Fiat revives a legend with the new Grande Panda — with retro looks, compact size and clever upgrades. But how does it perform in real-world driving? REV hits the road to see if it’s more than just a style statement!
00:00Buongiorno, saluti and hello everybody. Welcome to REF. Today I will mention the
00:05word Panda quite a lot. You asked me why? Not because there is sitting a Panda on
00:10top of this beautiful bonnet. No, I'm talking about this Fiat Grande Panda,
00:15this car. It's over 40 years of history now and this is the newest version of it
00:20and what it has to offer I'm going to show you today. The Panda comes in some
00:25very vibrant colors, which can definitely make you stand out.
00:31When we talk about the different engine variations which you get here with the
00:36Fiat Grande Panda, there are only two. You can get it in a full electric version
00:40which offers you 83 kilowatt of power which is equal to 113 horsepower and then
00:48there's the hybrid version which we are driving right now. We have got an 1.2
00:53liter three-cylinder engine with 100 horsepower. Then we have got the
00:59electric engine as support which offers 29 horsepower and combined these two gives
01:05us 110 horsepower which is equal to 81 kilowatt I think it fits this car pretty
01:17well. Here in the hybrid we have a top speed of 160. In the electric version you
01:21only get 132 kilometers of top speed but I think I can totally understand this. You
01:28don't need that much of acceleration in an electric car because the small battery
01:34capacity of 44 kilowatt hour will get empty pretty, pretty quick.
01:45Let's talk about the general driving impression here in the Fiat Grande Panda and I can tell you,
01:49it feels as good as it looks. It's pretty solid, it's sophisticated, you don't feel holes, you don't feel bumps.
01:56It's really comfortable and I think that's the typical Italian design for a Fiat Panda
02:01because the streets aren't the best and this car, yeah, it just works. It just works everywhere.
02:07The Fiat Grande Panda is the first model in a brand new family built on Stellantis' smart car platform which supports multiple drivetrain options.
02:17The exterior design of the Fiat Grande Panda, yeah, I really really like it. I think it looks kind of futuristic retro to me if you understand what I mean because we have a lot of elements here which were developed in the first generation of Pandas.
02:38The Fiat Panda, the cult car of the 80s, affordable and for everyone. From 1980 until today, over 7.5 million units have been sold across three generations, making it a true success story.
02:53Giorgetto Giugiaro designed the car back then and his son shares his memories with us.
03:00They talk about to make a popular car but at the same time very, very spacious inside. It must be really four or five persons driving four passengers with a quite big trunk.
03:14How to do it in a car that is less than three meters and a half, no?
03:19A car came immediately to be designed very square because if you make a car rounded then you reduce the space inside.
03:28So it was from the beginning clear to make a very radical design, very simple with flat glass.
03:33Yeah, it changed quite a bit but you can see the influence of the first generation. For example, here in the headlights, you can see it almost looks pretty similar to the first generation and we have got LEDs right now.
03:48Of course, that wasn't possible for the first generation in the 1980s but this design, this headlamp design and the light design, I really like it because it looks like a video game from the 80s.
04:00I think it's really cool and this is kind of this retro, futuristic look, I would say.
04:08If you go to the back, you can see there's the Fiat logo and I really like that as well because it's, again, pretty retro looking from the first generation but they built a bridge from the future to the past.
04:19Sometimes, you need to take some luggage with you even in a car like the Fiat Grand Panda.
04:31And yeah, the Panda and me, we took some luggage with us and I can tell you, yeah, you've got enough boot capacity.
04:38If you take a closer look at the boot in the first place, you have got 361 liters of boot capacity.
04:46I think that's pretty solid. If you fold down the rear seat, you will get up to 1315 liters of boot capacity.
04:54And I'm just talking about the electric version. If we are talking about the hybrid version, which I am sitting in right now, we have got 412 liters of boot capacity.
05:10And in addition to that, if you fold down the rear seats, we get up to 1366 liters.
05:17I think this fits this little Italian car really, really good.
05:25The interior design here of the Fiat Grand Panda, I think it really, really looks good to me.
05:31I think it fits the car for a price of around 20,000 euros. You get a lot of good materials in here.
05:37A lot of them are recycled as well. For example, here, these doors, I mean, they are a little bit hard.
05:43Down here, you have got some softer materials, but they are all recycled.
05:47And I think this really, really fits this Panda and the DNA of Fiat.
05:56Another cool feature in here, which you won't find, of course, in the first generation, are the infotainment,
06:02which is now digital and the digital driver's display, as I told you before.
06:06The infotainment, yeah, it really works good. You have got Android Auto, Apple CarPlay,
06:11everything in easy conditions, easy to handle and easy to work on.
06:16I really love it. And I think it's a perfect car for an urban cruise.
06:21And it's a perfect car for a person who never drove a Fiat before,
06:25because you can find everything you need in just a few seconds.
06:39The Fiat Grande Panda is available in three different interior trims, as I would say.
06:44The entry level is called Pop. The other one, which we are driving, is called Icon.
06:50And the best one is La Premiere. And I can see this version, which I am driving right now, the Hybrid.
06:56I would say this is the car most people will go for, because you have got almost everything which La Premiere has.
07:04And in the first, in the Pop version, yeah, there is a lot missing, which means you don't get a radio,
07:11don't get navigation or infotainment system. So most people need that.
07:16And they would say, I would choose definitely the Icon version over the Pop.
07:21But maybe the La Premiere version, it's too expensive for me.
07:32So my verdict for today, together with the Panda, the Fiat Grande Panda and me,
07:37I can tell you, we had a lot of fun driving this car today.
07:41Because, yeah, it ticks almost all the boxes you need for a car.
