I used to have a smart car, one of the original ones, but it turned out to be pretty rubbish really. Leaky, poorly put together, too many repairs. I still wanted a small economical car that made clever use of space. It's pretty good that the smart car sort of inspired a generation of tiddly cars, worked out well for me. The Citroen C1 seems to be part of a massive Citroen rebrand or something, C1, C2, C3 etc. Anyway the C1 fit my needs. I had a Citroen before the old smart car and that was always reliable so I came back 'home' in a way with this one.
I haven't regretted it yet (just over 3 years). I've heard that there's a common problem with the clutch on the C1 but nothing has gone that wrong for me so far. The gears can be a bit funny sometimes but nothing out of the ordinary. It's generally very reliable.
My only real day to day problem is the boot, which is really tiny. I mean, the four seats are really very cleverly put together and give a fantastic amount of space, but the boot really is a silly size as a result. I do get the feeling the boot could have been better sized though, I mean just by flaying out the back end of the car a bit (admittedly I don't know anything about car design).
The fuel economy is great, BUT... the paperwork says it's 67mpg in my diesel one (fab) but I just assumed this would be a whole lot higher than the petrol version. Actually the petrol ones are over 60 as well, at least on paper. Having said that, those petrol ones I'm talking about are 1.0 litre. Then again, maybe 1.0 petrol is more powerful than 1.4 diesel? I'm not sure, and to be honest the power doesn't really bother me. What does bother me is that diesel is a few pence a litre more than petrol, so I'm really not sure if it's actually more economical or not. What a head scratcher. Mind you if you're worried about whether you're getting 61 or 67mpg then you're doing ok really :)
When the brakes fail on your car, there isn't much you can say to bring back your confidence. This was supposed to be more reliable than things like the Astra. But the Citroen C1 has let us down and really I just want rid of it now. I admit I might be jittery about this cos I've got my two little babies in the back, but I think that's fair enough really, and when the brakes don't quite work (ok maybe not totally failed but certainly weren't engaging properly) then it's bye bye car.
That's not the only thing though. I find it hard to change the gears in our Citroen C1. The clutch I'm sure is just off somehow, worse than when we got it I'm sure. It's generally not a nice car to drive either, the squeaking noise from *somewhere* is just doing my head in, and as soon as you get up to about 70 the sound generally is really too much. Driving at night is tricky too cos the interior lights aren't much use, and parking is tricky despite the size cos of the tiny rear window.
Of course none of these things occurred to us during the test drive. We just saw a nice small car, excellent fuel economy and a good safety record (on paper). The fuel thing isn't quite what was advertised. They said 60 mpg but I reckon closer to 50, maybe a touch lower.
It's also been more annoying that I'd considered to only have two seats in the back. I've seen plenty of small cars fit three back there, but the Citroen C1 seems to have trimmed some cost here. That's my fault for not thinking it through, but just really think about whether you're ever likely to want to move 5 people about, ever, cos in the Citroen C1 you can't.
This is my first car so I don't really know how to compare properly (apart from sega rally lol), but the Citroen C1 is big laughs to drive around. I rag it round like an arcade game, it's fantastic for that. I'll be honest it's my mum's car, but as far as she's concerned it's driven carefully enough! I actually did stack it once, not that badly, but I managed to knock the rear bumper off. That went back on easily enough and hasn't fallen off yet, so here's hoping it's idiot proof.
It's supposed to get really high mileage but the way I drive it that comes down a bit. It's still cheap mind, so if you drove it carefully you'd probably be getting uber savings on petrol.
I mostly like to drive it round the country lanes near us, which are a bit rough in places but the Citroen C1 takes it all pretty well. Not bad for a cheap small car I spose. It's pretty big too. I sometimes take 3 mates with me and we're all pretty tall lads, they fit in the back fine. It doesn't drive as well with 4 in tho, bit more sluggish.
Also we can't fit four peoples stuff in the boot, no chance. That's the most annoying thing about it really, just always running out of space back there. I mean the seats are big enough but there's no space for people to stash stuff by their feet, so it's tricky going to weekend away parties and that if you want to take any stuff with you like decks as well as everyone's change of clothes.
My kids are all but one grown up and moved out now, and I'm not with their father anymore so a small car was best for me. I wanted something cheap because of the price of petrol. The Citroen C1 seemed perfect really. I'd heard some bad things about the Ford Ka which was the other one I was interested in (basically not lasting well), so I went with the C1. What won me over in the end was that it's in the lowest insurance group, and the petrol costs are brilliant. Tax is only £20 a year!
