In April 2014, £9,995 doesn't buy an awful lot of car. It buys the very cheapest Ford Fiesta in fact, all 60hp and 94mph of a 1.25 Style. It makes the launch price of the Fiat Panda 100HP look even better value, even if it did creep above £10K fairly soon after it came out. With used prices dropping to around £3,000 now it's something of a secondhand bargain.
Panda keeping good company in this garage
Rumours of a TwinAir replacement for the original 100HP haven't come to anything just yet, making the funky 4x4 version the most PH-worthy Panda at present. Furthermore, though a TwinAir Panda flagship will surely gain some two-cylinder novelty value, it will inevitably lose some of the revvy effervescence that made the 1.4-litre original so beguiling.
The 100HP is just a giggle, pure and simple. Adopt an Italian mentality to conserving momentum (i.e. flat out, everywhere) and the Panda will have you hooked. Having six gears in a car with a relatively low top speed means keeping the Panda in its powerband is easy, and the shift is fairly quick too. Peak power is at 6,000rpm and it will happily rev to 7; grab another gear, repeat and enjoy.
Sport mode adds a bit of welcome weight to the steering, and the wheel-at-each corner stance makes the Panda an eager, darty car to hustle along. It won't be that fast but it will be massive fun. The 100HP will probably still return 40mpg too.
Ignore cheap interior, watch the tacho!
The original Swift Sport (now available
from £4K
) is of course the natural rival for the Panda but it will never match the little Italian for style or cool. The 15-inch wheels sit perfectly with the boxy body and in red it really can be seen as a modern Cinquecento Sporting (the Abarth 500s are arguably a little too plush against the old Cinq, the Panda's basic interior more fitting).
The rear dampers seem susceptible to wear on the 100HP and the cambelt must be seen to every three to five years. But on something so tiny the other consumables will be cheap, plus the bulk of the car's depreciation will be done now. Keep a look out for a Shed in a few years' time...
This particular Panda 100HP is recently serviced (with the cambelt and dampers) and clearly faster than all others because its red. At just over £3K it looks like the perfect PH runabout. Now hurry up with the replacement Fiat!
FIAT PANDA 100HP
Engine: 1,368cc 4-cyl
Power (hp): 100@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 97@4,250rpm
MPG: 43.5
CO2: 154g/km
Recorded miles: 44,000
Year registered: 2007
Price new: £9,995
Yours for: £3,200
See the original advert here.
