Fiat Grande Panda hybrid is a bigger & better £19k version of the Italian classic that gives you everything you need

THE Fiat Panda is back – bigger and better than ever.

So it gets a new name. Say ciao to the Grande Panda. Five of you can fit if you breathe in a little. And your luggage.

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The Fiat Panda is back and it’s bigger and better than ever[/caption]

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Say ciao to the Grande Panda, starting at just £18,975[/caption]

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The car designers have poured creativity into every detail[/caption]

But as always, value for money is key. It must be ABC — “affordable but cool”.

You can get one as a petrol hybrid automatic, starting at just £18,975. Or electric for £20,975.

The Panda has always been the national car of Italy.

In the cities they’re simply everywhere, taking liberties through traffic lights and ditched at haphazard angles on the pavement.

In every village, rusty and dented examples bring leathery-faced old geezers to the cafe and the church.

Up the mountains, the 4×4 version reliably gets people to their isolated houses through mud and snow.

You might even spot the special-edition that was built to celebrate Italy hosting the 1990 World Cup.

The Panda Italia 90 was white with football hubcaps and logos of a footballing stick man. Loved that car.

The first generation was designed by the great Giorgetto Giugiaro, who likened it to a pair of jeans — simple, practical and unpretentious.

He obsessively cut its cost, giving it flat glass, hammocks for seats, and just the one windscreen wiper.

Then in 2003 an all-new one had a five-door body and was crowned European Car of the Year.

Unlikely as it seems for a tall and narrow tot, they made a hottish-hatch that became a cult object, the Panda 100HP.

The next generation was more rounded. It had a bigger boot too, so was even more useful. It only recently went off sale in the UK.

While Ford can’t sell you any small cars, Fiat now has three. Grande Panda, the posh little 500 city car and the 600, a slightly more family-sized semi-crossover.

We like them all.

The car designers have poured creativity into every detail. Outside, the letters PANDA are stamped in the doors. Pixel LED headlights give it a twinkling signature.

There’s 140 Tetra Pak’s worth of recycled material in the dash and door trims. That blue plastic is slightly iridescent because of the foil used in the cartons.

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The first model cost £2,860 in 1981[/caption]

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The Panda Italia 90 was white with football hubcaps[/caption]

If that’s not colourful enough for you much of the furniture has lumo yellow highlights and stitching.

It’s brighter than the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe. Driving it, you won’t get lost in endless baffling control menus, as there are none. Fiat gives you all you need but nothing you don’t want.

The screen basically just does radio, and phone mirroring for navigation.

No modes, no configuration, no beeping warnings. Well, there’s one for speed limits and one for when you drift off lane. They’re legal requirements.

Still, they have buttons to quickly turn them off if they misread the signs and lines. As these things do.

The electric version we tested is perky and quiet in town, stable on the motorway, and will do a real-world 150 miles between charges. Which is usefully more than the only cheaper electric cars.

The charging cable is in the nose. It pulls out and retracts like a garden hose so you don’t have to touch it when it’s grubby.

They’ll bring other cars in the Grande Pande’s spirit

Rob Gill

The suspension is decently supple — if it can do Italy’s cobbles and tramlines, it can do our potholes.

The petrol is a mild-hybrid with an auto transmission. We’ve driven that in other cars and it’s smooth and willing and frugal.

Fiat boss Olivier Francois told The Sun they’re working on a 4×4 version.

And they’ll bring other cars in the Grande Pande’s spirit, with boxy design and similar jewellery.

Likely there’ll be a “Mega Panda” (SUV to you and me) and a little four-door pick-up.

If you think Fiat’s small-car range is busy now, just wait a few years.

It’ll be panda-monium.