My Report On One Year Of C1 Ownership

[ColinC1]

Here is my report, which any Citroen dealer will not show you, but may be usefull to potential future owners of the C1 or one of the other city bugs, 107 and Aygo.

 

Well I bought the base C1 Vibe, as it was a reasonable price, (at the time about £700 cheaper than the 107 or Aygo), looked modern, had four seats, and had the japanese engine and gearbox of the Aygo for reliability.

 

POSITIVE

Well one year in, and I would say the car runs a treat.

 

The three cylinder engine is very smooth and the gear changes very nice with a light clutch. I have never felt the engine stall, or judder, and always ticks over smoothly in neutral. Only place where you feel the lack of Horse power is on a steep hill, but it gets up in a lower gear OK.

 

I feel the car is very reliable as it must have good quality control which watches over the city bugs, as its the same production line as the Toyota Aygo.

 

The car itself is very modern, and with the electric power steering, its easy to drive, the brakes are good as well.

 

I liked the cheeky headlights and very modern taillight design, compaired to the other city bugs.( just a personal thing, other drivers may prefer the other city bug looks )

 

Road Tax is cheap at £35 for the year, and insurance is group 1 for my car, which is very reasonable.

 

I would recommend the car, as a very good economy vehicle, and it does around 58MPG.

 

SLIGHTLY NEGATIVE

The city bug designers have designed it on a budget, so they are mean with a few items.

 

There is no passenger door light switch, the passenger seat on the two door model does not memorise the setting, so it needs reset every time someone goes in the back. Its a pain.

On my model the Vibe, there is no central locking, or electric windows. I had to remedy this with aftermarket items from Ebay , as I found out I could not live without either.

 

1st sevice to retain warranty is very costly at around £160.

 

Oh, and you DO have to buy the optional RHD glove compartment hinged cover at £30, to finish the dash off, its a must !

 

NEGATIVE

The cloth seat trim on all the city bugs is rather soft weive cloth, and can tug or pull very easily.

 

Some cars get leaky seals on the doors in torential rain conditions, hence wet carpets, its a very common complant, these seals do need a re-design but as usual the dealers are not interested, and try to sort out each car on a one to one basis. I gave up on mine after the seals were looked at twice by the dealer, and just put silicon grease on the seals and they are now waterproof.

 

Engine bay seal to bonnet, same problem, water gets on the engine, battery and electrics, silicone grease sorts this on the seal.

 

Had some tailgate noise from hinges, some grease sorted this.

 

CONCLUSION

Its a good car, and for that kind of money, can't argue to much about some of the negatives.

Seems very reliable so far, and if you want a new car, then you should have a test drive of the C1.

 

WOULD I BUY ANOTHER?

Yes if it had leather seats :unsure:

[Trotsky]

Here is my report, which any Citroen dealer will not show you, but may be usefull to potential future owners of the C1 or one of the other city bugs, 107 and Aygo.

 

Well I bought the base C1 Vibe, as it was a reasonable price, (at the time about £700 cheaper than the 107 or Aygo), looked modern, had four seats, and had the japanese engine and gearbox of the Aygo for reliability.

 

POSITIVE

Well one year in, and I would say the car runs a treat.

 

The three cylinder engine is very smooth and the gear changes very nice with a light clutch. I have never felt the engine stall, or judder, and always ticks over smoothly in neutral. Only place where you feel the lack of Horse power is on a steep hill, but it gets up in a lower gear OK.

 

I feel the car is very reliable as it must have good quality control which watches over the city bugs, as its the same production line as the Toyota Aygo.

 

The car itself is very modern, and with the electric power steering, its easy to drive, the brakes are good as well.

 

I liked the cheeky headlights and very modern taillight design, compaired to the other city bugs.( just a personal thing, other drivers may prefer the other city bug looks )

 

Road Tax is cheap at £35 for the year, and insurance is group 1 for my car, which is very reasonable.

 

I would recommend the car, as a very good economy vehicle, and it does around 58MPG.

 

SLIGHTLY NEGATIVE

The city bug designers have designed it on a budget, so they are mean with a few items.

 

There is no passenger door light switch, the passenger seat on the two door model does not memorise the setting, so it needs reset every time someone goes in the back. Its a pain.

On my model the Vibe, there is no central locking, or electric windows. I had to remedy this with aftermarket items from Ebay , as I found out I could not live without either.

