Boxy but foxy: How the humble Fiat Panda became motoring's least-likely design classic

At the International Concours of Elegance (The ICE) in St Moritz earlier this year, attendees were treated to a Slim Aarons' vista of auto exotica. In the ICE drivers’ paddock, against blue skies and white mountains, Bugattis, Ferraris and Alfa Romeos became dazzling Alpine stars. All immaculately presented, heartbreakingly beautiful, wildly expensive and mostly completely ill-equipped to cope with the snowy hill back to the Badrutt’s Palace King's Social House.

But parked just off the Concours's frozen lake setting, tucked behind the Loro Piano and Richard Mille hospitality tents, a three-strong fleet of small and capable, boxy vehicles built for slushy paths, steep and icy inclines, all keen and capacious enough to ferry logs and trunk-fulls of wine if required, attracted the attention of ICE’s alt-connoisseurs. Dinky, lightweight, butch-utilitarian and cute as a Swiss chocolate bunny the humble, 42 year old cheap-as-ciabatta Fiat Panda 4x4 is now the 'IT' car of the Engadin, driven by a cognoscenti of St Moritz residents who know that practicality and understatement is so much more chic than multi-zero horsepower and a flash paint job. (By the way, the Panda 4x4 in the middle of the trio, equipped with the wicker basket roof rack, for the transportation of skis, snow shoes and Christmas trees, belongs to Rolf Sachs; artist, ICE judge, St. Moritz resident and tastemaker.)

How did this happen? In a town where hulking, silly money, gas-guzzling SUVs and sleek German people-movers dominate the winding roads, and big Bentleys line up on five star hotel aprons like V8 Cerberus, how did the stocky, flimsy, narrow-tyred Fiat sneak into the party?

The story begins, as with so many things Italian and stylish, with Gianni Agnelli. Back in the 1980s, L’Avvocato (The Lawyer) would spend his winter weekends skiing in Switzerland, and playing house at the family’s mountain home, Chasa Alcyon, on St Moritz's Suvretta Hill. As the boss of the Fiat group, Agnelli could, of course, have had his pick of Ferraris, Lancias and even Alfa Romeos for his mountain holidays, but to go to and from the telepherique he preferred a silver Fiat Panda 4x4 Trekking. Regularly photographed in his all-in-one suit and hiking boots, removing skis from the car’s roof, Agnelli may have been playing the subtle brand ambassador. The 4x4 Panda, developed by the Austrian company Steyr-Puch, was brand new and audacious back then — the first small, transverse-engined production car to have four-wheel drive. Agnelli liked that this off-road-going version had a larger engine than the standard Panda, and a five-speed gearbox with a very low compression ratio which meant it worked well in the snow. Needless to say, the multi-millionaire industrialist’s unpretentious, contrapuntal vehicle choice became a major style statement and influenced generations of St Moritz-ers and Euro-epicureanists alike. Such is their popularity that there is now an official St Moritz Panda Club — the Instagram account is resolutely private.

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Now fully restored to its original condition (above), Agnelli’s Panda will be sold at auction by RM Sotheby’s on April 24 (bidding now open). The estimated sale price is somewhere between €20,000 - €40,000. Seventeen grand? For a Panda, you say? Mio amico, that would be a bargain. Right now, even regular Fiat Pandas, never mind ones with immaculate provenance and a top end restoration job, are hot property. Google 'Fiat Panda 4x4 for sale' and you’ll discover that £17,000 will probably just about buy you a good condition Fiat Panda 4x4 Sisley special edition (the olive green off-road Panda that came to the UK in the 1980s — Sisley being a popular Italian clothing brand).

Other desirable and rocking horse ordure-rare models include an Edizione Limitata 5000 with red Pirelli seats and a wild Missoni iteration with multi coloured bumper and door decals and an interior upholstered in the Italian fashion house’s distinctive zig-zag, op-art cloth. Plain, two wheel drive, Mk1 versions, with the minimalist Ital design front grille, are getting scarce and expensive too. Matt Hranek, author-photographer of the A Man And His Car book series and founder editor of WM Brown magazine, owns an original 1983 Panda in industrial taupe. 'I got very lucky,' he says. 'I was hunting around for this particular Panda for a while, but my Italian friend informed me that it would be easier to find an “A” condition Gull Wing Mercedes than it would be to come across a mint Mk1 Fiat.' Bought from the Italian classified site Subito, per un canto, Hranek and his wife Yolanda drove their Panda more than 1,000 miles across the continent where it now does market runs to and from Hranek’s house in Medoc, France.

'It’s amazing to find one in such good condition because, while Italians love and revere the Panda as a classic, truffle hunters and olive farmers also like to hammer them into the ground.' In Italy, says Hranek, people wave and cheer at Pandas in the street with the same enthusiasm and delight usually reserved for Ferraris. What’s the appeal? 'I love that it's a symbol of Italian utility — everything is so simple and basic but thoughtful — door hinges on the outside, windows and windscreens dead flat to save money, the dashboard shelf that is just a piece of loose cloth arranged like a hammock. The way that the seats fold all the way back to make a bed and how the back seat can be removed and converted into a bassinet ify ou are travelling with a baby. It’s Giugiaro genius in compact form.'

Giorgetto Giugiaro, who shaped Ferraris and Maseratis, James Bond’s Lotus Esprit and your Mum’s VW Golf, and was named car Designer of the Century in 1999, cited the Fiat Panda as his favourite ever creation. He also called it 'the fridge.' During the mid-1970s, the Italian master received a brief from Fiat to devise a simple and lightweight container-like vehicle as inexpensive as the Fiat 126 it would be replacing and clever and cute enough to take on France’s beloved Renaults and Citroens. Guigiaro and his designer partner Aldo Mantovani decamped to sunny Sardinia where the deck chairs and sun loungers on the islands beaches provided inspiration for the car’s multi-configurable seating.

The duo completed their design in a hot, August holiday fortnight naming it after Empanda, the Roman goddess and patroness of travellers. 'The Panda is like a pair of jeans: a simple, practical article of clothing without pretence,' explained Giugiaro. 'I tried to give it the essential quality of a military design — in particular a helicopter: something light, rational, and optimised for a specific purpose.' Like, making the snowy, morning drive from your Suvretta Hill schloss to the Corvatsch ski lift perhaps?