During my last holiday I, like probably many, used a rental car. And it’s nice: such a car often brings surprises. That was also the case with previous holidays. And that tradition continued this time as well.
That holiday went to Mallorca. A fairly large island, to which you only fly in practice. Yes, you can drive to Barcelona and then take the ferry, but it will easily take a few days. If you want to be a bit mobile on that island, a rental car is quickly a must. And because it was for a week, in the summer holidays, we just chose the smallest one. Enough for me and my partner and of course nice and cheap. Moreover, it gives options for surprises. Our experience was several times that the smallest car is not there. For example, a few years ago in Scotland we got a Vauxhall (Opel) Tigra (you know, that cool coupée) instead of the Nissan Micra. A nice upgrade because the Micra was not there. And very nice to tour through that country. In the US we usually got a nice middle class car that way because the small one was not in the garage. Always at no extra cost. It also happened the other way around: where we had in mind a Dodge Charger in the US as a rental car, we got a Ford Taurus. Apparently the same class. Swallowing but the endless collection of online radio stations aroused our surprise while driving. And it probably didn’t drive as dynamically, but quite okay. Another time, the ordered Hyundai i10 sedan (in the US) was available. You had to manually turn the windows down. But no disaster, that was January too…
Back to Majorca. After waiting for the shuttle bus, five minutes from the airport, we indeed received the keys of the booked Fiat Panda. Neat cart, except for a few dents (of which only one was reported, so we walked back to the office). That didn’t spoil the fun. The tank was full and our four suitcases size hand luggage fit exactly in the trunk. Nice windfall. I actually liked to drive just this car, because about thirty years ago I drove some of these cars with great pleasure from the first generation Panda (after the facelift). Made long journeys, in the Netherlands but also within Europe.
The latest edition cannot of course be compared with that… but by current standards it is fairly basic. After all: adjusting mirrors by hand, no reversing camera, no beepers and bells on the corners, no cruise control – let alone dynamic -, manual gearbox, pressing a button to open the locks of the car and putting the key in the lock to to start (we have been spoiled for years with hybrid and electric cars that have a button start and automatic transmission). But I already wrote about that in the previous blog.
After five minutes I was used to the car. Seating position set and it rode quite nicely. No, you don’t shy away from the paving stones with the Panda with its 1.2 liter engine with 69 hp, but to be honest, I thought it was surprisingly nice to drive. And in a week’s time I have come to appreciate the car in daily use. He comes (with considerable forwarding) well with the traffic, was practical to use and with outside temperatures above 35 degrees (all week, not one day), the air conditioning was also very nice. Now most roads in Mallorca are fairly flat. So that doesn’t ask for much. However, we also took a look at the west of the island. In contrast to the rest of the island, this is even mountainous. So climb hard and take hairpins – if you’re looking for a route to steer nice on Mallorca, you should definitely drive from Soller via the coastal road to Andratx for example (or the other way). On that road the Panda actually turned out to be a climbing goat. Direction Pollenca is also possible, but we did not take that road.
After a week, the moment came when we had to say goodbye to our rented four-wheeled holiday group. Something had become clear to me: this is a car that I would like to have in the driveway. Simply, because it is a car that does what you expect it to do. You feel what you are doing. In addition, it is just nice and practical (friends had rented the same car, but this was a family with a pram and more luggage and with some Tetris-esque puzzling it all fit right in). And although you may not laugh at everyone with it like the TV commercials used to show, this Panda did put a smile on my face.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl