MODEL ON TEST: LA PRIMA 1.2 HYBRID AUTOMATIC – MILEAGE – 2,323

It has an actual ignition key! That shouldn’t be a notable thing, should it? But in a modern context, when pretty much every car comes with a little plastic pebble that you have to keep in your pocket, it’s genuinely refreshing to stick a key into the column and twist it to make the car work. It feels proper.

Indeed, retro is king with the Grande Panda,and you can see exactly why they’ve done it. Renault are making significant waves in reprising not just the iconic 5 with a nouveau-retro redux, but also the 4 (not quite as popular, that one) and the Twingo (which will undoubtedly fly off the shelves, it’s absurdly cute), and other manufacturers are scrambling to get in on the action – not least MG, who’ve decided to knock up a retro-styled hatchback for 2027 which is actually good-looking and stylish, in stark contrast to everything else they’re making at the moment. And Fiat are perfectly positioned to surf the retro wave, as the Panda name has a double-hit of old-school panache: the original one in the eighties is a genuine icon, while the 2003 rebirth won fans in its own right. So then, seconds out, round three, the Grande Panda is coming out swinging…

Peer around the interior and the classic charm is everywhere. The shape of the instrument binnacle surround evokes the oval test track on the roof of the Lingotto factory, and there’s a little model Panda driving up the side of it. There are two gloveboxes (ooh!), the top one being made of bamboo-because, y’know, Pandas like bamboo. The door cards have massive Fiat badges embossed into them. The seats have pleasing waffle squares, along with the slightly baffling phrase ‘PANDA MADE WITH LOVE IN FIAT’, which sounds like it’s been back and forth through Google Translate a couple of times. The car even says ‘ciao’ when you open the boot – not literally of course, but it’s embossed in the plastic trim at eye level. The whole thing is liberally sprinkled with lovely little design touches that they didn’t have to bother with, they just did it to make the car a bit more fun. And it works. The badges on the C-pillars are a real talking point – they’re lenticular, so if you look at them from one side they say FIAT, but if you move to a different angle they show the diagonal stripes of the logo. That’s really cool.

I’d previously driven a Grande Panda hybrid, albeit briefly, and I really liked it, so I was excited to learn that there’d be one showing up at my house for an extended stay. I always like to do a bit of research to see how other journos have got on with them, and I found a video extensively reviewing this actual car, which did a lot to help get the kids excited about it too. So, it was perhaps a little unfortunate that my first interaction with ‘my’ Panda was to find that the electric window for the driver’s door didn’t work. All the other windows went up and down, but not this one. Why? Because the rubber surround had come adrift inside the door. So I pushed that back into place and, lo and behold, the window started working. Hmm. On the one hand, you don’t expect that of a box-fresh car with only 2000-odd miles on the clock… but on the other hand, this car only costs £22k, and that’s for the top-of-the-range La Prima specification with all the bells and whistles (there are no more options to be had, this car has everything possible), and that led me to a crucial realisation: we really are spoiled these days. It may sound twee to say that minor niggles on a budget car give it character, but we’ve got so used to cars being ‘premium’ even when they aren’t that it’s refreshing to be reminded that cheapness still exists in a tangible sense. And you do have to keep reminding yourself that this is a comparatively cheap car, that’s why it exists. Yes, some of the materials are a bit bargain- basement, but that’s the whole point. There are, it has to be said, some noticeable things with the cabin which we can charitably list under ‘quirks’ – the upper and lower sections of the main dashboard surround don’t quite line up, neither do the contrasting colour sections on the rear seats, the headlight adjustment button has come loose
and pushed itself way back inside the dashboard so it can’t be used… and it is annoying that the self-folding wing mirrors don’t always unfold themselves when you unlock the car, so you have to keep locking and unlocking it until they remember to unfurl. (Having quizzed a few owners, this fault is not uncommon.) But let’s not forget that the original Panda was cheap-and-cheerful, and basic and rugged, and so’s this. It’s just cheap-and-cheerful in a 2020s context. You actually get a phenomenal amount of kit for the money, it’s a remarkably well-equipped car given the sticker price. And don’t think of it as style over substance; yes, some ingredients are flimsy, but the affordability is what makes it accessible; the bold styling and eye-catching details are a case of making the very best of every element. Sure, the doorcards are made of hard scratchy plastics, but their embossed Fiat logos are delightful. And the fact that there are no mirrors in the sun visors seems like a weirdly penny-pinching place to make a cost-saving, but perhaps modern vanity needs to be tempered with such restraint. On the whole, it would be easy to complain about the foibles, but the big-picture first impression is that this is an extremely lovable car, and one that looks set to slot into our family routine very nicely indeed.

