Fiat Grande Panda Review & Prices

The latest Fiat Panda is here in all-new, retro-futuristic Grande Panda form. It’s a small, jacked-up hatchback with plenty of retro charm and lots of space inside, but the cabin feels low-rent and it’s unrefined to drive.

Still, it’s near-impossible not to crack a smile when you see one on the road. It’s a nostalgia heavy-hitter, with pixel-themed design touches and so many nods to the past; like dusting off your old video game console and playing split-screen with a mate.

It’s not the only small hatchback on sale at the moment, with the Toyota Aygo X, Renault Clio and the mechanically similar Citroen C3 to consider. Bear the equally retro Renault 5, Honda Super N and the funky Hyundai Inster in mind, but these all-electric city cars are more akin to the battery-powered Grande Panda Electric.

In fact, that electric trio - plus the Renault-based Nissan Micra - are the only small cars which are quite as eye-catching as the Grande Panda. With its upright stance, chunky body cladding, pixelated LED lights and enormous ‘Panda’ logos stamped into the doors, the dinky little Fiat is a truly joyous thing to behold.

Things get even wackier inside, with an oval-shaped dashboard inspired by a historic Fiat Turin test track, which houses yet another oval - this time in lime green acrylic, surrounding the 10.0-inch driver display and 13.0-inch infotainment screen. Behind that is an upholstered cylinder spanning the width of the dash, and while it all sounds like a lot, it looks brilliant in reality.

Oh, and almost everything is made of blue plastic - not black - which is much more fun to look at. Shame it’s all so scratchable, however, and feels so cheap.

There’s plenty of storage space inside, with twin gloveboxes separated by a storage shelf, a wireless phone charging pad with a small tray ahead of it, long door bins, a hidden armrest cubby and a pair of cupholders, too.

It’s easy to get comfortable in the Panda, though the seating position is a touch too upright compared to the Renault 4 and Nissan Micra. Rear seat space is the real surprise, because there’s a generous amount of legroom to go with the tall roof. The 412-litre boot is far bigger than in any of its small hatchback counterparts.

At the other end of the Grande Panda you’ll find a 1.2-litre hybrid engine and automatic gearbox (a petrol manual version is on the way), shared with the Citroen C3 Aircross and Vauxhall Frontera. Fiat claims 56.5mpg, but we only saw 43.5mpg after a week of living with the car.

In many ways the Grande Panda is the perfect city car, with light steering, a peppy engine and lots of suspension travel to deal with big bumps. Unfortunately, visibility all round is pretty poor on account of thick pillars and an obtrusive rear-view mirror, and it does thud over bad roads.

There’s a touch of wind noise on the motorway, but it’s not too bad, and though there’s a fair amount of body lean it’s actually pretty fleet-footed on a country lane.

Verdict

The Fiat Grande Panda is a stand-out choice for an easy-to-drive, stylish and practical city car. It’s not quite as chic as the Renault Clio, not as fuel efficient as a Toyota Aygo X and not as comfortable as a Hyundai Inster, but its rugged charm earns it lots of brownie points. It’ll make for a great first car, too.

Check out the latest Fiat Grande Panda deals as well as Grande Panda leasing deals. You can also browse used Fiats from our network of trusted dealers, and when the time comes to sell your car, Carwow can help with that, too.

Starting at just under £19,000, the Fiat Grande Panda Pop offers solid value for money considering its standard equipment such as rear parking sensors, LED lights and wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto.

It’s tempting to upgrade to a £20,000 Icon model with gloss black trims and tinted rear glass, or even the £22,000 La Prima to get the bamboo dashboard trim and some snazzy alloys, but there’s a kind of pleasant honesty about a basic Pop with its lack of roof bars.

The Citroen C3 is the most obvious alternative to the Grande Panda, as both cars are similarly priced and they’re identical under the skin, or you could spend slightly more and get a Skoda Fabia which has a roomier interior (albeit a smaller boot). While a basic Dacia Sandero is nowhere near as stylish as a Grande Panda, it would save you around £4,000 up front, which is not to be sneezed at.

The Grande Panda is comfortable over speed bumps, but potholes shake it about

In town

The benefit to the Grande Panda’s tall suspension and relatively big wheels is the high seating position, which helps when peering through traffic. Unfortunately, the obnoxiously thick front pillars and an oddly prominent rear-view mirror make it seem as though you’re looking at the world through wardrobe door slats - just like you’re hiding in a horror movie.

At least the flat bonnet with its square corners helps to place the car on the road, while the light steering takes the strain out of parking.

Take it easy when putting your foot down out of a junction though, as the little Fiat has a tendency to spin a front wheel before traction control kicks in, while the gearbox is occasionally jerky and dim-witted. At least the brake pedal is well-judged.

What doesn’t help when parking are the enormous rear pillars and small door mirrors. Standard-fit rear parking sensors mitigate this to a certain degree, but over-the-shoulder visibility really is poor.

Another advantage of the tall suspension is that the Grande Panda is unfazed by large speed bumps, though it does occasionally have a little bounce over the other side. Sharp potholes and cracked roads unravel the Grande Panda a touch, sending jolts through the seats and steering wheel.

On the motorway

The Grande Panda doesn’t feel out of place on the motorway, though it takes its sweet time getting up to the national speed limit. Overtakes therefore require a bit of planning, and a lot of patience.

There isn’t too much road noise once you’re cruising, but the side pillars generate a bit of wind noise right next to you and your passengers’ heads. There’s some tyre roar too, but it’s not too intrusive.

