The Fiat Panda is a characterful city car with lots of practical touches
The Fiat Panda is a city car offering something a little different to rivals such as the Hyundai i10 and Skoda Citigo. Newer competitors can’t match the Panda’s personality or style, but they do offer more modern designs and better use of space inside.
Still, the Fiat Panda is a useful city car with plenty of storage spaces dotted around the cabin, as well as a generously-sized boot that expands easily thanks to a sliding rear bench.
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With decent ride comfort, sprightly handling and excellent all-round visibility, the Panda is a terrific town car. On longer motorway trips, a lack of refinement from the petrol engines can become tiresome, though.
Interior trim quality doesn’t always match that of rivals, but the Panda has a solid reputation for reliability in our Driver Power satisfaction surveys.
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Fiat Panda 1.2 City Cross
The Fiat Panda is part of an illustrious bloodline of small cars that Fiat has had for sale over the decades. While the current car arrived in 2011, so it's one of the older cars for sale in the city car sector, it still has appeal courtesy of its quirky shape, as well as the option of Panda 4x4 and Panda Cross SUV-style versions.
Engines have come and gone, and in 2019 the standard range was stripped back so just the 1.2-litre petrol remained. The excellent TwinAir two-cylinder petrol is only found in the 4x4 now, while the 1.3 Multijet diesel fell off the price lists a while ago.
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The Panda is slightly larger than its city car rivals, but it can count the Skoda Citigo, SEAT Mii and VW up! trio, the Citroen C1, Peugeot 108 and Toyota Aygo set and the Hyundai i10 and Kia Picanto among its opponents. There are slightly larger city cars in the shape of the Ford Ka+ and Vauxhall Viva, plus the Suzuki Celerio and Renault Twingo. If you like your city cars Italian, then the retro Fiat 500 uses the same running gear in a design-led package.
As mentioned, an update in 2019 saw a single engine offered in the Panda hatchback, the 1.2-litre four-cylinder petrol that has been a mainstay of the range since its launch. It comes with a five-speed manual (with no option for an auto) and front-wheel drive. The standard car comes in Pop, Easy and Lounge trims, while special editions come and go, with a Waze Edition that promotes the car's connectivity through the Uconnect system.