Oh, one final observation, and something which you can tell your friends and they’ll instantly reach for their phones to Google it and check: Fiat have gone all-in on the application of logos here, the four diagonal stripes of the Fiat badge appearing on the C-pillars, the steering wheel, the wheelarches and so on. But… didn’t the badge used to have five stripes? 

DANIEL BEVIS

WHAT’S HOT: A joyful car that’s easy to love and sparks a lot of conversation.

WHAT’S NOT: A few minor quality issues have presented themselves.

STANDARD EQUIPMENT: 10-inch digital instruments, 17-inch alloy wheels with Goodyear ElectricDrive 205/55 R17 tyres and tyre repair kit, 60/40 split/fold rear seats, Air conditioning, Anti-lock brakes with electronic brake force distribution and brake assist, Auto-dimming rear-view mirror, Automatic headlights, Autonomous emergency braking, Blind spot warning system, Cruise control with speed limiter, DAB radio with 10.25-inch touchscreen, navigation, with 6-speakers, USB-C sockets, voice control and steering wheel controls, Driver drowsiness detection, Driver, passenger, side and head airbags with passenger side de-activation, Electric and heated mirrors with power folding, Electric park brake, Electric windows front and rear, Electronic stability programme with traction control, Emergency e-call system, Heated front seats, Heated front windscreen by the wipers, Heated steering wheel, Hill start assist, ISOFIX child seat safety fasteners for rear outer seats, Lane keep assist, LED daytime running lights, LED headlights with adaptive high beam assist, LED taillights, Parking sensors front and rear, Rain sensing windscreen wipers, Rear privacy glass, Remote central locking, Reversing camera, Roof rails, Skid plates front and rear, Traffic sign recognition, Tyre pressure monitors, Wireless Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and Bluetooth smartphone compatibility and Wireless smartphone charger

OPTIONAL EQUIPMENT FITTED TO TEST CAR:

Limone Yellow metallic paint (£0)

FACTS & FIGURES

PRICE: (NEW) £21,995 (AS TESTED) £21,995

COLOUR: Limone Yellow metallic

BUILT IN: Kragujevac, Serbia

CODENAME: F1H

GENERATION: 4

PLATFORM: Smart Car

BODYSTYLE: 5-door hatchback, 5-seats

LAYOUT: Front-wheel drive

POWERPLANT: 1,199cc, 3-cylinder, 12-valve, turbocharged petrol with electric motor and 0.876kWh nickel manganese cobalt battery pack

GEARBOX: 6-speed twin-clutch automatic

MAX POWER(ENGINE): 74kW/99bhp/101ps

MAX POWER (ELECTRIC MOTOR): 21kW/28bhp/28ps

MAX POWER (COMBINED): 81kW/109bhp/110ps

MAX TORQUE (ENGINE): 151lb ft/205Nm

MAX TORQUE (ELECTRIC MOTOR): 41lb ft/55Nm

TOP SPEED: 99mph

0-62MPH: 11.2secs

CO2 EMISSIONS: 117g/km

ECONOMY (COMBINED): 55.4mpg

ECONOMY (ON TEST): 48.1mpg

FUEL TANK: 44 litres

RANGE: 536 miles

INSURANCE: GROUP 20

BIK RATE (2026/2027 TAX YEAR): 30%

SIZE (LENGTH/WIDTH WITH MIRRORS/HEIGHT/ WHEELBASE): 3,999/2,017/1,630/2,540mm

BOOT SPACE (MIX/MAX): 412/1,366 litres

KERB WEIGHT: 1,349kg

TOWING WEIGHT: 600kg

EURO NCAP RATING: Not yet tested

SPARE WHEEL (FULL-SIZE/SPACESAVER/RUN- FLAT/SELF-SEALING/REPAIR KIT): No/no/no/no/yes 

WARRANTY: 3 years/Unlimited miles

DATE ARRIVED: 13th July 2026

COSTS: None

FAULTS: None