On a twisty road

This is where Grande Panda surprises, because while far from sporty, it’s quite fun to hurl down a good country lane. There’s plenty of grip from its tyres, and though the steering is overly light and totally vague, it feels quite agile.

A downside to the quick steering is the Fiat’s tendency to wobble when changing direction. It’s not disconcerting, but combined with the bouncy suspension over bumps and crests at higher speeds means you’re better off taking it easy.

Still, this is no hot hatch and it performs rather well for such a cheap, tall little car. It’s more entertaining than its Citroen C3 counterpart, for example.

Plenty of space inside for four adults, but getting five inside is a struggle

It’s little surprise that such a boxy little hatchback offers up a lot of headroom for front seat passengers, but it’s the storage space in the Grande Panda that impresses the most. The seats are highly adjustable, and the steering wheel can move up-and-down as well as in-and-out - which isn’t a given in cheap small cars.

On paper the 13 litres of interior cubbies doesn’t sound like much, but in practise the double gloveboxes (one below the dash, one in the curious cylindrical pod), shallow shelf sandwiched between then, decent door bins, wireless phone charging pad and extra cubby between the front seats mean there’s loads of space for odds and ends.

A wireless phone charging pad comes as standard, while the cupholders come with adjustable inserts for different-sized beverages.

Space in the back seats

Space in the back of the Grande Panda is really rather good. Again, thanks to its boxy shape there’s loads of headroom compared to other small hatchbacks such as the Renault 5 and Peugeot 208. It’s a rather narrow car, that being said, so you’ll struggle to fit three adults in - especially as the centre console protrudes back into the footwell at the back.

There are seat-back pockets on both front seats, while handy little pouches above those are perfect for storing phones - meaning your rear passengers won’t have to awkwardly dig into their pockets to check messages on the go. I’d hate to see what dirty phone cases do to the white upholstery after a few years of sliding into them…

You’ll find a pair of ISOFIX child seat anchors on the outermost rear seats, but the zip-up fabric covers are annoying and fairly easy to snag with the hooks on your car seat.

Boot space

The boot is the Grande Panda’s piece-de-resistance, offering a mighty 412 litres of cargo capacity - more than you get in the much larger Volkswagen Golf and Toyota Corolla.

It’s not a very clever space, though, with only a pair of hooks and tie-down points to stop things rolling around. The load lip is particularly large, which is annoying for heavy items, and the seat backs don’t fold entirely flat like they do in a Hyundai Inster.

It’s stylish and fun inside, but the Grande Panda’s cabin feels very cheap, for the most part.

In a classic case of style over substance, Fiat has absolutely nailed the Grande Panda’s interior design. It’s weird enough to be fun without being outright strange, and the generous standard kit makes the car easy to live with.

You get a pair of screens as standard, and they’re the same in all trim levels - a 10.0-inch driver display and a 10.3-inch touchscreen infotainment. The instrument cluster is clear and easy to read, as you tap the end of the wiper stalk to toggle through the efficiency and music menus on the right side of the screen.

The infotainment is fairly basic, with a simple-to-navigate layout and large on-screen buttons which are easier to press than on a lot of systems. Even better to use are the physical climate controls mounted below (manual on Pop and Icon trims, automatic on the La Prima version).

Another win for common sense are the physical ADAS buttons, which sit next to the USB-C chargers and 12V connector. With a simple press-and-hold you can disengage the speed limit bong and the active lane assist, far easier than prodding through the menus.

It’s a shame the same sensibility couldn’t be applied to the Grande Panda’s interior material choices. The slab of gloss black plastic on the centre console was already awfully scratched-up on the almost-new test car we drove. The blue plastics on the dash and door cards may look funky, but they’re just as easy to scratch as the gloss materials, so families with young children beware.

The sole 1.2-litre hybrid engine in the Grande Panda is the same unit you’ll find in the Citroen C3 and Vauxhall Frontera, both of which are closely related to the Fiat under the skin. With 110hp at your disposal the Fiat is modestly nippy and highly efficient on the move.

Fiat claims the Grande Panda will see around 56mpg in everyday driving depending on trim, but we haven’t managed to match that on either of our occasions with the Grande Panda. On a country-lane heavy route at the car’s launch we saw 48mpg, but after a week of city and motorway driving that figure dropped down to 43.5mpg.

Considering a Toyota Aygo X can achieve upwards of 80mpg with little fuss, that’s a bit disappointing from the Fiat.

CO2 emissions of 115g/km in the entry-level Pop and 117g/km in the Icon and La Prima versions mean the Grande Panda sits in a low road tax bracket, and all versions duck under the luxury car supplement threshold. Company car drivers are better off with the Grande Panda Electric, however, which offers lower Benefit-in-Kind costs through a work scheme than the hybrid.

The Grande Panda has yet to have been tested by Euro NCAP, as is also the case with Citroen C3 and Vauxhall Frontera with which it shares its basic architecture. We’ll have to wait and see how it performs, but its standard fit assistance systems should put it in good stead for a respectable result.

*the basic three-year warranty is extended by a year with each approved service

Fiat came an unimpressive 21st out of 31 brands in the 2025 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, which isn’t a particularly reassuring result. Considering its mechanical similarity with Vauxhall (4th place) and Citroen (7th place), we can hope the Grande Panda fares well in the real world.

The Grande Panda comes with an industry standard three-year, 60,000-mile warranty. Again, this is nothing to shout from the rooftops about considering the Kia Picanto offers seven years and 100,000 miles of cover, while the Toyota Aygo X can be extended up to ten years and 100,000 miles with annual servicing.