FIAT

Panda

A total of more than 4.5 million FIAT Panda (Type 141) have been produced on earth in Italy between 1980 and 2003. The Fiat Panda, internally Type 141, was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1980 with a brief from Fiat that was almost brutal in its clarity: build a container on wheels. Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani of the newly founded Italdesign answered with a car of ruthless honesty — flat glass all round to cut tooling costs, a single windscreen wiper, a canvas seat hammock that could be unclipped and washed, and a dashboard that was a full-width fabric-covered shelf. Nothing on the Fiat Panda was decorative, and that is exactly why it became beautiful. Early cars used the 652 cc air-cooled twin from the 126 and the 903 cc pushrod four from the 127. The turning point came in June 1983, when Fiat launched the Panda 4x4: the first small transverse-engined production car in the world with four-wheel drive, its entire drivetrain — clutch, gearbox, transfer case, propshaft and rear axle — supplied by Steyr-Puch of Austria and fitted to a reinforced shell at Termini Imerese in Sicily. The Panda 4x4 turned a cheap city car into a genuine mountain vehicle and created a cult that has never faded. A 1986 restyle brought the excellent FIRE engines and a coil-sprung rear axle, and in 1987 the Sisley limited edition — metallic paint, roof rack, inclinometer — was so popular that its planned 500-unit run became a permanent model. The first-generation Fiat Panda stayed in production for 23 years, and the 4x4 versions in particular have become some of the most sought-after cheap classics in Europe. Upgrades & evolutions during the Fiat Panda production: FIAT - Panda 30 (652 cc air-cooled twin) : 1980 - 1986 FIAT - Panda 45 (903 cc four) : 1980 - 1986 FIAT - Panda 4x4 (Steyr-Puch drivetrain, first small transverse 4WD) : 1983 - 2003 FIAT - Panda (Mk2 restyle, FIRE engines, Omega rear axle) : 1986 - 2003 FIAT - Panda 4x4 Sisley (limited edition, became a permanent model) : 1987 - 2003 Average quotation for the Fiat Panda: cheapest US$1,500, average US$7,743, most expensive US$35,000 (listings and auction results, 2021 and 2026). Ordinary Pandas remain very cheap; 4x4 and Sisley cars carry a large premium and clean examples now regularly pass US$20,000.