Motoring Discussion > Milan in a Panda Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Runfer D'Hills Replies: 26

 Milan in a Panda - Runfer D'Hills
Been in Italy since Saturday. Work trip. Hired a car ( cheapest one you have please Luigi ) Anyway, it was a Panda.

Black, must have had an engine but it wasn't much of one. Some kind of a petrol though. Quite surprisingly well equipped. Decent radio, leccy windows, AC, central locking and so on. Height adjustable seat thank goodness. Not a bad drive if you wound it up. Handled well enough. Smooth, if weedy engine. Felt a bit intimidated on the Autostrada. Comfy enough. Ideal for darting through narrow Milanese streets. Quite liked it in the end. Wouldn't buy one mind. Too small.

Read Bernie Ecclestone's biography. Surprisingly good read.
 Milan in a Panda - BiggerBadderDave
You sound out of breath.

Relax. Have a fag. And explain in proper sentences, why you've been absent all week.
 Milan in a Panda - Tooslow
Milan = fashion = work.

I used to get to Reading. Or Glasgow. Utrecht if I was really "lucky".

John
 Milan in a Panda - Runfer D'Hills
Aye well, as Spike said, "everybody's got to be somewhere"... Can only describe the women as Ubertotty. Still, someone had to do it...sigh...
 Milan in a Panda - ....
That's the one city that I would really need a very good reason to drive a car in.
Paris and the rest are a doddle compared to that place.
The only time a car stops there is when it runs out of fuel, or Luigi wants a longer look at a preety laydee. Red lights, pedestrian crossings, all mean more gas from what I remember.
 Milan in a Panda - Manatee
It's true that the pedestrian crossings seem to be convenient spots for luring targets into the road.

If anybody thinks sat nav is superfluous, they might see the benefit in Milan.
 Milan in a Panda - Zero

>> If anybody thinks sat nav is superfluous, they might see the benefit in Milan.

Yup, the sat nav allows you to concentrate on the cut and thrust, and not worry about getting lost.
 Milan in a Panda - Zero
Naples makes Milan seem ordered and calm. Perfectly happy to drive in Naples.

You have to appreciate the driving rules

DO what you like the way you like it, but don't hit anything hard.
 Milan in a Panda - rtj70
It was on the Autostrada near Milan I had my car accident. Safe driving Humph!
 Milan in a Panda - Zero
>> It was on the Autostrada near Milan I had my car accident. Safe driving Humph!

I had mine in a quiet country road in Rutland.

The location (or country) is irrelevant really.
 Milan in a Panda - ....
>> Naples makes Milan seem ordered and calm. Perfectly happy to drive in Naples.
>>
>> You have to appreciate the driving rules
>>
True. It depends when you're there too. I didn't think Naples was that bad just look out for the big Mercs with blacked out windows and the Soprano's inside.
I was in Milan a week or so before Christmas when the place was heaving and everybody wanted to be somewhere else.
 Milan in a Panda - RattleandSmoke
Sounds like the 1.2, a bit more powerful than mine but also a bit heavier because of the aircon. Both engines have now been improved to 70bhp and the 1.1 is now discontinued. Mine has 54bhp more than enough for the city and it is relaxed on motorways it just takes a long time to get to that relaxing speed :p.

It is unpowered for anything other than city work but for me it is a tool.

It is a small car but the great thing about the Panda is it does feel bigger than it actually is. Even the boot can get all my tools in very easily.
 Milan in a Panda - Runfer D'Hills
Took my old faithful TomTom 700. Haven't updated the maps for a couple of years but it was fine. Didn't think the standard of driving was any worse than most big cities to be honest. I did used to work in Brazil though so maybe that was a form of immunisation. Bit like tetanus, you don't need a booster shot after a certain age.

:-)
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Fri 11 Mar 11 at 20:19
 Milan in a Panda - Kevin
>Can only describe the women as Ubertotty.

I used to visit Milan fairly frequently, actually to Novedrate about 15 miles north towards Lake Como. The women around Milan manage to make $5000 of Prada look casual, or jeans and a teeshirt look like $5000.

Alot of the city itself can be a bit of a dump though. The tourist spots are haunted by E-European hookers and African suppliers/con merchants, even Piazza Duomo has a McDonald's.

BBD would like it ;-)

Kevin...
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 12 Mar 11 at 00:22
 Milan in a Panda - Zero
>> Alot of the city itself can be a bit of a dump though. The tourist
>> spots are haunted by E-European hookers and African suppliers/con merchants, even Piazza Duomo has a McDonald's.

