1999 Citroen Saxo East Coast 1.1i from UK and Ireland

Summary:

A good buy for the up and coming city girl

Faults:

Rear windscreen popped out and smashed when I closed the boot. The Autoglass man said that this was a recurring fault he had dealt with on Saxos.

General Comments:

I think the Saxo is a fabulous car.

It is cheap to buy and economical to run. I can get about 10 miles to the litre.

The two years free insurance were a bonus.

Its really nippy when I'm in it on my own and handled quite well when I took four friends and all our weekend luggage up into the dales one weekend.

The bonus features of the multi-coloured seat belts and yellow knobs really attract attention.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 22nd June, 2001

5th Aug 2001, 12:34

I too love my Citroen Saxo East Coast and agree with your comments about the positive aspects of this car.

I'd recommend this car to anyone who is seeking a cheap but cheerful runaround.

From a fellow 'up and coming city girl'.

1999 Citroen Saxo Westcoast 1.4i from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Great performance, good price, but awful customer service and somewhat unreliable... for me

Faults:

My power steering failed at 25,000 miles and went again at 40,000 miles.

Clutch failed at 18,000.

Air blower failed.

Extremely squeaky brakes for the past year which no-one seems to be able to fix, even after new pads, cleaning, brake fluid.

I'm sure more has gone wrong, but just escapes me right now.

General Comments:

Where do I start?

Clutch failed at 18,000 miles. Car was just outside the warranty by about 3 weeks and the dealers just didn't want to know. I ended up getting it fixed at an independant mechanic because Citroen didn't have the parts and I would have had to wait a week. TRUE.

Power steering has also failed. Not only failed, but failed intermittently. I was told to drive it to the dealer (I now live in Dublin which is 160 miles from my Citroen Dealer) the day after it failed. I drove it 160 miles with no power steering. It doesn't just feel like you don't have power steering, but it was incredibly difficult to turn because you have to do all the work that the power steering does. To add to the problem it sometimes would kick in on a bend. So for example, I be putting all my strength into turning left and then all of a sudden the power steering would kick back in nearly making me over steer off the road. Nightmare. Just before I got to the dealer the power steering kicked in and stayed in. What did Citroen say? "Well I turned that steering wheel around 900 times and she's fine". That's it? that's all you can do? Yip.

That was a year ago and since then all was fine. Until last week. Yip, the power steering has gone again and the blower for the hot and cold air has gone too. I didn't take it to Citroen this time. I took it to the guys that fixed my clutch. They found the problem. It was a fuse board.

Anyway, enough of my complaining. I actually do like the car. It looks good, it's real quick for a 1.4i and not far off the 1.6 VTR. Next time I'll go for the VTS and buy it from a dealer in Dublin which will now be closer to where I live.

All in all I like it, but due to all the problems I will probably change it soon.

Dave.

P.S. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I was driving along one time and the front right indicator light fell out! Yip. Just popped it back in and it's grand.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 18th May, 2001

1999 Citroen Saxo VTS 2.0 16v big turbo from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Unbeatable

Faults:

Nothing at all.

General Comments:

Earlier this year I was looking for a quick car so I went and bought a Saxo VTS. I drove it around a bit and fought it was a bit slow so I went and got something really fierce done to it, I got a loan and bought a Escort Cossie engine for it.

Wow what a difference as standard, but that wasn't enough so I had a hybrid Turbo fitted and the head changed for a specially hand built head and had the gearing changed, along with adding a unichip.

Finally I had the disc's changed to Escort Cossie disc's, and had the suspension dropped 90mm and added 18's to it. All this has cost me £7000, but boy is it worth it.

After all this my 0-60 time is 2.9 and my top end is 172MPH, THIS THING IS SO FAST THAT IT BEATS FERRARI'S OFF THE LIGHTS. I have never lost a race in it yet, but I have so nearly stacked so many times.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 10th May, 2001

11th May 2001, 03:09

Why not just buy a cossie then?

11th May 2001, 05:59

What a load of crap! 0-60 in 2.9 seconds. Sorry mate, it's nigh on impossible!! And there ain't no car without a rocket for an engine that would get to 60 that fast, never mind doing 170mph with a 2 liter engine!

14th May 2001, 03:13

To the bloke who says you can't get to 60 in 2.9 seconds, obviously you don't know anything about cars. And cheers Steve for backing me up, this car will be in Fast Car this month, so the bloke who said you can't get 170 mph out of a 2 litre will be laughing on the other side of his face.