Fiat Panda - A Spacious City Car

Mileage 13,750

When it recently became necessary to make a 400-mile round trip to the Cholmondeley estate near Chester (where, every June, they stage the Pageant of Power with Autocar as sponsor of the Supercar Paddock), I faced a choice of a Fiat Panda TwinAir or Jaguar XF diesel.

Logic would choose the easy- cruising Jag, but I took the Fiat on the grounds that (a) having recently taken a no-cars holiday, I needed to drive it, and (b) I've developed a liking for this car that borders on the irrational.

They stage the Pageant of Power with Autocar as sponsor of the Supercar Paddock), I faced a choice of a Fiat Panda TwinAir or Jaguar XF diesel

This seemed a good opportunity to assess its honesty at recording distance and calculating fuel mileage, so I brimmed the tank. Google Maps calculated the trip at 392 miles return three hours 16 minutes for each leg.

This seemed a good opportunity to assess its honesty at recording distance and calculating fuel mileage, so I brimmed the tank.

The Fiat's TomTom displays the car's real speed (as opposed to 'speedo speed'), which means you're always faster than others through 50mph road works because their indicated 50mph is a true 46mph. I usually cruise at a true 80mph - 84-85mph on the speedo because it's quick enough without attracting the law.

Google Maps calculated the trip at 392 miles return three hours 16 minutes for each leg.

It's always surprising how versatile today's economy cars are on journeys like this. The Panda was stable and comfortable at the chosen speed. Its only real flaw was road noise on coarser surfaces. Its best asset was agility at changing lanes, problematic at speed in bigger cars. I arrived at Cholmondeley after three and a quarter hours (just beating Google and averaging 61.07mph, which is pretty good, given the fact that only about half the journey was at maximum cruise. For the out leg, the trip computer suggested a distance of 198.5 miles (196 actual) and returned fuel mileage of 45.6mpg against the 44.9mpg I calculated by steam-age methods after brimming the car on arrival. That's as truthful a performance as you can expect, repeated on the way back. It was a thoroughly positive experience, and I enjoyed every mile.

It's always surprising how versatile today's economy cars are on journeys like this.