Great First Motor (Citroën AX)

Member Name: GraWar

Product:	Citroën AX
Date:	29/03/01 (744 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap to insure & tax, cheap to run, well made, even base model is comfortable, nice boot, good looking

Disadvantages: a little flimsy if involved in an accident, pedals strange

Citroen have always had a very good reputation for producing good quality cars at affordable prices. The AX is no exception at all.

My son was recently looking for a car to learn to drive in. He was ideally looking for a Mini. The reasons for this being that they a small, nippy, stylish, economical and have cheap insurance and road tax. We went around a few garages and no Mini's were available anywhere. However one of the dealers we went to had a particularly eye catching car on the forecourt. There it was, a Citroen AX.

I have a lot of experience of Citroens, having not driven anything other than Citroen vans for the past 10 years. I have found them to have very reliable engines and good build quality, so I was all for taking a closer look. Fortuanately enough so was my son.

The car we were looking at was the base model. It was the AX10E. It is a H reg (1991) and had only done 65,000 miles which I thought was pretty good for a car 10 years old.

As I said it was the most basic model that Citroen made in the AX range. It has a 1 litre (954cc) engine which although can be a little sluggish initially, once warmed up it is really a very nippy little motor. There is no rust on the body work, as with all other Citroens they don't rust very easily. It is the 3 door version.

The AX is a very light car and very aerodynamic. This is because it was developed as part of an economical project by the French Government in the mid-late 80's. Hence it is incredibly fuel efficient and your money goes a long way when it comes to the petrol pump. This aerodynamics of this car is one of the first things you will notice when you sit inside as it has a very sloping bonnet and windscreen and also only the one windscreen wiper. It is made of very light metal and also has a lot of plastic involved which decreases overall weight.

Internally (remembering this is the base model), it has a radio cassette (not sure if this was stan
dard as new on this model or not), 4 speed gearbox, plenty of storage space along the dashboard with glove box and shelf and also a remarkably spacey rear for a car of this size, allowing reasonably tall passengers to be able to sit comfortably in the back. Also suprisingly is the ample boot space, again you wouldn't have thought such a small car to have such a good boot on it.

The engine being 954 cc is very economical and also qualifies for the cheaper rate of road tax, presently at 105-00 I believe instead of the normal 185-00. Also this particular model is group 2 insurance! This is the equivalent of a Mini! Hence much reduced insurance bills can be expected with this car.

All in all this has to be the ideal second hand runaround, be it a first car or someone looking for a town runaround. You could argue that it would be flimsy in a crash but then again i'd rather be in an AX in a crash than in a Mini. You will get excellent fuel economy (40-50mpg no probs, 50mpg+ on longer runs), cheap fuel tax, cheap group 2 insurance, a good anti rust body and the knowledge of having a very well built car from a very successful motor company.

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