Description
The Panda 4x4 Scioneri is a handcrafted customized version of the historic Fiat Panda 4x4, probably one of the most iconic city cars on the Italian automotive scene. This special edition was not produced in Fiat’s series, but created in very limited numbers (perhaps even single units) by the coachbuilder Scioneri, based in Savigliano (CN).
The Scioneri Bodywork was an Italian company specialised in customised fittings, very active from the 1950s to the 1990s. It was known for its modifications of standard cars (mostly Fiats), with more elegant finishes or original aesthetic details.
There are no official data on mass production. Some sources state that the Panda 4x4 Scioneri was a unique specimen with the possibility that only a very small number of handcrafted units were made, on request or as display prototypes. It can be deduced that very few units remain in circulation, perhaps fewer than 10.
These Pandas were off Fiat’s price lists, so they did not appear in official catalogues. Indeed, the Panda Scioneri is famous for having been born almost as a protest.
We are talking about a very special FIAT Panda 75S that was wrapped in Alcantara and presented at the Turin Auto Show in 1990. Today the car is registered in 1992 and bears the CN number plate.
Until then Alcantara, a fabric made of polyester and polyurethane microfibre resembling a robust velvet, had found predominant use in furniture or as a covering for luxury car seats and trim.
The choice made by Scioneri was different and bold, as they used it on the exterior bodywork, generating quite a stir. In an interview given about twenty years ago, Renato Scioneri recounted that the Fiat Panda entirely covered in Alcantara constituted a subtle form of protest against FIAT, which left little room for manoeuvre to coachbuilders devoted to modifying cars, as Scioneri invaded the market with unique and customised versions.
The small Turin-based brand was certainly not lacking in originality, but it wanted to be unique in its kind and to remain so throughout all these years, gifting a timeless beauty while preserving Scioneri’s choice, namely to provoke, with subtle irony, about how there are fewer and fewer of these coachbuilders.
Today, of course, these small artisan workshops capable of taking a standard car and turning it into something unique no longer exist; was Scioneri right to create such a refined product?
We know for sure that that particular protest-build example attracted Italy’s most famous collector, Lo Presto, who bought it and exhibited it at the ADI Design Museum in 2024.
The car we propose has had 2 owners, the first owning it until 2 years ago.
Primavernice.
It is presented in excellent condition both cosmetically and inside, but above all it shows no trace of rust in the underbody, which remains original and untreated with anti-rust products that in some cases could mask repairs or oxidations.
There are also the extremely rare original metal wheel covers and its original roof rack.
Mechanically perfect, just had a service, four new Pirelli Winter 160 tyres installed (now almost impossible to find), new battery.
If you want a Panda 4x4 that is truly unique, don’t miss it. The Panda 4x4 Scioneri, in addition to being an Italian icon, combines the practicality of a compact car, off-road capabilities and the personality of a classic. I chose this car because it is a version produced in a very limited run (a few dozen) and it was realised by an iconic Italian entity that built and customised FIAT cars that are now part of history.
