Fiat × Habitat

Announced April 8, 1981, at the Habitat shop on Tottenham Court Road, the Panda 45 Habitat was the first British special edition of Fiat's new small car. Conran had been telling anyone who would listen that the Panda was a piece of furniture with an engine in it. Giugiaro, asked by Fiat Auto (UK) for his view, agreed, and asked only that nothing structural be moved.

So nothing structural was moved; it was added to. Mantovani's tubular seat frames and rolling rear bench stayed, but Conran Associates gave the bench four fold-down tubular legs and two wing nuts, so it could be lifted out and stood in a garden as a two-seat settee. Every soft surface went into navy and white cotton ticking with zip-off covers washable at 40 degrees, each carrying a sewn-in Habitat care label. The full-width dashboard shelf took five loose canvas boxes, the roof rolled back onto slatted beech rails, and the boot got a beech floor over a chrome wire grid lifted straight from the shop's storage range. The gear knob was turned from the same beech as the butcher's-block trolley.

The motoring press were puzzled. Autocar called it 'a Panda with a soft-furnishings budget' and timed the bench removal at 3 minutes 40 seconds. The Observer's design pages ran it across a spread opposite a folding Bistro chair. Habitat sold a matching single duvet, cut to the exact size of the flattened rear bench, for £29.50.

To get the launch car onto the first floor at Tottenham Court Road, the shop took out a window and craned it in on a Sunday morning. It stayed eleven weeks between the kitchen department and the paper lanterns, with its rear bench standing on its legs beside it, and staff reported customers asking the price of the settee without noticing the car.