Road Test: Fiat Panda 0.9 TwinAir [85] Trekking 5dr

This is an ongoing dilemma. Why would you buy a FWD version of a 4WD car? It's not like the difference in fuel economy is going to be the deciding factor here (61 vs 57mpg); neither, realistically, is the drop in monthly repayments (£20).

Yet people are buying them in droves. Everyone, from Nissan to Renault, has an SUV-lite with two-wheel drive in their sales brochures. Hence the Panda Trekking you see here: a 2WD version of the fabulous 4x4. The Trekking has all the butch plastic panels and increased ride height of the 4x4, just not the driven wheels. Which is fine, but, come the snow and ice and torrential rain, surely buyers of the Trekking will be ruing their lack of foresight as they sit, wheels spinning helplessly, while four-wheel-drive versions of the Panda simply saunter past.

But, you pays your money and you takes your chances. And, for most of the year, the UK's weather doesn't call for 4WD. Ultimately, the question for buyers must be: do you want to risk being stranded in the UK's worsening winters? Or do you just go 4x4?