I don't generally enjoy driving so my word isn't the best for how it drives. It's fine for me though, easy to park and easy to change gear. Actually I had some trouble with the clutch early on but got that sorted easily enough within the warranty (usual poor after sales service, but I've got used to pestering with all car dealers for warranty repairs). Apparently the Citroen C1 has a common problem with the clutch. That's not all that reassuring but hey ho, as long as that's all the goes wrong with it.
Apart from the clutch not much has gone wrong, which is good for a cheap car. It's annoying that it doesn't have a light in the boot, I missed that from our last car, and that some of the buttons on the dash don't have lights in them, so they're hard to use when it's dark or in tunnels.
But as for the driving it is fine. The main trouble is an odd rattling from the parcel shelf. It sounds like the sort of thing that I could easily sort out by putting some bits of gaffer tape around the joints, since it really does just sound like loose joints or plastic rubbing against plastic. But I'm a bit reluctant to do that just yet, would make it look so much older.
Anyway a bit of rattling and other little things are fine as far as I'm concerned, and the generally low cost of running it makes me smile so much I don't mind about that stuff at all.
I liked the look of the Citroen C1 over the Ford Ka and other ones like it, just seemed a bit different and more fun. It drives nicely as well and what won me over really was that it gets about 60 miles a gallon, which is better than anything else I could get. I think it's about the cheapest insurance as well, so easy on the costs all round.
It's comfy too, which was more than I could say for our last car. There are some pretty shaky roads round near us and it handles them fine. The people in the back can get a bit cramped, leg space isn't that massive in the Citroen C1, but it's fine for us really, it's mostly just the kids back there. We don't do too much long distance driving so for our needs it suits fine.
As for the boot, it's ok for shopping and things but I've struggled to get a pram in there easily, and it definitely doesn't fit a kids bike without the back seats folded. We got a bike rack in the end, which is fine really.
Now, there have been problems, which is sort of taking the shine off a bit. We got our Citroen C1 second hand at a year old and had it now for nearly a year. We knew it had some work on the clutch done before we got it, but it still needed more work on the clutch. Apparently a 'common fault' -- not reassuring! My other half thinks it's leaking too but we're not sure about that yet.
This stuff has been done under warranty and we're hoping it's just sort of prolonged teething trouble which will go away after a time. It's a great car to drive as well, so easy to move about and park, so hopefully it'll get better and stay better.
The Citroen C1 Vibe is basically the same car as the Peugeot 106 and the Mitsbishi Aygo but the one thing that helps the C1 keep its position as the king is the price. It was 500 quid cheaper than the aforementioned and as money was a bit of a struggle, it made sense to buy the C1.
When buying this car you need to bear in mind that it's not a big car. It's really small, really tiny and really easy to park, but that also means it's really bad for holding things, holding people and holding items.
It really isn't a practical car but it's still a car that you can use every day and it'll re-pay you every time you go to the pumps. Insurance is biblically low, as is tax and petrol costs. I'd highly recommend the Citroen C1 for the cost worried driver.
I find my little Citroen C1 works really well around town and I guessing that most owners of the C1 will be using it, like I do, as a stylish little city car. The driver and passenger compartment are surprisingly roomy for a car it's size but you wouldn't want to be in the back seats for any great distance but then most people won't be taking their Citroen C1 further than the local supermarket and back.
The fuel economy around town is great, the petrol gauge takes forever to drop to empty, which you'd expect from a small car and it's low emissions means that it's also cheap to tax but my favourite thing about my little C1 is not the fact that it's cheap to run and insure, although this is a big bonus. I love it because of the way it looks. I just think that it's a great piece of design.
I particularly like the way you can either open the boot fully or just open the glass in the tailgate. That show's that Citroen have thought about what their customers will be doing in the real world as I find it useful for those times that you have a small child held in one arm and merely want to throw one or two bags in the boot without bending down. However once you do have the boot open there's not a lot of space so if you need a car that you can fit the weekly shop for a family of six in then the Citroen C1 is not for you.
I've had mine for about a year and I was a little bit concerned when I first bought it about the build quality. I had been warned that some of the Citroens of the past had not necessarily been put together all that well but so far I've had no problems.
So if it's a small stylish little city car that you are after that's easy to park, cheap to tax, cheap to insure, cost's next to nothing to run and above all looks great then my advice is that you should definitely consider the Citroen C1.