Fiat Grande Panda review

This isn't supermini generic. The furniture is all bold geometries and fancy-dress colours. A denim blue predominates, bordered by streaks of hi-viz yellow. Sounds like an offence against taste and decency, but somehow in most of our eyes it works.

Those seats are decently comfortable – unlike the 1980 Panda's hammocks – and the driving position is fine. Ahead is a screen with sparse information but it's presented with clarity and some lovingly designed fonts.

You'll likely use the touchscreen in phone mirroring mode most of the time. Fortunately it doesn't have much else to do, as the air-con controls are real knobs (base version) or buttons (top spec, which has auto climate).

In the back there's plenty of headroom, and it doesn't suffer the common EV problem of shortage of foot space under the front seats. The boot is short but deep, totalling 361 litres in the EV and 412 in the petrol.

The stereo is surprisingly smooth and spacious-sounding for a cheap car.