test drives

By Tim Saunders

“Now, this is a snazzy little car,” says my wife Caroline as we sit in the Citroen C1 Connexion.

I can see why she instantly warms to it because it is a very girlie car with its lipstick red wing mirrors and door handles and its striking black finish. No sooner have I started driving it and another model exactly the same passes me with a young lady driving it. Unashamed I carry on regardless of the lipstick red edged rev counter, speedometer and door trim…

It is a very compact city car and surprisingly there is a good amount of legroom in the front and back, which puts competitors like the Fiat 500 to shame. Despite its blatantly female characteristics (as you can see in the video at testdrives.biz) if the hardnosed male motorist sticks with it, it provides a good driving experience. Yes, you’ll have to ignore the sympathetic stares from macho motorists in their Range Rovers and Mercedes and the ‘sweetie’ from the effeminate assistant at the garage forecourt. “It’s my wife’s car,” I mumble. Get over that and this Peugeot 107 by any other name (it uses the same floorpan and bodyshell) has a five speed manual gearbox and a 998cc petrol engine. You would be forgiven for thinking that this makes for a pretty dull car but because it is so light, just 805kg, it is possible to reach 60mph from standstill in a shade over 12 seconds and onto a top speed of 98mph. Very reasonable figures. Obviously when there are four adults inside, these results are hampered somewhat as they are when strong winds pick up, as they do in the test. Then there is the 65mpg (combined) figure, which is better than some diesels. At tick over the engine is audible from inside and there is a slight judder but my wife quickly reminds me that this is a massive improvement on her cherished Hyundai Pony; sadly deceased. It is possible to squeeze a pushchair into the tiny boot or a week’s worth of shopping but not both at the same time. The only criticism I have, which I admit is partly my fault, is that if your hands slip from the ten-to-two position on the steering wheel it is all too easy to sound the horn, which has occurred on a number of occasions, frightening the motorist in front and embarrassing me.

While this five-door hatchback is finished to a good standard there is no denying that this is a bit of a tin can. I shut the rear door a little too enthusiastically and I fear that if I do it any harder it might change shape. The seats are comfy although the driver’s seat could do with a little more padding in the lumbar region. Parking is a cinch due to its size. The rear windows are fitted with rear privacy glass and rather than winding up or down the rear passenger windows pop out for opening.

I like the simple minimalist dashboard and the fact that at night when the lights are on the section housing the fan controls lights up. The air conditioning, in common with the Vauxhall Corsa tested last week, does struggle in high temperatures.

But there’s more to this dashboard than at first meets the eye because there are four simple buttons arranged in the shape of a coin on the dash to the left of the steering wheel. These are actually part of what the industry calls black box technology. One button will call a call centre and you can tell them where you want to go and then spoken directions will be provided throughout the course of your journey. Another switch patches you through to Citroen Assist breakdown service. It’s also possible to make a 999 call through this system as well as connecting you directly to your Citroen insurance. But this black box will also record erratic driving behaviour and feed it back to the insurance company as a way of keeping insurance premiums lower for well behaved young drivers. This technology isn’t infallible because sharp braking for instance could be the result of reacting to other’s bad driving.

During our drive my wife and I recall the time we hired a Peugeot 107 and drove it from Romania to Bulgaria and back. We had fun in that car and if my memory serves me right we were able to drive from one country to the next on just one tank of fuel. That’s how efficient the 1-litre unit is.

Caroline says that this is the car she would buy if ever she chose to replace her P-registered Fiat Punto. Praise indeed.

Facts at a glance

New price range: £8,095 - £10,845

0-60mph: 12.2secs

Top speed: 98mph

Economy: 65mpg

Road tax: Nil