2006 Citroen C1 Vibe 3 Door review from UK and Ireland

Nothing.

What is it?

The Citroen C1 is a car jointly developed and produced by Toyota and the PSA group (Citroen & Peugeot). All the cars are built to Toyota's high standards, and as Toyota regularly come near the top of most owner satisfaction tests, that’s another plus.

The purpose of this car is cheap practical motoring with road tax at £40 per year, group 1 insurance, 61.9mpg combined. The car is also designed to need little in the way of maintenance due to its relative simplicity and ingenious design, such as chain driven cam belts (longer lasting, but slightly noisier than conventional rubber belts), and bumpers that can be removed with only two bolts.

The engine I chose was the 998cc 3 cyl petrol engine. This is the lightest internal combustion engine in any mass produced four seat car (it weighs in at 67kg). This engine also has Toyota’s VVTi (variable valve timing intelligent) engine management system. This is far more sophisticated than most VVT units as it can control not only when the valves open, but also how long they stay open for. This increases power and torque, and decreases fuel consumption.

Why I bought it?

I’ve been looking for a car that’s advanced where it counts (e.g. engine, chassis, gear box etc), and basic and simple where it can increase reliability and decrease weight (windup windows, no central locking, etc). And I believe that I’ve found that in this car.

For a car so small, it’s surprisingly safe (safer than many 4x4’s). It comes with ABS (advanced braking system) and EBD (electronic brake distribution), as well as a stability control system, so that all helps avoid an accident. But it’s also has seat belt pretensioners, two airbags (four with rhythm spec), isofix child seat mountings, and advanced crumple zones.

The car is also a good performer due to the low weight (790kg) and fairly high power and torque output at 68bhp and 69lb ft respectively. The official performance specifications are 13.7 seconds 0-62 and 98 mph, but many owners believe that the performance has been deliberately underestimated to keep the car in a low insurance group (Autocar Magazine recently did 0-62 in 11.2 seconds in a C1).

It’s also a good handling little car with rather stiff suspension. I was worried when I got the car that the EDB, ABS and stability control would be overly intrusive, but this isn’t the case. You can get away with some very creative driving before any electrical wizardry trys to saves the day.

The practicality is very good, with good front and rear leg/head room, but the boot space does suffer as a result in my opinion. It’s a shame that Citroen didn’t fit its module rear seats or Toyotas sliding bench seats, but they're easy to fold, and once down, there’s an impressive luggage area.

After a bit of haggling, I got the price down to £5245, and for that money I’m amazed by the build quality. Nearly everything feels solid and well fitted, especially the indicators and the solid thunk that the doors make when they're closed, but certain parts of the dashboard feel flimsy.

Things I don’t like:

On the three-door variant, the side rear windows are too small, so they make checking your blind spot a little difficult, but they made up for this by fitting very good wing mirrors.

The rear wiper is too small and this really does annoy, because the rear of the car is constantly dirty due to the stubbiness of the rear (cars that are flat at the back create a vacuum and suck up the dirt and water coming off the wheels).

Last, but not least, the lack of a glove box lid, but Citroen do sell one as an accessory for £29.95.

Economy:

I’ve only done a 1000 miles, but my average is 56.8 mpg, with a low of 46mpg and a high of 62.7mpg.

Carl Wyatt.