1999 Citroen Saxo SX review from UK and Ireland

Power steering failure - after 3 years (rectified by a trusted local non franchised garage).

Rubber seal on sunroof (evostick sorted it).

Having owned the car from new, covering 53k miles in almost four and half years, I can report that overall it has provided very reliable and economic motoring.

Although my main gripes are the cramped drivers foot-well, off set pedals and a too small accelerator pedal. The 1.1 60bhp engine is nippy enough around town and on most A roads, but the lack of power can be a pain on motorway runs and whenever a burst of rapid acceleration is required.

The standard kit on the SX included electric front windows, remote central locking (the fob is a little flimsy and doesn't work at anymore than a few feet away from the car - even with new batteries fitted), power steering, slide/tilt manually operated sunroof, tinted glass, front fog lights and a 4 speaker RDS radio cassette.

The build quality has been a surprise (for a small French car anyway) the bodywork and interior remains solid with no major squeaks or rattles from the dash.

My replacement for the Saxo is a new Pug 307. Having test driven the 307 the shortfalls of the Saxo become much more apparent (given that the design harks back to the mid 90's this shouldn't be a surprise) however, should your main priority be a cheap reliable car you can't fail with a Saxo 1.1Sx.