Faults:

The contact breaker points burned out at around 70,000 miles. This cost £13.00 for a new set which was fitted at home in 20 minutes.

Also the starter motor wore out after I'd driven the car about 5000 miles. A replacement from the local scrap-yard was fitted (costing the princely sum of £12.00) after I'd got sick of a few weeks of bump-starting. Again this repair was done at home and took less than an hour.

At 71,000 miles I renewed the front brake pads and rear shoes. (As these are a "consumable" item I wasn't too upset about this). I also replaced the rear wheel cylinders as these were leaking and stiff. All this cost just over £40.00.

The windscreen developed a large crack after being hit by a stone. This was hardly the car's fault and a second-hand one costing £10.00 was easily fitted.

A bit of rust has broken through in the back of the sills.

Finally, an intermittent fault with the Weber carburettor fitted to the car means that it occasionally cuts out when idling. No amount of fiddling or cleaning seems to have much effect. Possibly another trip to the scap-yard is due...

General Comments:

Upon being made redundant and having to sell my Jag, I was looking for a cheap runabout. I'd had a Panda 900 a few years ago and remembered them as cheap to run, easy to repair and very practical (if not exactly trendy).

I paid £225 for my current Panda and have used it almost every day for the last 18 months.

I get around 40-45 miles per gallon using unleaded, and it's top speed is 90-95 mph (honest!).

In the UK. Pandas fall into the cheapest bracket for tax and insurance.

It has taken me on holiday twice, has stood up to off-road abuse on farms and building sites and has survived two wet Welsh winters!

The last MOT cost me just £25.00.

It's a bit uncomfortable on long journeys, but not as noisy as people say.

Although Pandas suffer from niggling faults and need a bit more attention than some cars, parts are cheap and easy to get hold of and you can usually bodge them up yourself with a few basic tools.

Faults:

Nothing much.

Loose electric cable once

General Comments:

Rxtremely good, reliable, lovable little runabout, and even though she's now 12 years old, she takes me to work every day without fail.

Faults:

OK, so I've had to have a new exhaust box fitted for its most recent MOT, and a little work had to be done on the steering column, but this was when I first had the beaut :-)

General Comments:

This is my first car, it has no automatic choke, but this just adds to the fun of it! It's like sitting in a bumper car, it feels like one, drives like one, and has the nippy aggressiveness of one!!! Insurance is dead cheap if you look round, and it isn't greedy with petrol.

Faults:

Clutch cable and boot won't open now, but hey...

General Comments:

Lovely little car, nice colour and the interior is zany.

I plan to put a BIG boy tooter on it in the not too distant future!

Faults:

Very little, only a few things with such a high mileage. New points, minor oil leak, exhaust manifold. Almost all of the above have been obtained from the local scrapyard.

General Comments:

Fantastic car, I have driven lots of cars including a race prepaired VW Golf GTI and I still enjoy the Panda. Has a clocked 0-60 of 12.4 second and mpg of 45. Many "bits" have been added to this car to make it a bit more unique but it's still a Panda.

Faults:

The only unexpected thing was needing a new clutch as it was worn out.

Apart from this I have had a couple of bulbs, a couple of tyres and an exhaust pipe, all things you would expect to wear out sooner or later.

General Comments:

It is a compact but strangely roomy car. Nippy around town and very economic to run. The 1 litre engine has not got much acceleration, but once you have got the speed up it will happily cruise along at 70mph.

As the engine is fairly basic it can be serviced at any garage. Parts are easy to come by. The Panda is still in production in Italy.

The bottoms of the doors are going a bit rusty now, but it is 12 years old.

Faults:

68,000 miles:

3x clutch cables.

1x accelerator cable.

1x heater cable.

Drinks A LOT of oil (2 litres in the last 3 months).

General Comments:

A nice little car, quite fun to drive, handles OK and, surprisingly, will beat most "big" cars around town.

Non-assisted brakes are dangerous if you're not used to them!

V. little rust, but interior is becoming of age.