2005 Fiat Panda ran- Review. Here we go...

The 2005 Fiat Panda.

When you daily drive a 2005 Panda, you know you’ve failed in life. Hard. And I drive one everyday from work to home and viceversa.

The Panda started in the 80s as a cheap and reliable transportation for the italian worker, and somehow gained everyone’s respect in Italy. Everyone loves the good ol’ square-mobile with the 750cc engine.
No luxury items inside. Just you, 3 pedals, a steering wheel, and the road. And an optional stereo.
Her popularity went skyrocketing, considering it was produced until 2003 with just minor changes here and there in the engine and eletronic components.
But then, the disaster…

In 2003, Fiat presented the new Panda, a compact 4-door hatchback made to follow the 1st gen’s footsteps (or tire marks), it was supposed to be cheap and efficient, but big enough to transport a family of 4. And a dog.

But the problem is, none of the promises Fiat made, were maintained.

The car wasn’t cheap when new, and the prices haven’t gone down to this day.
But it was made to be cheap, so the materials are crap.

Probably one of the most unreliable cars in the 2000s, this car managed to win a Car of the Year award. Which makes you wonder how much they’ve spent in bribes.

Terrible clutch, faulty powerstering, terrifying eletronics, bad chassis, awful engine and poor build quality are just a few of the problems this car has. We’ll get to them one by one.

Clutch
The clutch pedal likes to fall down as soon as you touch it. Doesn’t matter if you’ve redone the entire clutch system, it will always do that, and for learner drivers it’s not a good thing. You’ll to learn how the clutch bite works on another car, pal.

Powersteering
Fiat introduced their eletric powersteering in the late 90s on the Punto.
Sure, it might sound fun at first, you get a button that makes the steering even more light than it already is, and you can park in a jiffy, but it’s very unreliable.
Since the powersteering is eletric and not hydraulic, even a small drop of water in the wrong place can mess it up. And you don’t want that to happen.
While it looks like a small, light car, and it is, since it’s around 800-1000kg, it will not turn at all without powersteering. It just becomes impossible to even make the smallest movement.
And when you gotta dodge that Ambulance coming straight onto you doing 120Km/h, you want to be able to get out the way.

Eletronics
Let’s face it. Us italians have never been good with eletric stuff, and the Panda is no exception.
Like the powersteering, the smallest drop in the wrong place can get rid of BOTH headlights. But you shouldn’t worry about that, since the wires and plugs corrode by themselves anyway.
And the entertainment system isn’t any better.
Whatever radio you’ve got, could be a Pioneer or could be a Blaupunkt, you’ll never get a good sound out of the speakers.
Oh, and the airbags don’t work. They’re there, but they don’t deploy, depending on the crash. Wouldn’t expect anything better from a 3 euroncap stars car.

Bad chassis
The Panda’s light. Very light. The lightest model is 840kg, and the heaviest one is 1090kg. That means having a bad chassis isn’t gonna be good for you in a crash. That’s why it’s got 3 stars in the crash tests.
Also, the chassis likes the bend if you go on anything that isn’t smooth tarmac. And we don’t have any smooth roads at all here in Italy, so I don’t see why Fiat didn’t think of that.

Engine
With a selection of various 1.2L, 1.3L, 1.4L diesel and petrol engines, you’d think finding one for your tastes would be easy! WRONG!
The most powerful "standard" Panda engine is 75bhp.
Top speed around 160Km/h for all engines.
Fuel economy differs a lot from engine to engine. The model I’m reviewing has a 1.2L 8v petrol engine, with 60bhp.
On a good day, I get 15Km/L. Which isn’t a lot, considering a Subaru Impreza from the same year, with four-five times the power, gets around 13-14Km/L
Another wrong thing with the 1.2L 8v engine, is rust.
That thing will rust in mere months. Especially the cast-iron exhaust manifold.

Build quality
It’s a cheap car. Or at least it was supposed to be.
So build quality ain’t the best.
The interior will fall apart after 8000Km. Kinda like a Corvette.
Whenever you go over 100Km/h, besides the engine crying in pain, you can clearly hear metal shaking all around you.
There’s barely any insulation. You can hear the wind blowing on your car. Even if you stand still.
When going fast, you can feel leaks here and there on the doors. And that’s not very good during winter, since the heaters may burn your car down. Literally.
But it can be useful in summer, the A/C never works properly anyway.
The suspensions are the worst. You have to replace them at least TWICE A YEAR. They always break down or destroy their supports.

CONCLUSIONS
Over all, I give this car a 5/10.
If your life sucks and you want to kill yourself, this is the car for you.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to curl up in a ball and cry myself to sleep, thinking what have I done in my life to deserve that rust bucket.