Yeah but its a really classy McDonalds, it has 30 different types of coffee.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 12 Mar 11 at 00:21
 Milan in a Panda - tyro
Brings back happy memories of the Panda we had while on holiday in Austria.

Especially the line "Smooth, if weedy engine."

The engine was fine - until one wanted to drive up a mountain, when it struggled a bit. That was the only real shortcoming in what I thought was a very good little car. I'd seriously consider buying one.
 Milan in a Panda - sherlock47
Just covered 800miles in 30 hrs (elapsed time) last weekend in my MJ Panda. A mixture of Autoroutes and N roads, culminating with a 90 deg segment of the M25. Averaged 62mpg true at speeds of upto 80 mph. Not the most relaxing journey but I could still walk when I arrived home.

The thing that still annoys me more than anything is the tyre noise on certain types of surface.
 Milan in a Panda - Bellboy
Just covered 800miles in 30 hrs (elapsed time) last weekend in my MJ Panda
>
>>>>> my head would be buzzing like a bee and my backbone would be groaning like an old elm after that
you deserve a medal
 Milan in a Panda - Bellboy
talking italy, 4 years ago i bought a shot glass for 3 euros near the trevi fountain in rome,the bloke made a big deal of how he would wrap it for me,when i got it home it was broken,i knew straight away i had been scammed and intend to take it back and shove it somewhere
 Milan in a Panda - RattleandSmoke
I've been in the back of my mates with four people in it all the way to Benlech (118 miles away on A roads) was surprisingly comfortable but the front seat was quite far foward. My concern was being rear ended.

The record milleage of a Panda I know was a 1.2 8v petrol which on a 54 plate which was traded in with 156,000 miles on the clock. Ouch!
 Milan in a Panda - Ted

We had a villa on Paxos in the mid 90s and the car we got was a Panda ( actually a Seat Marbella ). Far too small for 4 grown-ups.
Our luggage was taken to the house from the port, Lakka, in the rep's pickup but they forgot about us on leaving day.

We had to open the sunroof, put 3 cases across it and hold them on from inside. Good job it was only a couple of miles.

It wasn't bad on some of the very rough tracks that posed as roads, though.

Ted
 Milan in a Panda - mattbod
>> We had a villa on Paxos in the mid 90s and the car we got
>> was a Panda ( actually a Seat Marbella ).

Nice little car with a tough little engine. I'm interested in trying the new 900 cc turbo twin in the 500 however :)
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 12 Mar 11 at 17:11
 Milan in a Panda - RattleandSmoke
The new Panda is a completely different car though, the new one is a lot bigger and a lot more comfortable. Only the engines remain the same.

In fact the new panda was going to be called the Fiat Gino but Renault threatened to sue them because it sounded like Twingo so at the last minute they decided to call it a Panda.

I do get annoyed when people confuse the two though.

The Marbella was also based on the 1980 Panda so made do with leaf springs and a push rod engine where as FIAT had updated the Panda to a FIRE and coil springs in 1986. Not really a fan of the original Panda myself far too basic for my liking.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Sat 12 Mar 11 at 03:01
 Milan in a Panda - PR
It was going to be called the Fiat "Jingo" not Gino.

I think Renault did Fiat a favour with their lawsuit!
 Milan in a Panda - AnotherJohnH
>> Not really a fan of the original Panda myself far too basic for my liking.


you have no idea what you missed - tremendous fun, more usable room than the later version, and far more comfortable than you'd imagine.

Can you take a washing machine, still in its packaging, in yours?

I did in one of ours.

The guy in the Focus parked next to me laughed at me when I brought the package to the Panda. He was still trying to get his washing machine in, out of its packing, as I drove away.
 Milan in a Panda - RattleandSmoke
I haven't tried but there is 800 litres of boot space when the seats are fold back. My grandpatrents who lived in Liecester at the time had one, I remember it being tinny and basic but it was one of the pre FIRE ones.

I am not doubting the original Panda was a brilliant package especialy from 1986 onwards when the rust problems were sorted.
 Milan in a Panda - ....
>> The record milleage of a Panda I know was a 1.2 8v petrol which on
>> a 54 plate which was traded in with 156,000 miles on the clock. Ouch!
>>
Probably had a strong whiff of pizza and chicken wings in it too.
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