Panda won’t pop
1993 FIAT PANDA 1.1 SELECTA
With the Scandi-classics on my fleet proving un-Swedishly unreliable, the Panda has taken on more than its fair share of driving duties, increasingly pressed into longer, higher speed distances (over 100 miles). During a recent (troublefree) Norfolk jaunt, it clicked over to 50,000 miles – when I bought it, in February 2016, its odometer read 36,600.
It commemorated this significant landmark by going wrong. I’d been to the cinema, and when I tried to drive home afterwards, the Panda started briefly, got a little way up the road, then promptly died. This was a double disappointment – the movie had been so boring, I fell asleep. Twice. Actually, it turned into a triple disappointment, because I couldn’t get the bonnet open. The cable wouldn’t pop the lid. So I walked home. Around midnight. In the middle of a storm. Cursing Fiats.
I returned the following day with tools, and my partner Dianne. Between the two of us, we got the bonnet open, with the help of pliers on the release wire inside and a hefty screwdriver as a lever outside. But this revealed little amiss. I called the RAC and entertained myself while waiting by hinging up the rear seat and checking the fuel pump underneath. It seemed old but still sound and working.
When Karl from the RAC arrived, the Panda’s malady bemused him as much as it did me – as much as he seemed to enjoy working on such a basic car again. There was fuel. It was getting through. There was a spark at the plugs. But still the engine wouldn’t fire. Not even a polite cough. One thing he did notice was what looked like mice teethmarks on the HT leads. Had the Panda been assaulted by rodents?
‘Have you been towed before,’ Karl asked? ‘I’ve owned eight Allegros,’ I responded. ‘Oh, well, you must have been then,’ he replied. And so the big orange van towed the little green Fiat home in disgrace. Investigations will continue…