Happy Birthday Fiat Panda. The winner the prestigious European Car of the Year honours back in 2004, the Polish-made car first went on sale in its 'home' country in August 2003, which means that this month it is celebrating its fourth anniversary, report Polish Automotive Market Research Institute, Samar. Interestingly, the tiny Panda would have been given an entirely different name had it not been for pressure from Renault which said that the Gingo tag, chosen by Fiat for its newcomer back in 2003, sounded too much like the French firm's long-established Twingo model.

Built at the Fiat Auto Poland plant in Tychy, the Panda was first launched in Poland back in August 2003. That year sales of the new A-segment model reached 12,873, while in 2004 this total rose to a peak of 28,000. This was followed by 12,991 (2005), 10,231 (2006) and 5,563 from January to the end of July this year. As a result, Fiat's Panda is currently the top-selling car model in its market category here.

The Panda has also been selling very well in major other European countries, as evidenced by the latest market registration figures in Italy, for example. In July, the Panda sold 13,151 units there, becoming the country's second best-selling car model behind the Punto. On a year-to-date basis, the Panda is in second place overall behind the Punto (151,345 vs. 117,029), leading by a handsome margin ahead of the number three, Ford's Fiesta. In Germany, Europe's most demanding car market, the Panda was the fourth best-selling model in its category last month, with 1,195 units finding buyers. On a year-to-date basis, it was also ranked fourth with 8,907 units, behind the VW Fox, Smart Fortwo and the Toyota Aygo.

In the UK, the Panda is celebrating a second major honour this year, after winning Britain's City Car of the Year in the 2007 Auto Express New Car Honours for the fourth time in succession.
 

This latest award follows the Panda’s Best Small Car category win in the same magazine’s 'Used Car Honours' earlier this year, the latest in a long line of press approval.

Voted Car of the Year 2004 by a 56-strong international jury of senior motoring journalists late in 2003, the Panda has since attracted a stream of awards from the media, which has been repeatedly impressed by its winning combination of environmental compatibility, low running costs, residual value, build quality, space, refinement, big car feel, comfort, driving pleasure and value for money. Auto Express, Britain’s biggest selling weekly car magazine, bestowed its own ultimate accolade in 2004 when Panda won the magazine’s Car of the Year award, along with Budget Car and City Car titles. It is the latter accolade which Panda has now secured for an unprecedented fourth successive year, despite ever increasing competition in the category.

Year-to-date sales of the Panda in the UK are comparable with the Polish market level, at 5,533 units, for a 4.73 percent improvement over the same period of last year. In the January-June period, Panda was Fiat's second best-selling model across Europe overall, with 148,946 examples finding homes over the region (2006: 125,244). In June alone, Panda sales reached 22,617 (2006: 22,570), ranking behind Fiat's current top-seller, the Grande Punto/Punto with 37,067.

Report courtesy of Samar