Category: City Cars 
Price Range: £7,350 to £12,850
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.
The Panda feels more substantial than many other tiddlers, but it only achieved three (out of five) stars for occupant protection in the Euro NCAP crash tests - well below average these days. It scored just two for child protection (with Fiat's approved child seats) and only one for pedestrian protection. Driver and passenger front airbags are standard, side and window airbags are optional, and all seats have three-point seatbelts.
All models have ABS anti-lock brakes as standard, higher spec models are fitted with traction control, brake assist for emergency stops, MSR (a torque-distributing anti-slip device) and hill holder for hill starts.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Fiat Panda
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