Citroen C2 1.1i

I was looking for a car for my son that wouldn't look like his old mum has chosen it for him and the Citroen C2 1.1 ticked most of the boxes on my very extensive list, and as a bonus the showroom had a shiny 'nail varnish' blue car sitting in their shop window .

The exterior of this car is visually very attractive with a neat body and chrome headlights that twinkle even when they are switched off. (Have you realised yet that I am no car boffin?)

One of the most important things on my tick list, I must admit with some shame, above safety and fuel consumption (which are both ok by the way) was the fact that my son is 6ft 5in tall which is a problem when wanting to buy a compact city car, I would look at the interior of some of this car's peers and wonder where on earth my son was going to put his very long legs. Upon opening the car door I was amazed at its TARDIS like interior, I sat in the drivers seat and pushed it back and realised that my search was over.

At this point the sales man was getting very excited, after all he was about to earn his commission from a women who's most technical question was 'do you think it's easy to park?'

Everything I have said so far is a bit tongue in cheek although all true. More seriously, the interior of the car is super. It's not quite the bridge of the Enterprise but the speedometer is really groovy with 2 inch high digits and the instrument panel leaves nothing to chance with all it's little symbols making sure you have to guess at nothing. This car deserves a reward for ergonomics, there is no fumbling behind the gear stick to turn on your de-mister or switch the radio on, which has controls on the steering column by the way. A bit about the radio, its fairly decent and comes with a CD player and pretty good speakers.

The on-board computer is surprisingly sophisticated, after all this is not an 'expensive' car, but Citroen have not skimped at all. I am not going to pretend that this is a sports car, its accelleration is good (not brilliant), the price you pay for having a small engine. The fuel consumption is very good, anything from 45 - 65 miles per gallon (city driving) and the safety features are acceptable, air bags and ABS. But then it surprises you further and you discover that there is this little light that tells you if you are speeding.

I may get a bit girly here now so I apologise in advance. From the point of view of someone who wants to just get in a car and drive, this car is very user friendly. It is easy to navigate around the engine, its obviously compact and all the knobs and twiddly bits are easy to remove so its simple to do things like fill your water jets.

For those who want a comfy ride then this car does the job. There are several seat positions including height with easy access to the back seats when the seat is pulled forward. And of course not forgetting the bum warmers which are a bonus.

It must be noted that this is a car for no more than four people as there is not a lap belt on the back seat. To be honest, there is not much room in the back. The back seat would house two young children but there isn't much leg room, despite that as previously mentioned it is easy to access for loading or unloading children, bags etc and Citroen recommend KIDDY ISOFIX 1 and ISOFIX ROMER Duo 1car seats (a litle bit of extra info).

When driving it does hold the road quite well and you feel 'safe' . It is quite nippy and good about town and whole new world of parking opportunities have opened up to me (my usual car is a Rover 800). There is all round visibility so reversing and parrallel parking is simple (of course it has power steering).

Almost forgot to mention the boot, it's quite spacious for such a dinky car and the back seats fold down to reveal enough space for a lawnmower or a bicycle and it has a lower tailgate that has a storage facility or you can plonk yourself on it and have coffee out of your flask if your on a road trip. The most technical part of this report is coming up, the tailgate can support a weight of 100kg, I read that in the manual!!

I apologise for the lack of technical information in this report but this car is a fantastic little runaround and I highly recommend it.

I am now going to negotiate borrowing it again from my son.