When you want to go to the snowy mountains right now!
Your car should be chosen based on the purpose of use, but up until now, I may not have seriously considered it that way. Since it was just a means of transportation, a 2WD was enough. But it was the right size for long drives without tiring me out, and if it broke, parts were easy to get, and it could be repaired at a nearby workshop, so I naturally chose a German-made FR sedan. Looking back, nearly half of my car history has been German.
But this time was different. I finally realized that I needed a 4WD vehicle. The reason is that I wanted to head to the snowy mountains without any worries when the time came. I also wanted to reach the entrance to the deepest part of the mountain, where the snow was quite deep.
As anyone with experience driving a front-wheel drive vehicle on snowy roads knows, I’ve had some pretty thrilling experiences up until now. But last year, I got slightly (or maybe it was a little) stuck on a mountain road, and I decided it was time to stop doing stupid things.
Which two cars made it to the final selection?
Of course, I chose the 6-speed manual transmission for driving.
So what should I get? My requirements were something that was good at driving on snowy roads, stress-free for everyday use, inexpensive, and compact. If I were to be greedy, I wanted something that was fuel-efficient and would make me excited about owning one. That’s because I’d never been excited about owning a German car before. I realized that my car life would be boring if I continued like that.
The two cars that made it to the final selection were the Jimny and the Fiat Panda 4×4, the smallest imported four-wheel drive vehicle. Personally, I thought the Panda was the best. Its seats are better suited for longer distances than the Jimny’s, and it also has the added appeal of a six-speed manual transmission powering the TwinAir engine I’ve always loved. The price is an issue, but I figured I could just buy one with a higher mileage. So, with 140,000 km on the clock and a vehicle price of 620,000 yen, I got a friend to buy it wholesale and got the Panda 4×4 for 520,000 yen, the cheapest in Japan.
Of course, things didn’t go as smoothly as expected, and the cost of getting the car inspected and maintaining each part added up to 200,000 yen. Furthermore, the propeller shaft center support bearing, which is a weak point of the Panda 4×4, had gone bad, so I added another 100,000 yen, and the price gradually increased.
Still, the question of whether to buy a problem-free used car at a reasonable price or to buy a car that is showing signs of trouble at a low price is a perennial theme for used car enthusiasts. My conclusion is that it is overwhelmingly the latter.
It’s more fun than I expected
I immediately changed to Dunlop’s all-season tires, Synchro Weather.
The first thing I did when the Panda 4×4 arrived in my garage was to thoroughly polish it with compound wax. Next, I changed the Chinese-made tires, which were making a lot of road noise, to Dunlop’s newly released SynchroWeather all-season tires. I also bought a pair of tire chains, so I’m all set.
I have test driven the third-generation Panda 4×4 several times, which has been released several times as a limited edition rather than a catalog model. I have not yet taken it to the snowy mountains, but I have previously test driven it in Hokkaido in winter, so I think I know there will be no problems at all.
When I started using it on a daily basis, I realized that driving the TwinAir + 6-speed manual transmission was more fun than I had expected. It has the feel of an “old car with air conditioning,” and I find myself revving the engine unintentionally, which is a secret as fuel economy gets worse every time I drive. I also like the seats, which don’t hurt my back on long trips. The equipment is minimal, with no navigation or ACC. But I prefer navigation on my smartphone, and with this much driving fun, I don’t need ACC! Let me just say that. It’s now been three months since I owned it, and the honeymoon is still going strong. All in all, it was a good purchase! And I’m sure it will be a long-term relationship. The snow-capped peaks are calling out to me and the panda!
