Fiat Panda (2004 - 2011) 1.1 Active ECO 5d Owner Review

A decent car for someone just starting driving, I inherited mine after my great grandfather (who bought it new) passed away in 2017, which was just before I started learning to drive. It is a very easy car to drive, responsive steering, handles bumps well, high driving position and great visibility. It's also tiny, which is great for parking. However you will not be going very fast in it! Gets up to around 45 easily enough but once you get there, it falls flat on it's face, any slight hills on a motorway and you'll have your foot glued to the floor to keep it at 70. When I got it, it had 12000 miles on the clock and the engine ran pretty smooth, however after a few months and about 4000 miles it developed a misfire, which was remedied with new plugs, which are fairly easy to change but requires removing the throttle cable bracket to get to one of them. Maintenance is very easy for such a modern car, most things you can get at very easily. Oil changes are a doddle, easy to access filter and drain plug. Unfortunately, I think I got a Friday model, as quite a few things failed, such as the passenger window regulator, drivers and passenger's door handle stick open sometimes in hot weather, sticky throttle, brake light switch and a few other electrical bits, fortunately parts are very cheap for this and there's plenty in breakers yards. Whilst I like the position of the gear shift, it is not the smoothest thing in the world, it was pretty rough when I got it, so I greased the linkages under the shifter boot and that did improve things, however I sometimes get a crunch going into 3rd, reverse sometimes takes a few tries and the other day I was stuck at a roundabout for 30 seconds because it would not go into 1st! Also, after just 18900 miles, the rear shocks were completely bushed and at 23000, the front suspension arms too, which seems to be common judging by forum posts. As for equipment, you don't get much, not even a 12v socket! I bought the genuine socket that fits near the cup holders and wired it in myself, while the stock wiring is there, it does not work (probably not connected further up the line), so I had to run cables from it, under the carpet, through a rubber grommet in the bulkhead and direct to the battery and fitted a switch for it (on a fuse of course). Also, the stock stereo and speakers sound decent, however it did not switch on with the ignition, so that was swapped out. A big issue I am seeing is rust, particularly around the rear suspension, which looks like it was salvaged from the Titanic! Arms and springs are very rusty, however they still seem solid. The rear silencer is very rotten, as it has a skin on it which rusts and falls off, however the metal underneath seems ok and it is not blowing (yet!). To combat this, I suggest washing the underside of the car a lot, particularly in the winter months. One thing it is good at is being a small van! With all but the driver's seat removed I have moved a lot of stuff around in it, including display cabinets, bags of junk for the tip and I even managed to get an entire double bed in it (mattress, frame and all!). I've even camped in the thing! It really is quite spacious inside, however the 4 seats are a downside, as there could easily have been 5, as there are in more upmarket models. Boot is pretty small with the seats in/folded up, you'll probably get your weekly shop in it, but that's it, don't expect to fit a few suitcases in there! If you're hauling a lot of stuff, get the official roof bars and a roof box, bars just bolt into the holes pre-tapped into the roof, so they're easy to install. So would I recommend picking one of these up? Well it depends on your needs in a car I guess, this thing is gutless, not built the best, noisy and poorly equipped. Saying that however, they're pretty cheap to buy and run, the 1.1 eco in particular only has £30 road tax and is in insurance group 1, making it ideal for a first car. Fuel economy is pretty good too, I average around 52mpg on mostly motorway driving. Do try to get one with service history, as the timing belt needs changing every 72k or 5 years, and that is a fairly costly job! Look after it mechanically and it should serve you well.