Panda update

[Murphyv310]

Aye you always get the horror stories on forums. Very few actually go onto a forum and praise a car.
Dad had a 1987 Uno, never ever gave any problem and actually had very little tin worm when it eventually was sold after my son drove it like a Ferrari.
My first Fiat was a 51 plate Doblo with the same engine as my Panda, it had 112,000 on the clock and was as sweet as a nut, no rust and no thin metal and none of the things mentioned here. it regularly did the 200 mile round trip to Galashiels when the youngest was at Uni and often fully loaded.
I have absolutely no qualms in buying the Panda, there is loads of the MK2 (169 version) around dating from 2004 totally rust free, that's galvanising for you, a decent floor pan with wax injection and good ventilation and drains. The Panda Spurned the 500, Y10, Ypsilon and Ka, the paintwork warranty is 3 years and perforation guarantee 8, the engine is tried and tested with well over 10 million made, used by many companies, the Diesels are in GM cars and Mercedes.

As has been written "The panda is a hidden gem"

[Murphyv310]

Hi all,

My very first car was a Fiat 500 (1960s one)! It put me off driving for 20 years. First week the dynamo control box boiled the battery, Next week the canvas hood flew off & the retaining nuts had a bastard thread on them. The weedy little 2 cylinder air cooled engine was so inclined to shake itself apart that I fitted a tray under it to catch the bits so I could re fit them as needed. The first two gears were non sychromesh. Finaly the diferential failed on a corner sending it into a spin. I scrapped it and left driving for 20 years.
I next entered driving with a Hyndi Santa fe. What a difference. Things have come on a bit. I have seen the new Fiat 500s on the road and they have only a passiing resemblance to the 60s one & I am certain they are a lot more reliable.
Paul.

Hi Paul.
I seem to remember about one of the SUV's you had that blew the engine........... I'm sure the cost for repair was more than I paid for my Panda.

[kalee99]

Hi Trevor,
Yes I did have a Hyundi Sata fe where the engine blew up but it was under warranty and was a known fault and was about to be recalled. I was well satisified with the how it was sorted in the end. I suppose all car makers have made a poor job of car design at some point.
I can honestly say I have never seen such overall poor workmanship & design as that 1960s Fiat 500. It would never meet modern safety standards.
The new generation of Fiat look much better and no doubt don't fall to bits as you drive up the road.
My Uncle had an AC Invacar for years. Now that is driving by the seat of your pants
Paul

[Terry]

I can't remember who it was but I heard about someone a long, long time ago who had an almost new VW Beetle. The clutch cable broke one day so he phoned VW and asked them what to do as it was under warranty. They ascertained that he was not too far away from their big distribution centre in Plaistow and suggested he drive the car to them!

But, he asked, how can I drive it without a clutch?

Easy. It should be possible to get it started it in first gear, they said, and then they told him at what speed to change from first to second, second to third, etc.

He tried it and, to his surprise, it worked!

When he got it to VW they slid something akin to a large fork lift truck under the side and flipped it over onto its side. Their mechanic quickly remove the snapped cable and fitted a new one. They then flipped to car back onto an even keel!

[Murphyv310]

One thing I have never done is to slag off any car without personal experience.
I suppose I am lucky having worked in a garage for about 5 years when a teenager and young twenty year odd lad. My first car a 1960 1200 Beetle was rubbish as was a 1302S that I got rid of in 2008. They were raved about..... German engineering and all that. The engines are far softer than you would believe, broken valve heads are common with major damage occurring, low oil pressure, regulator burn ups and the dreadful 6 volt system, in fact it's only recently that German cars had decent lights!

After an Anglia with severe corrosion on the floor, an Imp that had overheating problems even after a head skim, gasket, radiator and pump, I bought a Skoda 100MB in 1974 but you have no idea of the so called experts that told me they were rubbish, 24 years later on I still was buying Skoda's before they went too expensive. During that time I drove over 600,000 miles in them as far as Poland and the French Rivera, without a breakdown.
I firmly believe in proper servicing, not mollycoddling the engine, using revs without hammering the engine but not trying to drive up a 1 in 4 hill at 25mph in top gear.
Regarding the Fiat 500 of the 60's I'd like to ask the question, were these cars new or cheap bangers, were they driven like an Italian engine should be and were they looked after?
Doing some research the old 500 was reckoned to be as reliable as anything else available at the time but they were often overloaded and expected to do the work of a bigger car, 499cc is small as is 9bhp (from memory) so you cannot compare a tiny car to a Ford Consul.

[ppppenguin]

In the early 1970s when I was at school a friend's mother had a Fiat 500. She was a big woman and several of us would pile into her car for a lift home. How it got up Highgate West Hill under that load I know not. I think the elastic bands had to be would up a bit tighter than usual

[Murphyv310]

That story Jeffrey reminds me of one told to me of another by my late friend Pat McCabe ( Kirsty the weather girl's dad). When he passed his test his father bought him a Fiat 500 Abarth. I believe it was the winter of '62 and Pat and his pals decided to go skiing, Glenshee I think, Well the Skis were too long for the 500 so he put them underneath and tied them to the front and back bumpers.
On the journey up the weather closed in and they were the only ones around. The narrow tyres on the 500 meant they were digging in and gripping but eventually they lost all traction and steering, the raised snow outwith the tracks made the car ski....... allegedly it bumped around side to side but miraculously stayed roughly on course and there was no other vehicles on the road, eventually they got grip and were able to stop.
So there you are a Fiat 500 bobsleigh.

[Pat Pending]

In the early 1970s when I was at school a friend's mother had a Fiat 500. She was a big woman and several of us would pile into her car for a lift home. How it got up Highgate West Hill under that load I know not. I think the elastic bands had to be would up a bit tighter than usual:)

I'm sure Jeffrey remembers Les Johns who wrote for "Television" magazine often recounting stories of his customers antics. One such occasion was the chap who was a tree surgeon who quoted a customer for removing a large overhanging bough from a roadside tree that was on his property. The cost was too high for the man so he elected to do it himself by roping the offending bough over a higher branch then down to the bumper of his wife's Fiat 500. The happless fool sawed off the bough and up in the air went the Fiat. Les recounted in the magazine that the car was a Mini but as I was a near neighbour to the DIY woodsman at the time, (I then lived in Bluebellhill, Kent), I can attest it was a Fiat, and the cars bumper didn't come away from the bodywork, and when they got the car down it hadn't suffered to badly from the ordeal.

In the early eighties I bought a 1976 Fiat 127 sport when the old car that I had, failed its MOT miserably, despite being ridiculed by the "bar room experts" the car gave not one ounce of trouble, eventually being written off by a dust cart that was being reversed around a corner when it was 14 years old.

Later, I have exclusively had Skoda cars, that have given good service, but I still get the "jokes", in fact daily from a colleague who's "fantastic" Vauxhall recently spontaneously combusted in his driveway. Car buying has always been pot luck to an extent, so you pay's your money and make your choice.

Andy

[Murphyv310]

Brilliant story Andy.
Fiat 127 first car to have a transverse engine and end on manual gearbox.

[Murphyv310]

Typo error Fiat 128 then the 127