Built from 1980 to 2003, the Fiat Panda was conceived as a sort of modern Citroen 2CV. While it was not as innovative as the 2CV, it was still a fairly interesting car, and sold in various permutations including a ragtop, van, electric, and 4-wheel-drive, beating Subaru to the punch in the thriving 4wd city car segment. It was built with a number of Fiat legacy engines, donated by the 126, 850, and later the Uno, with which it shared the engines from Fiat’s FIRE series. The car’s designer was Giorgetto Giugiaro – yes, he of the Alfa Romeo 2600 sprint, Giulia GT, and Hyundai Excel. You can find this 1993 Fiat Panda for sale for $3500 in Downey, CA.
This car is part of the second-facelift series, benefiting from the Panda’s last facelift in 1991. That means it’s got 999cc under the hood, providing as much as 45hp on a good day! While early and late Pandas look very similar, they are actually vastly different mechanically – for example, this car has an independent rear suspension where the early cars had leaf springs on a beam axle. The car is said to have some rust on the doors, but to only have 33,000 miles. It’s the dual ragtop version, and also happens to be right hand drive.
Now, looking at the sole picture provided of the car, you might think something fishy is going on. European plates, likely photographed in Europe, listed in California where this would never get past smog testing – is this a S C A M ?? Who knows, but with this car you’re almost guaranteed priority parking at the next Best of France and Italy show down in Woodley Park in Los Angeles. The listing has been up for three days without being deleted for fraud, so create a fake email account, contact the seller and see if you get a real response or emails offering you car insurance, beautiful Russian brides and blue pills.
Rusty But Trusty 
February 22, 2014 at 1:40 pm |
One might need the little blue pills to live up to the beautiful Russian brides…..(though I doubt they’d be impressed by a Fiat Panda)
February 22, 2014 at 10:45 pm |
Sounds like an uphill battle- RHD, rust, one pic, unsmoggable, probably unregister-able- but dang.. I want it! It’s a good Renault LeCar runner up with that alleged ragtop.
February 24, 2014 at 10:04 am |
I know if I lived in Downey near Hayter and Hardwick, I’d be swinging by the location shown on the map in the listing to see if it’s actually there… you could take this back to Canada if you lived there.