Panda 100hp Is a great car little car. They are pretty harshly sprung mind you – even more so than my abarth which shares the same basic platform. Things to look out for:
3rd gear synchro / selector rings on the 6-speed box. I have two of these sitting in my garage and have swapped them between the floor of the garage and my track day cinquecento regularly over the past 5 years. You won’t notice it unless you drive it like it’s meant to be driven. Usually manifests itself as graunching noises doing rapid downshifts from 4th to 3rd. One of my boxes is starting to do it from 5-4 as awell. Eventually it gets so bad that the selector dogs give up and you lose drive through 3rd all together. Rebuild is about 350 + 50 for the new synchro assembly. When they work properly the shift should be light, incredibly quick and positive.
Cam belt. Easy to change, just often neglected at 60k by so many people nowadays. Do the water pump and tensioner as well. Once you’ve learned that the redline is 7200rpm you’ll want to use it every day on every drive.
Rear wheel bearings. If they’re the same as on the abarth they’ll be seemingly made by the same monkeys that supply raceface.
Rear ride. The problem with the rear ride is that the thing is so low it sits on its bump stops. You can easily fix this by replacing the stops with those for a fiat coupe. They’ll need bonding in place but it’s a dead simple task and transforms small bump sensitivity and ride in general.
Spoiler. The teeny tailgate spoiler is bonded to the boot lid. Sadly this means fitting a boot rack is pretty much impossible without breaking the spoiler.
Red key. It won’t have one so don’t panic if it doesn’t. It will have a <<2 sign on the key which means that it’s the second generation of the infamous fiat immobiliser system. They’d done away with the red key by then.
Dealers. As you’ve already seen, fiat dealers are shocking (I can say this with some authority having had fiats in the family for 40 years and about 20 different models. My future brother in law even works in one). They run on minimal staff training and are more interested in getting you to swap up to a new model than fix anything properly. Don’t be put off then by a service history devoid of main dealer stamps. Probably means it’s been well looked after.
If my 500 abarth didn’t exist I’d definitely have one. A proper fun annoying (to others) little fiat. 😈