• Decent room, considering its size
• Good boot space and folding rear seats
• Few neat practical touches in standard form

How much space is there?

You might be surprised by just how spacious the diminutive Fiat Panda is. The standard four-seat version can accommodate four adults comfortably, in part thanks to the substantial amount of headroom, so it’s a good choice if you regularly have a fair few passengers.

Versions with three-abreast rear seating, either with the folding rear backrest or 60/40 split-folding backrest, can just about accommodate three adults in the back. This is best reserved for occasional or short trips, though, as the city-car-sized Panda’s a fair bit narrower than most family hatchbacks.

At the very least, in any case, all occupants get windows that can be wound down – unlike in, say, the Citroen Cactus. And, in any seat, the Panda feels airy and relaxing, rather than uncomfortable, dark and hemmed-in.

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Boot space and storage

In the boot, the Panda 4x4 offers 225 litres of storage space. That’s equivalent to the likes of the Hyundai i10 and Ford Ka, but less than the likes of the 251 litres served up by the Volkswagen Up. However, if the Panda is equipped with the optional two-seat sliding rear bench, storage can be increased up to 260 litres. This does decrease the amount of room for rear passengers, but if you need boot space and not extra seats, it could be a viable option.

With the rear seats folded down, in any configuration, 870 litres of storage space is available. That’s 36 litres more than the previous generation of Panda, and should allow you to accommodate larger items without much trouble. Again, though, that’s still less storage space than offered by some regular city cars, such as the aforementioned Volkswagen Up and its derivatives.

While boot space isn’t a huge issue in the Panda, comparatively speaking, there are a few pitfalls. The boot has quite a tall lip, for one thing, so while it can easily accommodate a good amount of luggage or shopping, you do have to drop it in and lift it out.

A split-folding rear bench also isn’t standard in the Panda. The standard two-seat rear bench only folds down in one piece, but two- and three-seat rear benches with spilt-folding functionality are available. If you can’t find a Panda with split-folding seats fitted, it could pose a problem when you want to carry longer items and a passenger in the rear. The seats also don’t fold down flat and there’s a big step from the boot floor to the back of the seats, which can make loading and carrying larger items more of a chore than it would be in other lower-set cars.

You can, however, get a Panda 4x4 with a fold-down front passenger backrest, which allows you to create a load area that’s some two metres in length. You can also use the space created as a table or worktop, bolstering practicality. There are some other neat practical accessories, too, such as a cargo container for the boot. But, again, it would be nice if some of these were standard.

It’s a similar story up front; there are 15 storage compartments in total but many of them aren’t particularly helpful. The cupholders often only accept small containers, for example, while the large open compartment in front of the passenger can dump its contents on the floor if you drive the Panda with some verve. You can get some neat practicality-boosting features, such as a zip-on rear cover for the front seats that adds storage pockets and nets but, again, it’s a shame the Panda doesn’t just come with them.

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Is it easy to park?

The Fiat Panda 4x4 is a very easy car to park. It’s short and narrow, for starters, so it can fit into tighter spaces without much fuss. It’s also tall, more so than some bigger cars. This, combined with its high-set driving position and easily judged corners, means it’s often effortless to both see out of it and judge its position.

Because it has sensible tyres with tall sidewalls on it, and plenty of ground clearance, you also don’t have to worry about kerbs and bumps as much as in other cars, making it even less hassle to park. This only adds to the Panda’s friendly and easy-going nature.

If you’d prefer to have a little help, though, rear parking sensors were available as an option, so keep an eye out for them on used examples. You can often easily find the original rear parking system available online, and fitting isn’t too expensive.

View dimensions in the Fiat Panda 4x4 specs pages

Safety

• Low rating but not necessarily unsafe
• Zero-star rating now, originally four stars
• Competitors are better, however

When Fiat first submitted the third-generation Panda for Euro NCAP crash testing, the car earned a solid four-star rating. This put it on a par with many comparable hatchbacks. And, when the Panda Cross was tested in 2015, it earned a lesser but still passable three-star rating.

However, when retested in 2018, the Panda earned a zero-star rating. This wasn’t the result of it suddenly becoming unsafe overnight, though, but the result of continually changing Euro NCAP crash-test requirements. The Panda, having been left comparatively untouched since its launch, simply doesn’t have the technology required to perform well in today’s tests.

Standard safety equipment only includes four airbags, anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control, for example. Features such as City Brake Control, a low-speed autonomous emergency braking system, are optional – and there’s no adaptive cruise, blind-spot warning systems, or adaptive lighting systems. And, in the real world, elements such as the Panda’s weak halogen headlamps further make it less safe than alternatives with modern LED or bi-xenon systems.

But, that all said, it’s still the case that alternatives are far safer. A 2020-tested Mazda 2 has a five-star Euro NCAP rating, for example, as does a Honda Jazz. Consequently, compared to what else is around and by Euro NCAP standards, the Panda is not as safe as it should or could be.

Watch: Fiat Panda Hatchback Euro NCAP crash test