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.
If you do an over-average annual mileage, it will be more cost-effective to spend a little extra and buy the 1.2 rather than the 1.1; the 1.1 engine returns 49.6mpg, the 1.2 8v does 50.4mpg (and an excellent 61.4mpg in combination with the Dualogic clutchless transmission); the 1.3 diesel returns 65.7mpg. Carbon dioxide emissions, and hence taxation levels, are also correspondingly low: 135g/km, 133g/km, 127g/km and 114g/km respectively.
Insurance groupings start very low; Fiat prices for servicing, maintenance and parts are also pretty cheap. And since little Fiats are always popular second-hand buys, residual (resale) values should be strong.
The Panda is likely to suit first-time buyers, young owners, downsizers on a budget - all sorts of people really, giving it a wide appeal. That means that it is unlikely to be super-cheap used.
The Panda didn't end up quite as cheap as predicted, though that's mainly because UK buyers aren't offered the stripped-out, power-steering-free entry-level versions on sale elsewhere in Europe - we get a higher level of standard equipment.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Fiat Panda
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