Living with a… Fiat Grande Panda

The Grande Panda looks fantastic, but what's it really like to live with? – We find out

Words by: Erin Baker

Published on 19 August 2026 | 0 min read

What is it?

Model: Fiat Grande Panda
Version: Hybrid
Spec level: La Prima
Options fitted: winter pack (heated wipers, steering wheel and seats - £650); Lago Blue paint
Price as tested: £22,645

Who’s testing it?

My little family for our little Panda comprises me (48, single working mum) and my two sons (16 and 13). We live in a Sussex village, with a driveway and a home charger for EVs.

We like

The styling, inside and out. What an incredibly cool reimagining of the traditional Panda, with big “PANDA” metal stamping on the sides, bamboo dashboard, yellow plastic framing for the screen, and blue and white seats.

We don’t like

The forward collision automatic braking system which, in the first fortnight, nearly caused a huge crash with a van behind us, when it slammed on the brakes at 40mph, mistaking parked cars for cars I was about to crash in to.

Month 1 – Love at first sight

Erin says: "There’s a good, old-school, three-cylinder, 1.2-litre little engine. This is proper Eighties small-car vibes"

How much has it cost you?

Well, I’m getting about 430 miles from a tank, and it’s doing about 55mpg. There’s a good, old-school, three-cylinder, 1.2-litre little engine. This is proper Eighties small-car vibes. It’s called a Hybrid but there is no plug – the battery just boosts the petrol engine.

Where have you been?

We’ve been around the M25 in it, from East Sussex to Essex and back. It might resemble an Eighties Panda in spirit, but thankfully it has a hell of a lot more pulling power than a 40-year-old three-cylinder car. We cruised along in fifth gear at 70mph three-up very happily.

What have you been carrying?

Lots of supermarket shopping and the boot, although relatively small, is surprisingly deep which is very handy because it stops all your shopping slip-sliding about. I’ve also had two 16-year-old teenagers, with their ridiculously long legs, in the rear seats and there’s a good amount of room for everyone.

Delights?

The diddy little plastic Panda car sketched at an angle in to the dashboard’s plastic frame, like it’s pootling up the screen for an outing. Also, the nonsensical writing on the seats: “Panda made with love in Fiat”. No idea what it means, but so Euro-brilliant. Also: loving an actual key in an actual key slot to start the car. That’s nostalgia right there.

Frustrations?

I could have happily taken a crusher to the car when it did an emergency stop at 40mph this week, as I drove past some parked cars on the left which it thought I was driving in to. Goodness knows how the van behind me didn’t massively rear-end me; instead, we just kissed bumpers. That didn’t stop the driver getting out of his van and telling me in words of one syllable what he thought of me. My kids in the back loved the entire experience: it was a joy for us all to have minor heart attacks, stiff necks and learn some new Anglo-Saxon banter. I tried to then deactivate the forward collision response as we drove off but it was unavailable – I will try to do it stationary in my driveway every time before I set off in future: I cannot go through that again.

Month in a nutshell

Loving every second of it apart from the stupid, stupid driver “safety” systems which are anything but.