Fiat Panda 'offers customers choice'

Fiat Panda 'offers customers choice'

The Fiat Panda's unique selling point is that it offers choice, the company's new senior product manager has claimed.

Speaking ahead of the third-generation model going on sale this week, Rob Lake said that just like the Fiat 500, the Panda offers customers choice.

Indeed, he noted that there are around 20 different models to choose from when taking trim levels and other options into consideration.

Disputing comparisons between the Panda and Volkswagen's new up! model, Mr Lake was cited by Car and Van News as saying that the up! is a small car, while the Panda is a small car with the feel of being a large car.

"The up! has a narrow model range with one engine; Panda has a wider range with four engines," he said.

Showing optimism in an increasingly competitive small car market, he suggested that the Panda and 500 are models that "real customers buy with real money".

The company hopes that it will achieve sales of 10,000 Panda cars, up from 6,000 last year, which ranked the model as the eighth best-seller of the year in the segment, the news provider reported.

Further boosting the Panda's place in the market, Fiat will launch two new versions, Trekking and Climbing, later in the year.

Posted by Louise Clark