Citroen C1, small but perfectly formed! (Citroen C1 Vibe)

Member Name: ballder2406

Product:	Citroen C1 Vibe
Date:	11/08/09 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to manouvre and park, cheap tax, very economical

Disadvantages: small boot, flimsy parcel shelf

I am a girl. I don't know about cars. I could give you the technical information, but I wouldn't understand it, so I'll write about the things that matter to me- what it looks like, how easy it is to park and how much shopping fits in the boot!

First things first. I needed a small, economical car to drive to work. After researching what was around, my husband took me to test drive a C1. There were some good deals available and it seemed like a good investment to fork out for a brand new one becasue of the savings we would reap later on (more about that in a minute). I loved the look of the car. Bright, compact and fun. Inside there was no glove box as such, but plenty of compartments- like shelves almost, and two bottle holders. The stero was attractive, as was the dashboard. Simple, but it has all the essentials, plus a place to plug in an iPod! When I first started up the car, it sounded a bit tractor-like to me, but I had been used to driving much bigger cars and this was soon no longer an issue. I drove it through town and along a section of motorway. It handled incredibly well in traffic and reached above 70mph (for overtaking purposes only!) on the motorway with ease. I parked it very easily on returning to the garage. It has a very flat back end, so nothing sticking out that can be easily reversed into things! I was sold.

That was over a year ago and I can honestly say I have absolutely no complaints about my little car. It *is* small, but I can fit plenty of shopping in. The boot is deceptively spacious. It's wider at the bottom than at the top, so much more can be put in if the seats are folded down to fill the bottom of it (very easily done), then put back up. The parcel shelf is flimsy, but on the plus side it's very easy to remove. The back seats flatten very easily and when I went on maternity leave I packed the contents of my workplace- a reception class, into the car with the seats down in one go. No mean feat as any reception teacher will tell you! More recently I have had both my twins in their car seats, plus clothes, steriliser etc for myself and them for two nights away and two carrycots in the car. The seatbelts are longer than those in our Mondeo estate, so great for car seats, and it also has isofix. There are lots of airbags, so despite it being quite small, it's pretty safe. There's no way my tandem pushchair chassis would fit in the boot, but I'm sure some of the smaller singles would.

Finally, it's £35 per year to tax it and it does over 400miles on a tank of petrol costing about the same- result!

Summary: A great girly car for short journeys

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