Panda just eats speed humps

At first, the Panda Cross left me, well, cross, so I went bush.

AS a big fan of the third generation all-wheel-drive Fiat Panda Climbing (very few of which sold in SA) I keenly awaited the arrival of the latest, fourth generation Fiat Panda Cross.

Back in 2007 I had on a whim taken the Climbing over SA’s highest dirt road at Naude’s Neck Pass, which crests at 2 920 m and along the way averaged 4,8 l/100 km with the little 1,2-litre engine. Ten years later I could only get 8,1 l/100 km in a combination of city and off-road driving from the new two-cylinder 875 cc turbopetrol. 

That was the first of three frowns the little Fiat inspired.

The second was from the new Uconnec infotainment system, which the spec sheet says has Bluetooth, audio streaming as well as voice recognition — none of which I could get to work, even after reading the manual. Nor could I link with a cable to a USB port that is awkwardly placed in the cubbyhole.

Apparently, I have to download an app for my phone to talk to the car. Really?!

The cabin layout sparked the third frown. There are lots of small cupholders, but no place to dump things like phones and house keys.

So I shoved my phone and keys into the cubbyhole and instead went bush, which is where my three frowns turned into one big, fat grin. A six-speed manual box makes the most of the little two-cylinder’s 145 Nm from only 1 900 r/min either during overtaking or overlanding.

Turn the knob to engage the electronic difflock and the torque is split front and rear for serious mud work.

The Panda Cross is as happy as its Climbing
predecessor in the rough.

A further twist of a knob engage hill descent control. While able and fun over axle benders in the bush it is, however, through our potholes and over our speedhumps that the Fiat Cross excels on its 185/65R15 all-season tyres. 

This is simply the smoothest ride over any speedhump in a small car on sale today.

Selling for just shy of R250k for the 4x4 Cross and R230k for the 4x4 model, both all-wheel-drive Panda models compete with the only other cute little 4x4 in SA — the Suzuki Jimny, which retails at R258k with the same warranty.

The Fury dealership that serves the Midlands from Pietermaritzburg told Wheels theirs is, however, the better discount on offer and what is more, there is a Jimny on the floor, just waiting, while Fiat had a look at past sales when it placed its order for the new Panda to SA, meaning not every dealer has one to sell.