 

1st sevice to retain warranty is very costly at around £160.

 

Oh, and you DO have to buy the optional RHD glove compartment hinged cover at £30, to finish the dash off, its a must !

 

NEGATIVE

The cloth seat trim on all the city bugs is rather soft weive cloth, and can tug or pull very easily.

 

Some cars get leaky seals on the doors in torential rain conditions, hence wet carpets, its a very common complant, these seals do need a re-design but as usual the dealers are not interested, and try to sort out each car on a one to one basis. I gave up on mine after the seals were looked at twice by the dealer, and just put silicon grease on the seals and they are now waterproof.

 

Engine bay seal to bonnet, same problem, water gets on the engine, battery and electrics, silicone grease sorts this on the seal.

 

Had some tailgate noise from hinges, some grease sorted this.

 

CONCLUSION

Its a good car, and for that kind of money, can't argue to much about some of the negatives.

Seems very reliable so far, and if you want a new car, then you should have a test drive of the C1.

 

WOULD I BUY ANOTHER?

Yes if it had leather seats :blink:

[Guest CE05LDB]

Great Review Colin.

[Martin_1973_uk]

How do you add Central Looking and Electric Windows? Is the Glovebox lid easy to fit? I hate the gear knob in mine, anyone know a good model that goes all the way down to the leather trim on the gearstick?

I totally agree with your views on the C1 except I've had no leaks as of yet.

[ColinC1]

How do you add Central Looking and Electric Windows? Is the Glovebox lid easy to fit? I hate the gear knob in mine, anyone know a good model that goes all the way down to the leather trim on the gearstick?

I totally agree with your views on the C1 except I've had no leaks as of yet.

And I hope you do not get any :unsure:

 

GLOVEBOX

The glove box is easy, its just a couple of screws to fit it, 15 mins max.

 

REMOTE CENTRAL LOCKING KIT (complete kit of parts, with two remote key fobs)

Got it on Ebay at under £20, remove door cards, fit an electrical solinoid and pull rod to each door.

 

The doors already have cutouts in the metal and rubber bungs suitable for the wiring harness (supplied with the kit). run wiring from a small control box located under the dash (supplied) out to each solinoid. Wire direct from the battery properly fused (fuses supplied). You also have to wire up indication to the flashers. Straight forward job takes a day to install.

 

ELECTRIC WINDOW KIT (again a complete kit of parts, make: COLIBRE)

 

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g293/greatchi/PICT0006-1.jpg

Photo shows driver/passenger window switches and Sony Xplode tweeter speaker to hide winding handle hole. Passenger door (not shown), has one switch for its window.

 

Got it again on Ebay at just under £100, it has to be a gearbox chain driven type motors for smoothness, these take a lot less current and a bit more expensive than the old 'direct fixing to spindle' type. But its worth it, as they are like factory fit in operation. (the window motor is actually located behind the door card at approximately the bottom right hand corner of the photo, with a long chain drive mechanism up to the handle spindle).

 

Again door cards off, fit the motors and window switches on the doors, fit the adaptor for the C1 winding handle spindle to motor, run the wiring to the window switches and motors. Get a supply so it only operates when the car is running.

 

As its quite lacking in space for the wiring and motor within the wierd shaped door card, takes quite a number of days to complete, it is not an easy job unless your used to DIY.

 

Note: all the above has to be done with suitably rated cable, and correct fusing.

 

PS.. If anyone wants to know how to remove the door card, here it is...

http://www.citroen-owners-club.co.uk/citro...st=0#entry24492

[Martin_1973_uk]

It sounds too complicated for me. Does anyone know anyone in the Essex area that would fit this stuff for a good price? I would have bought the Rythm but it was £1,000 more as I wouldn't have got the deals I got on my Cool.

Will go for the glovebox lid though......

[ColinC1]

I agree Martin, that £1000 more for the next model up, just to get electric windows and central locking, was asking a lot :P

 

Even with my DIY approach, it cost me £100 (elect windows) + £20 (central locking) + £20 (tweeters) + say around £20 for finishing bits and peices, that came to £160 total.

 

For someone to do the above work for you, they would likely want hundreds of pounds on top of that for the hours of labour needed, making it not cost effective.

 

Mind you the central locking job is straight forward, but as you say if you are not into DIY, then you should just get the glove box lid :)