Fiat Panda 4x4 (2012 - 2023) 1.3 Multijet 4X4 5d Owner Review

OK, I'm prefacing this review with the fact I owned the last generation Panda, put 135,000 miles on it and only had to do service items - fabulous car. This Panda 4x4 Antarctica edition however is not..... Purchased with 35,000 miles on clock from a non-Fiat main dealer they had as a trade in in 2017 with 35K on the clock. Full service history also. Since then we have had numerous problems - mainly drive-train and suspension. As of now (June 2020 and total of 74000 miles) we had had the following; Complete clutch and cylinder failure at 40,000 Miles - £550 to replace (aftermarket) Battery failure @40,000 Miles and 4 years - £120 for aftermarket Stop Start battery Brake "groan" when reversing - know issue and Fiat kit can be supplied from dealer MOT failed @ 55,000 Miles - Propshaft bearing - £1000 to replace propshaft - Fiat do not supply bearing, have to buy entire propshaft Key Lock Barrel damaged during break-in - have to replace entire locking system, 2 barrels and 2 keys plus programming - £400 74,000 Miles - Front P/S Driveshaft Failure - Fiat currently charging £650 for this - plus fitting @ independent 74,000 Miles - Timing Chain noise/slap - £700 to replace with specialist independent before it brakes and implodes the entire engine. Blue&Me system shows exactly why Microsoft can not be trusted with phone systems - it simply does not work. Interior is also somewhat fragile. We have now spent about 1/2 of the purchase price of the car on repairs - we are not alone. For example, phoning main dealers for Propshafts revealed its a common problem for Panda 4X4 - one dealer said 3 others sold in the past few months - @ around £1000 each..... There are also very few aftermarket parts available - so you are generally tied to the dealer network for parts. It does get around 55mpg on average and handles well. the Multijet is a good engine, but hugely disappointing after owning 2 other Fiats. Its premium car money for parts for budget car quality. If I had my time again, i would look at the previous version Panda 4x4 pre 2012 or the Sedicci (built with Suzuki) - too many known quality issues in the drive-train and suspension to recommend and parts too expensive