Once upon a time, Americans could buy a small, tall-roof hatch with all-wheel drive and a five-speed manual transmission for under $20,000. But they didn’t, and so the Suzuki SX4 crossover, a Euro-style MPV that was very capable in the snow and fun to drive, disappeared with the Suzuki car brand in 2013. That’s the nearest we’ve come to the 2017 Fiat Panda Cross, a champ of space, traction, and fuel economy that will never see a future on our roads.
At the Paris auto show, the Panda line of four-door hatchbacks displayed a slight refresh with only minimal styling alterations since the third-gen car made its debut for 2012. Although it looks nothing like the original Giorgetto Giugiaro?designed Panda hatch, which was a small-car fixture in other parts of the world from 1980 through 2003, the current Panda is Fiat’s sales breadwinner in Europe alongside the 500.
 
Available in front- or all-wheel drive in three separate models (Panda, Panda 4×4, and the butch, body-cladded Panda Cross), the Panda retains a diverse choice of powertrains, all with less than 100 horsepower. A 1.2-liter four-cylinder makes between 69 and 80 horsepower, depending on whether it’s configured for gasoline or a bifuel mode that lets the engine run off a separate tank of either natural gas or propane. There’s also a 95-hp 1.3-liter turbo-diesel four-cylinder, but the Continent’s favorite is Fiat’s 0.9-liter TwinAir two-cylinder, a raspy, ch...