OPINION: Ford’s shameless use of the ‘Capri’ badge could learn a lesson from Fiat

Fiat, master of small-car building, has done an excellent job with its latest offering. On paper, the new Panda could not be any more different to the old one – it’s bigger (hence the Grande), way more expensive, powered by electricity and uses underpinnings that are the equivalent of an office lavatory – half of Stellantis cars sit on the same platform. 

But you would struggle to know it. The Grande Panda takes styling cues from all the Pandas that have come before it. Its boxy nose and angular profile crease mimic the styling of the original 1980s model, and the D-pillar plastic flicks, like a lenticular print, between ‘Fiat’ and ‘/////’ (the company’s 1980s five-diagonal-line badge) depending on the angle you look at it. Its upright body and roof bars, meanwhile, are pure ’00s five-door. Pixel-like ‘X’ front LEDs, 3D rear LEDs and moody dark black plastics where once you’d have found washed-out greys and body colours act as a modern sauce dip.

The Grande Panda has more Easter eggs than Thorntons in April. ‘PANDA’ is pressed into the doors, ‘Fiat’ is stamped into the boot lid, you’ll find another ‘PANDA’ hidden in 3D lettering on a black background between the tail lights and more black ‘/////’ badges moulded in the tops of the wheel arches. The cherry on top comes in the form of the offset ‘Fiat’ badge in the grille, which is actually a flap hiding a sprung, retractable charging cable.

Surprise-and-delight touches like these hide that the Panda uses the same platform as everything from the Peugeot e-208 to the Citroën C3, Alfa Romeo Junior and Vauxhall Frontera.

Compared to the Grande Panda, the Frontera seems like an abject lesson on how not to revive a name. For a kick-off – why that name? 

Back in the 1990s, the original trendy Frontera rode the SUV wave, but terrible road manners and horrible reliability – regularly seeing the car at the wrong end of Top Gear’s JD Power survey – admonished any love we had for it. Even if there was warmth in our hearts for a new Frontera, there’s no crossover; the new Frontera looks nothing like the old one.

But if Vauxhall’s nomenclature is shambolic, Ford’s is sacrilegious. Not content with plagiarising the ‘Puma’ badge (a deeply loved little coupé that looked great and drove even better) and putting it on a small SUV – a good car but nothing like the original – it’s now slapped ‘Capri’ on a sloping roofed electric SUV and declared job well done.

That is a problem because the original Capri – unlike the Frontera – was an icon, a legend of its time. Europe’s Mustang was the car you wanted to own and be seen in, a blue-collar machine that brought sleek styling and six-cylinder GT performance to the masses – resurrecting it as an SUV looks like shameless marketing because, well, that’s exactly what it is.

While Fiat used the Grande Panda as an opportunity to rejuvenate the name with a modern powertrain that future-proofs the legend for a decade to come, Ford saw the ‘Capri’ badge as an ‘if you build it, they will come’ fast track to success. News that production of the Capri has been slashed at the company’s Cologne factory following a £1.6billion investment, surely surprises nobody but Ford.