed the Panda to be a success, and by October 2005 it had sold over 500,000, making it a success.

The Panda comes with 3 petrol engines and a diesel, in the petrol range there is a 1.1-litre producing 53bhp, a 59bhp 1.2 and a 99bhp 1.4 litre. There is a 1.3 litre turbo diesel, which is more flexible than the 1.1 and 1.2 litre petrol power plants. The Panda 4x4 comes with a 1.2 litre petrol engine.

All of the engines in the Panda are quite small, when pushed hard they can be quite noisy but, saying that the 1.4 litre isn’t too bad. The diesel engine impresses the most; it is quieter than a lot of other small diesel engines and produces a nice deep note when pushed hard. The new Fiat Panda is due to be released in 2011 throughout Europe.

Please continue reading here: Fiat Panda in Essex