Today the Panda had its 12000 mile service, after less than 6 months of ownership! In the end, after deliberation, I had the car serviced at my local Fiat dealer.

I had been told (over the phone) that the service would be about £150. This turned out to be the labour charge. With the parts on top, (which was basically 3 filters and the usual rip-off priced oil) it came to a total of £238.99.

That wouldn't have been so bad, had it not been for three things which I didn't notice til later.

• A "miscellaneous item" in the invoice for £4.99 - no idea what it is.
• The invoice says semi-synthetic oil, the handbook says use synthetic
• After a day of driving, I felt the handling wasn't right, so checked the tyre pressures first of all. They had been reset from (the correct values of) 32psi front, 26psi rear to the (totally made-up) values of 30psi all round.