The big boys may scoff, but I loved the diminutive yet surprisingly agile Fiat Panda 4x4



Having presented BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen since 2006 you’d think I would have had a lot of interesting conversations with our celebrity guests.



But you’re forgetting smartphones. A lot of guests spend every single second they’re not actually on air poking at Twitter, texts and Facebook.



They might as well have been born with their chins stapled to their chests, for all you see of them.

The Fiat Panda 4x4 looks like a city car but packs real cross-country skills. Being small and light, it can pull itself out of most trouble you're likely to come across

It’s not my style, and I’m the first to admit I’m way behind on all this stuff. Still, I couldn’t put it off forever.

So, as of a few weeks ago, I am on Twitter – and I’ve only got 84,000 followers to go before I catch up with Paul Hollywood.



If you want to join in, I’m @jamesmartinchef and I’ll do my best to keep you updated – maybe not every two minutes, like some I could mention. (Ollie Smith has one hand on a bottle and one on his phone at all times.)

But let’s all put our phones down and turn our attention to this week’s car, the perky little Panda 4x4. Petrolheads may have already turned the page.



I’ll admit it’s not the biggest status symbol on Earth, but I’ve really been looking forward to driving it.

Why? Well, it’s in a class of its own. There are small crossovers out there, like the Vauxhall Mokka I had a fortnight ago, but they’re not genuine off-roaders. They just look like it.



This is the opposite. It looks like a city car but packs real cross-country skills.

If you ask my mates Gennaro Contaldo and Antonio Carluccio, the Two Greedy Italians, they’d rather have one of these than a Land Rover. 4WD Pandas are well-proven on Italian hill farms.

The gearbox is high, but very easy to use, with a light clutch to go with the light steering

I’ve seen first-generation models (this is the third) from 1983, full of goats and still going strong.

Another reason I was looking forward to it is that I don’t often get a chance to properly test off-roaders, but when the Panda 4x4 turned up it had been snowing for a couple of days. (In March – bad luck, daffodils.)

I’ve often heard a small, light 4x4 is exactly what you want in the snow, so here was a chance to prove it.

The Panda has permanent all-wheel drive, which normally sends 98 per cent of the power to the front and if it senses that those wheels are slipping, it sends half to the rear instead.



Standard features include Bluetooth and a USB input for your iPod

If you’re doing under 31mph, you can press the ELD (electronic locking differential) button near the gear stick, which can brake any wheel that’s spinning and send torque to wheels with grip instead.

It’s brilliant for snowdrifts, especially with the mud-and-snow tyres that are fitted as standard.



Being small and light, the Panda can pull itself out of most trouble you’re likely to come across in this country.



I had the 1.3-litre turbodiesel, which is what you want in slippy conditions because diesels have more torque.

The other option is a 0.9-litre twin-cylinder petrol – a grand cheaper but less powerful. I would say the petrol would be more refined in daily use – petrols usually are – but I’ve driven Fiat’s twin-cylinder (in the 500) and although it’s a lot of fun it makes a noise that’s halfway between a tractor and a moped.

Refined isn’t really the word. The diesel is also a bit chuggy, but it gets about 60mpg to the petrol’s 57. The diesel’s gearbox is five-speed, the petrol’s six-speed. There’s not much in it.

The Panda’s cornering on this is not as good as the little Fiat 500, but you wouldn’t expect it to be: they’ve jacked up the ride-height by two inches for extra ground clearance (it’s got a raised air intake to allow deeper wading, too) and softened the suspension to soak up bumps and holes.



Obviously this makes it roll around a bit. But if you want a sports car, you’re not likely to be looking here.

You wouldn’t come here for devastating good looks, either. Inside it’s clean, modern and feels young.



But whereas the Fiat 500 gives you more colours and finishes than a lady’s nail salon, the Panda is simple hard-wearing matt plastic, which makes sense.

