Citroen Saxo East Coast 1.1i (Citroën Saxo 1.1i 3-door)

Member Name: GraWar

Product:	Citroën Saxo 1.1i 3-door
Date:	12/10/01 (5617 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: smart looking, good engines, decent equipment

Disadvantages: none

My son after passing his driving test required a good motor. He had been driving a Citroen AX but with him working 30 miles away, wanted something a little younger than his 10 yr old AX and also something a little more comfortable and powerful than his nippy 950cc AX.

He narrowed the choices down to 3 possibilities, all of which were in with a shout. His chosen 3 were Citroen Saxo, Rover 25 and the MG ZR. Unfortunately despite it's desirability, the MG had to be scrubbed due to the high insurance costs. So that way it came down to the Saxo and the 25. We went a ride out and saw a Rover 25, W reg for £6000. I was a real big fan of this when I saw it, it really caught the eye. My son however liked this motor but wanted to go and pay a visit to Bristol Street Citroen, our local dealer in Burton-On-Trent. I personally had always been a fan of Citroens, having owned a Citroen van continuously for over 10 years now.

We went to Citroen and started off by asking about the possibility of a part exchange for his AX. The dealer estimated between £500 and £1000 with the final figure being dependant on the cost he was trading in against. So we went to check on what they had on offer. My son ideally wanted a diesel due to the large number of miles he has to do to get to work each day. Unfortunately they had no diesels on there books at all so we decided on taking a look around what they had got.

There was one car that took my sons eye particularly. It was a Saxo East Coast in metallic woodland green. It was very smart looking. To cut a long story short he decided to go for this due to the fact that they only wanted £4700 for it with it being a V reg and having only 6000 miles on the clock. He got £700 part ex for his AX.

Anyway about the car. It was a Saxo East Coast special edition. It was the most popular of the Saxo engines being the 1.1i version (1124cc). There is a reasonable amount of extras with this car. It came with a radio/cd play
er with detatchable front plate. This is a very impressive piece of kit made by Blaupunkt, with all the different settings and the addition of cd capabilities along with the added security of the front plate being detatchable.

The engine as I said before is the 1.1i (1124cc) version. Despite it only being around 175cc bigger than his 950cc AX, you can really tell the difference of the extra power. It is very nippy around town with decent acceleration for a car with such a small engine (helped by it's light body weight) and yet it can easily coast along at 70mph down a dual carriageway without the engine being under any kind of stress or pressure. That's one thing you can guarantee with purchasing from the Citreon Peugeot Group, and that's that you'll get a quality engine. Coupled with this is a very smooth changing 5 speed + reverse gearbox (with particularly flashy yellow gearknob!!)

The dashboard was a lot more advanced in the East Coast model than the basic one. On the dash you get speedometer, clock, petrol guage, water and oil warning lights along with the standard air bag, handbrake, ignition and indicator lights plus more. On the centre console you get a fully adjustable blower outlet, ashtray, cigar lighter, heating control and a coin slot. Another nice little feature is the addition of a dashboard lighting control allowing you to increase or decrease the strength of the light behind the dials. To the left of the dashboard you get a decent sized glove box and also easy access to the fuses behind a front clip on plate. Mounted behind the sterring wheel is a driver airbag.

There is ample space in the back for 3 averagely sized people although 3 larger people would create a squeeze. The front seats are very comfortable and fully adjustable. In the boot you get a decent amount of room for such a small car.

All in all this is a very nice car with a nippy turn of speed despite the smallish engine. It is a very id
eal car for people to start off with due to the affordable deals available and also the lowish insurance group on the 1.0i and 1.1i models (group 3 on the 1.1i). Excellent fuel economy also adds to the economy of this car.

Summary: