Country Car : Fiat Panda 4×4 18/02/05

A SHADE OVER 9000 may sound like a lot of money burning a hole in your pocket, but if you’re in the market for a new 4×4 it’s not going to even get you through the carefully-buffed doors of most dealers.

But there is a 4×4 you can afford and that’s the new 9195 Fiat Panda 4×4. The question is would you want it? First impressions are good – a cute, chunky body from the Tonka Toy school of styling. Everything jacked up by 50mm (2in), zero rear overhang, rough, tough side panels.

Inside there’s headroom enough to don a deerstalker and funky-coloured seats to remind you this is all about fun. Interior fitments are all super-sized – big centre console, big switchgear, big buttons, all stylishly executed. The gear lever sits a helpful 4in from your left hand like a patient Labrador and the shift is as light and pleasant as an evening of charades with Liz Hurley.

Turn the key though and you’ll get a bit of a shock. For instead of the restrained gargle of Fiat’s new 1.3 litre 70hp common-rail diesel (the smallest common-rail diesel in existence and quiet and smooth to boot) there’s the buzz of the company’s 1.2 litre 60hp petrol unit.

It’s a jolly good petrol engine, but the diesel would have been even better in the 4×4 Panda. Fiat says it wouldn’t have made commercial sense to offer two engine choices in a variant that will probably only sell 1000 examples in the UK annually.

But don’t be too sad. The petrol-propelled Panda is still a very capable vehicle. It’s light to drive, eager and as friendly as a machinery rep sensing a big sale. And though the 20sec 0-62mph figure quoted by the spec sheet suggests you will be regularly overtaken by old men in wheelchairs and three-legged Dachshunds, in practice it pulls itself along in brisk fashion.

Off-road, the ultra-short wheelbase, wheel-at-each-corner stance, blissfully simple 4wd system (viscous coupling takes drive to the rear when needed) and unstallable engine turn the smiling Panda into a bit of Sherman tank.