Running my £2k Fiat Panda 100hp has been as heartbreaking as it is thrilling
A trip to the garage unearths some nasty secrets in the Panda’s suspension
At the end of my last Panda report the car was still in the local garage with its creaking front suspension in pieces. In order to make sense of the apparent bodgery around the bushes and bolts, Paul from the garage came up with a plan which involved reconstructing the front end using parts from a scrap Fiat Panda.
‘Hang on,’ I asked nervously, ‘what sort of Panda?’ Not a 100HP, it turned out. Obviously this was a worry because 100HP suspension isn’t like the suspension on other Pandas. The rear axle is bespoke, for example. And the front? Well, it’s hard to know what’s unique at that end because if you search for parts online many bits, including the lower wishbones and anti-roll bars, come up as suitable for all Panda variants. But online parts shops can be wrong and, since neither Paul nor I could get a definitive answer, he said he’d put everything together again, see how the car felt, and take it from there.
> Used Fiat Panda 100HP (2006 - 2010) review: a driver's supermini for under £3000
A few days later I went to collect the Panda, expecting to find it sitting all wrong and driving even worse, but actually the usual hunkered-down 100HP stance was still there and, to drive, well, it felt pretty good. Maybe not quite as crisp on turn-in but generally not a million miles from where it should be. Or was I imagining this? I felt like I needed a control specimen and, as luck would have it, that very week an unmolested Panda 100HP came up for sale in my area, so I sent a message with a cheeky request: no, I didn’t want to buy the car, but could I have a quick drive in it anyway?
Happily, the seller turned out to be a very nice chap called James who was happy to let me use his car for some benchmarking. And I was delighted to discover that, actually, the two Fiats didn’t seem so different. In fact, in some ways, my car felt better, notably because of a less jiggly ride. Although driving another 100HP also reminded me that the Sport button in mine brings in a sharper throttle calibration, as it should, but also makes the steering lighter rather than heavier, in this respect behaving like the City button in lesser Pandas. I don’t know if the EPAS brain has defaulted to the wrong map or if this means my car has the wrong power steering motor altogether, but that’s one to worry about another time.
On the plus side, in comparison to James’s 100HP, the engine in my car definitely felt heartier, perhaps because there are more miles under its belt. Whatever the reason, I was revelling in this aspect of my car right up until the point it started idling unevenly. Something’s not right, I thought. Then I noticed an excess of white smoke coming from the exhaust and my heart sank. Sure enough, a smear of mayo under the oil filler cap confirmed my worst fear: it’s the head gasket.
And so, once again, the Panda confounds my hope of some cheap thrills. Deep sigh. Frankly, in the past few months running this car has felt like playing a game of Whac-A-Mole.
| Total mileage | 105,975 |
| Mileage this month | 52 |
| Costs this month | £436 |
| mpg this month | 39.6 |
This story was first features in evo issue 314.