The driving position is very high for a small car and feels strange at first.



The gearbox is high, too, but very easy to use, with a light clutch to go with the light steering. The switches are simple and well-spaced, which is a big plus for me.

The standard features include sensible stuff like Bluetooth and a USB input for your iPod, with controls on the steering wheel.



The options list isn’t long, which makes a nice change.



The one thing I didn’t really like was the new seat covering ‘for improved airflow’. It looked like laddered tights to me.



There was plenty of room on the back seats but the same can’t be said of the boot, which won’t hold more than a couple of weekend bags.

So would I buy one? Hell, yes. This is a great little car. Sure, you’ll feel like an extra from Trumpton at first.



You may even be laughed at – but only by people who haven’t driven it. Their loss. This is practical, characterful, not too fashionable and not too expensive. No wonder a Yorkshireman likes it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s been seven hours since my last tweet. And as I’ve just been sitting here doing this, what the hell am I supposed to talk about?



I bet Justin Bieber doesn’t have this problem. I’ll get there in the end.



It's brilliant for snowdrifts, especially with the mud-and-snow tyres that are fitted as standard





TECH SPEC

£14,950 fiat.co.uk



Engine 1.3-litre diesel, four cylinders, turbocharged



Transmission Five -speed manual, four-wheel drive

Power 75hp



0-60mph 14 seconds

Top speed 99mph

Fuel consumption 60mpg

CO2 emissions 125g/km (£100/year tax band)









DRIVE TALKING

WHAT'S HOT ON THE ROAD THIS WEEK

Believe your eyes

The car we used to call the Colt was known as the Mitsubishi Mirage in Japan – and they’re resurrecting the name for a £8,999 small city car launching next month. The Mirage 1 will have a 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine producing 70hp, traction control and a five-speed gearbox. Mirage 2 and 3 will have 1.2-litre engines with Auto Stop & Go. All three get over 65mpg and emit less than 100g/km, making them (for the time being) VED and London Congestion Charge exempt.





The XJ gets an R

High performance Jaguars get an R after their name, but the current XJ hasn’t – until now. Launched at this week’s New York International Auto Show, the XJR will have a supercharged 5-litre V8 delivering 542hp, a bespoke chassis and improved aerodynamics. Price is to be announced. In other news, spies have spotted a new Jag being tested that resembles a BMW 3 Series. Rumoured to be called the XS, it could sell for around £25,000, making it the cheapest Jag – but is a few years off yet.





'Allo, 'Allo, Zoe

Electric cars aren’t going away. Sales are set to double this year – to 6,000 (compared with roughly two million normal cars). Range anxiety is a deterrent, but Renault is firmly pitching its Zoe as a city runabout. Based on the new Clio, its 90-mile range – 60 if it’s cold – should be enough for most urban journeys, and the £13,650 price is less offputting than some zero-emission cars. Its electric motor produces the equivalent of 88hp and can make a choice of three sounds to let pedestrians know you’re coming. It hits showrooms in June.



By Simon Lewis





Motoring's most memorable Merc

Unearthed: a true artefact of motoring history is this 1954 Mercedes W196 Formula 1 car

Bonhams auction house has unearthed a true artefact of motoring history: a 1954 Mercedes W196 Formula 1 car, driven by none other than the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio to victory in the German and Swiss Grands Prix, as he went on to win the title that season.



The car was a technological masterpiece by the standards of the age; featuring fuel injection, a tubular chassis, independent suspensions and an engine designed to sit as low down in the car as possible.



Since being sold from the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu more than 30 years ago, the car had disappeared – only to re-emerge this year.



Bonhams has hinted that a hammer price of £5 million is not unlikely when it goes on sale this summer at Goodwood, with some insiders predicting that it could sell for double that amount.



The year after Fangio’s victory, Mercedes withdrew their team from motorsport, after a disastrous crash at the 24 hours of Le Mans, in which 83 spectators died.