Category: City Cars 
Price Range: £7,005 to £10,260
Amusing to drive, ideal for city life, lively 1.2 8v engine, sharp handling, low running costs, plain and simple
Unadventurous design, lacks visual charm of Seicento, Cinquecento and earlier small Fiats, poor NCAP crash test scores
The Panda is not a technological tour de force, nor does it set any new benchmarks in the city car sector, but it's (almost) everything you'd hope it would be, and is in the spirit of earlier, much-loved small Fiats.
Meet the Panda - Car of the Year 2004, as voted for by a panel of European motoring journalists - beating cars such as the Mk5 Golf and Mazda 3. This accomplished five-door city car is a long way from the crude, basic, poorly-equipped Panda of old - it is well-specified, fun to drive, surprisingly refined and civilised to ride in. However, despite rather dull mini-MPV styling, it does share the old Panda's endearing sense of fun as well as its practicality, and like its, er, forbear, it's satisfyingly cheap both to buy and to run.
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