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Test reports about the little Italian usually start with a play on the subject of a bear. The real “giant panda” is a cute mammal from the bear family. But there is nothing really bearish about the small square car from Italy. Neither the basic form nor the motorization. Completely unruly.
Only the face with the somewhat large headlights, the wide black throat and the rather cuboid shape is reminiscent - very distant - of the cute facial features of the panda bear. And in the case of the test car, the fact that it moves across all fours. But the rest? Rather uncaring, right?
Fiat Panda 4 × 4 - 1.3 JTD
The forest and meadow cubes
Fiat has been offering the Panda as a 4 × 4 version since its first model version. All-wheel drive in a small car? Where these automobiles are only supposed to win the parking lot battle in the big city? How useful is that?
Anyone who has ever been to the north of Italy will immediately understand how useful a Panda 4 × 4 can be. The people there, they love the cute little FIAT. Anyone who wants to get ahead on the stony, remote paths of Tuscany in winter in South Tyrol or further south is grateful for the advantage of four powered wheels. The Panda becomes a quaint, sensible mixture as soon as you combine it with the 4 × 4 drive. Caveat: Rarely have I experienced so much driving pleasure in such a small car. (Had the Top test car 2013 List includes four vehicles, the Panda 4 × 4 would have come fourth!)
Safe - when cornering you are afraid that your own door handle could get caught on the curb, so skilfully the long-legged panda lies in the curves. And two inmates with broad shoulders, you better sit one behind the other than side by side. But who said you could win in any discipline? Real experts - including those with bear names - win in the disciplines for which they were designed.
Made in Italy:
The first expectation of an Italian small car? Of course, a processing reminiscent of the pasta of Mama Lucia. Soft pasta does not stand for stability. And smacking is part of the enjoyment. But the panda is more biting than uncooked pasta and indecent noises when driving are not heard. The little panda looks solid as decades old panettone. The critic bites his teeth in me.
Excursion into the forest
This does not change when the city goes out into the region's forests. And suddenly you realize how awesome the little Panda 4 × 4 really is. Anyone who drives into the forest with a full-size off-road vehicle will soon be able to unpack their hiking boots. In the dense German deciduous and coniferous forest, it only comes to the next commuter parking lot, the forest paths are simply too narrow for real off-roaders.
The favorite car of the German hunters is the Suzuki Jimney, not because the engine is so powerful or the small Suzuki would offer so much space. No, it's because of the slim design. And this is how the panda was born. Higher than wide. Even shorter than the Jimney. And still extremely practical in the interior. Unlike the Japanese, you can get the little Panda 4 × 4 with one of two modern engines. The driven, quite powerful, diesel engine and 75 hp. Or the unusual two-cylinder turbo with 85 hp. (More about hunter, forestry and hunting mobile soon in the blog!)
Made easy
The all-wheel drive of the Panda 4 × 4 is of the simple kind. The rear axle is switched on via a multi-plate clutch as soon as there is slip on the front axle. Alternatively, the rear axle can be activated for permanent cooperation by pressing the “LSD button”.
[One_half]
The entire system is not a great technique art. But the panda does not need a more complex system, because it is a completely different fact that makes him a persuader in the field; His curb weight. At 1190 kg, the Panda is the lightest 4 × 4 tool for hunters, foresters, winegrowers and townspeople with fear of slush that you can buy. The less weight, the easier it is for the four wheels to get the power to the ground successfully. Wine barrel or shot glass, what can be easier to roll up the mountain? Guessed correctly: The Panda 4 × 4.
[bd_table]
| Performance | acceleration | Topspeed |
|---|---|---|
| 75 PS | 14.5 seconds | 159 km / |
1.3 Multijet Diesel
Neither smoothness, nor running noise - the small four-cylinder diesel with the cubic capacity of the four shot glasses (1.248 ccm) is a rough guy. So that there is enough power in the terrain for the obstacle course uphill, but the last gear is long enough to get the small forest cube up to speed with enough power but little speed, five gears are actually too little. Actually. This is why FIAT downgraded the five gears with too big jumps and briefly downgraded the first four. It is therefore only the gear that brings a little disharmony to my hymn of praise for the little all-wheel drive panda. Because the slightly lumpy diesel engine fits very well with the rough charm of the Panda 4 × 4. Only the five-speed gearbox should give way to a six-speed gearbox with finer gear ratios.
[bd_table]Consumption Test:
| everyday driver | Eco-expert | Full gas Friend |
|---|---|---|
| 6.1 liters / 100 km | 4.2 liters / 100 km | 7.4 ladder / 100 km |
Interior, space, equipment, alternatives
FIAT only offers the 4 × 4 Panda with two engines. And no compromises are made when it comes to equipment. Anyone who chooses the “all-wheel-drive bear” will receive whatever equipment is possible. The remaining options are the rear parking sensors (€ 300 and only for the ”4 × 4 skirt), front side airbags (€ 250), as well as a few comfort and visual features such as painted mirror caps, tinted rear side windows, or a sliding and split foldable rear seat bench.
And finally ...
At the end of the test period I understood why the panda is so popularly seen as a “bear” and why the little FIAT - especially as a 4 × 4 - is quite rightly called this name. The Panda 4 × 4 is a great friend in everyday life between shopping centers, forests and meadows. And according to Duden, bärig stands for: “umgs .: great, excellent, huge” and that describes the Panda 4 × 4 very well. Just as “little bears” and the smallest bears in the animal world, right, these are the “pandas” 😉
[button type=”bd_button btn_large” url=”https://autohub.de/fiat-panda-4×4-1-3jtd-bewertung-85682/” target=”” button_color_fon=”#cc0001″ button_text_color=”# ffffff” ]Continue to review[/button] [button type=”bd_button btn_large” url=”https://autohub.de/technische-daten-fiat-panda-4×4-1-3-jtd-69956/” target=”” button_color_fon=”#cc0001″ button_text_color=”#ffffff” ]Technical data[/button] [button type=”bd_button btn_large” url=”https://autohub.de/galerie-fiat-panda-4× 4-1-3-jtd-70186/” target=”” button_color_fon=”#cc0001″ button_text_color=”#ffffff” ]Gallery[/button]Note: The score in the rating of the Fiat Panda 4x4 can unfortunately only inadequately reflect what the little panda can. Emotions and the moment of surprise will be in the current Point scale not taken into account, (Eventually 2014 will re-edit the dot matrix)
