This year at the Geneva Motor Show, Toyota, Peugeot and Citroen will reveal a trio of super minis to replace the old models. So far Peugeot has revealed their new 108, and Toyota has teased the new Aygo. It is not Citroen’s turn to show us what they have in store.
This is the new Citroen C1, and it is the quirkiest member of this family, which by the way have the same underpinnings. The new C1 will come in both three- and five-door versions, as well as a new open-top body style called Airscape.
There is only so much you can do with a car of this size, but Citroen has managed to pack a lot of style in the little C1’s design. The car features two-part headlamps and round inserts for a smiley face at the front (which is very controversial), black or chrome accents, 14’’ or 15’’ wheel covers and 15’’ diamond-tipped alloy wheels, and interesting colors including customizable two-tone paint jobs.
A small car like this has limited practicality, but again, clever packaging offers you a 195 liter boot that is expandable to 780 if you fold the rear seats. What’s more, with features like automatic air conditioning, heated seats and, for the 3-door version, memory settings for the front seats, the C1 becomes a pleasant little car to live with day in and day out.
2014 Citroen C1 will be available from launch with two fuel efficient but stupidly-named engines. The first choice is the “Airdream” e-VTi 68, and the other VTi 82 from the PureTech. The former comes with a clutchless ETG (Efficient Tronic Gearbox), while the latter delivers 65mpg and just 99g/km CO2 emissions.