The car previously took the European Car of the Year accolade back in 2004; the first time for a supermini to win the award.
The model has been given a subtle upgrade for 2010. Minor changes include a more modern body colour grille and silver finish for the roof rails, a choice of alloy wheels and larger outside mirrors. And some new exterior colours. It's big enough to make you feel you're not driving a small car and hunky enough to make you believe it's quite a big one.
Also new to the line-up is a 69bhp 1.2 litre petrol, emitting just 113g/km of the dirty stuff, placing the car in Band A. There is a 4WD option also.
Available in 1.1 Active Eco and 1.2 Dynamic Eco, and a 1.3 MultiJet diesel version. I'm not quite sure of the reasoning behind having two petrol engine sizes so close to each other.
My test car was the 1.2 Dynamic petrol with a Pasodoble Red special paint exterior (€300 extra). Unfortunately, you'll have to pay €550 more for the ESP stability programme on the 2WD versions, €145 for side airbags and €250 for window ones.
Really a car for town or city use, as this is where it most feels at home. A City button lightens the steering for city driving at low speeds, so the car can manoeuvre more easily. The Panda has a turning circle of 9.6m which is useful in city streets. Out on the motorway, though, you need to give the accelerator a fair bit of wellie to get to the top speed.
The test car had quite a greyish, dull dash and certainly needed a bit of brightening up. It was lightened somewhat by the pale buff colour in the centres of the seats and along the front doors, but I feel this material could get quite grubby, especially if the car is for family use and particularly if small children are involved. The steering wheel also looks quite plain, with no remote audio controls, just the red Fiat badge.
Cabin space is good. As there's not much of a slope to the roof, tall people can sit in comfort with lots of head room. Light seeps in through the two sunroofs making the cabin feel bright and airy.
You sit high up in this one. With a low scuttle line, deep side windows and the big rear window, provide great all-round visibility as well as those side ones allowing little people a great view outside. Driving on a very wet day, I appreciated how the wiper cleaned almost the entire glass area of the rear window. Seats are comfy and offer good support.
Side mirrors are a bit on the narrow side and surprisingly, there was no vanity mirror on the driver's windscreen flap. The driver's seat height adjustment is snug to the left of the seat and, at first, can be mistaken for the handbrake when you reach down to pull it up.
Dials are nice and simple. Figures are white on black.
The central console includes the 5-speed gear shift, and temperature controls. Front window switches are here up (there are wind up ones in the back), and the radio has nice sized buttons; there's also a CD and MP3.
If you have a suitable old banger to scrap, the RRP price starts at just €6,995, and the 1.2 moves down to €7,995. These prices include the Government scrappage and Fiat's Eco Plus Bonus of €1,877. Certainly at least a second affordable car for a family's needs.
