#sometimes i wonder why i bother tagging my posts with every single vehicle i mention

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

Of course! I wrote about some!

But it's even less surprising than you'd think: these are three car brands, but only two groups.

Indeed, in '76 Citroën and Peugeot merged to form PSA, for "Peugeot and 'it's pronounced Sitrone' Automobiles" (remember I do run @bad-etymology so don't trust me blindly on acronym meanings). So most Citroën and Peugeots are just the same basic car, not just C1 and 107 but also, say, C-Crosser and 4007,

or C8 and 807,

and this design was also worked on by Fiat, hence the Fiat Ulysse and its quote unquote fancier "you really think you're too good for a Fiat Ulysse but you really aren't" cousin the Lancia Phedra...

...themselves successors of the first time of PSA and Fiat joined forces on an MPV chassis, the Citroën Evasion, Peugeot 806, first generation Fiat Ulysse and Lancia Zeta (btw, notice how all of these are examples of minivans with a hinged third window for the third row seats! That's where the post started from, if you understandably forgot).

And this is to say nothing of the Berlingo and Partner!

The current generation is sold as:

Citroën Berlingo

Peugeot Partner

Fiat Doblò (which used to be its own thing but now merged with these)

Opel Combo (which used to be its own Corsa-based van but then merged with the Doblò which now merged with all these)

Vauxhall Combo (because for some reason they sell Opels as Vauxhalls in the UK, mabye the Brits are scared of that pointy Opel badge?)

Toyota City ProAce (I genuinely have no clue why)

Yes, you only get one picture, because I don't want to bother finding them all in the same pose. (This badge abundance actually seems to be a theme in commercial vehicles for some reason.)

And if you like this stuff, boy does the Volkswagen group have cars for you! Seat Mii, Volkswagen Up and Skoda Citigo? Same car!

Seat Exeo and Audi A4? Same difference!

Hell, the Seat's engine probably has a VW logo underneath!

As indeed sharing has many different forms - I couldn't even begin to go over all the cars that have completely different bodies but share the same core platform underneath, mainly because, as is the case for Citroën ZX and Peugeot 306, I often have absolutely no idea (I only found it out through looking for pictures for this post!).

Hell, the Volkswagen group developed the MQB platform specifically to make a fuckton of different vehicles with it (and they sure did, the list is in the dozens)!

And now that they're switching to electric (haha, can't have emissions scandals now!) you're gonna see the MEB platform even more, as it's basically just a scalable skateboard you design whatever body over.

This to say, there's many, many different levels of sharing, from "literally the same car with as little changed as needed to house a different badge" (as codified by Berlingo v. Partner) to "the same core car with some parts restyled to match the brand's style" (Aygo v. C1 v. 107) to "the same underlying platform with a different body on top" (ZX v. 306 and Micra v. Pike Cars) to parts sharing, which is nigh on universal!

See, either you're low volume enough that it makes no sense to face the costs of engineering things like wiper stalks and window switches (or even distinctive parts like lights if you can get away with it), or, if you make enough cars for engineering all those things to be worth it, you'll design them to be used across all or at least most of your fleet. This especially goes for engines, see the LS engine as a good example of both.

There are also some extremely interesting and downright hilarious rebadges, but I've been waiting to hit post on this shit for over a week, so that'll come when it comes.

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!

so, I found out about the fact that apparently the fiat panda, has been getting 4x4 variants today.

and I thought them to be too interesting not to share them with the world. Which was the moment I realized that you may be the best way of doing that, as you probably also have some cool, and weird facts/opinions about this weirdly amazing, and surprisingly cool looking car.

Indeed I do, and I wrote them up in this post! And if you feel bad about not having seen that post and/or thought to search for Fiat Panda on my blog (we are assuming that the search function would work, though, which as I found is not at all a guarantee even when you explicitly search for a tag I have used verbatim), worry not - as not only are you going to get more Panda words out of me than you could possibly have asked for, but you gave me the chance to post about an incredible detail about the original Panda I had forgotten to mention there!

See, there are cars where the front and rear windows roll down electrically (not electronically, by the way, those are two different things) as standard. There are cars (yes, even today) in which the front windows roll down electrically as standard, but the rear windows that roll down electrically are an optional extra. And then there was the Mk1 Panda, in which... all the windows were manual only, you might guess I'm going to say. But no: surprisingly, they were offered with optional electric front windows. The rear windows though?

You got a hinge that opened up this much. Now, I should note this is not that unique, such windows have been used by cars as upmarket as the Accord Aerodeck and as modern as the first generation Toyota Aygo/Peugeot 107/Citroën C1 (they were the same basic car), and even some minivans for the third row seats - it's what you do when space or other constraints make rolling the window into the body impossible; and having been in the back of an Aygo I can also attest that they are reasonably effective. So no, the Mk1 Panda is not the only car that had such a rear window. However it is the only car I know of in which it wasn't standard. That's right, the Fiat Panda was so goddamn basic that a manual rear window that didn't roll down was an option. Absolutely amazing. I love this car.

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!