The Fiat Panda 4x4 Piccolo Lusso Is A Restomod Of Adorable Proportions

Remember when a restomod usually meant spending lots of time and money on something like a Porsche 964? Things are a little different now. We’ve seen some surprisingly new cars given the treatment (see the recent 997 911-based Edit Automotive g11), and in the case of this Fiat Panda 4x4 Piccolo Lusso, some rather humble ones.

But here’s the thing - over the years, the original Panda has morphed from a workhorse seen on the roads in abundance to a rarity with iconic status. And that’s particularly the case for the 4x4 model, good examples of which we’ve seen fetch more than £10,000. With that in mind, perhaps this new project from Niels van Roij Design isn’t as unexpected as it might first appear.

The firm - which we first learned about via a ‘shooting brake’ converted Tesla Model S back in 2020 - worked on this project with Kaeve Cars. The starting point was a Panda 4x4 Sisley, a special edition version of the car known for its logo, featuring a canoeist. On the Piccolo Lusso, this logo can be found on the headrests, inner door panels and the steering wheel.

This goes nicely with a gorgeous interior retrimmed in brown leather and cream fabric, said to be “reminiscent of Mediterranean architecture”. The Med was a general theme for the car, hence the lovely ‘Azzurro Blu’ paintwork, and the teak decking in the boot. 

The press release is short on detail when it comes to the restoration process, but from Niels van Roij’s social media channels, we can see that the Panda was stripped back for its bodywork to be tidied up ahead of the respray. The donor car was described as a “diamond in the rough”.

We also don’t have any technical details for the car, but we can’t imagine much has been done there. As standard, the Panda 4x4 Sisley uses a 1.0-litre inline-four.

The Piccolo Lusso is €30,000, which works out at just under £26,000. Considering where Panda prices are at right now, and the amount of work that's gone into this thing, that doesn't seem so bad. 

There are more restomods incoming from Niels van Roij, too, as the Panda is intended to preview “an upcoming portfolio of reimagined classics that blend heritage with contemporary design.”