Faults:

The gearbox jammed in third gear at approximately 10k miles. I suspect that this had more to do with the awful roads that I navigate every morning than any inherent failing in the gearbox design. A combination of the dreadful Southport coastal and Liverpool dock roads plus many, many speed bumps, all attacked at unabated speed would test the durability of any vehicle.

General Comments:

The Saxo is the best selling hot hatch at the moment and its easy to see why. The car is great fun to drive with sharp handling, electric performance and wonderful maneuverability.

At the same time costs are kept to a minimum, even the hardest driving has never reduced fuel consumption below 40mpg with an easy 45-50mpg possible in normal use.

Build quality appears to be OK, although the quality of the materials is somewhat on the cheap side. Nothing has broken off or started rattling despite the high mileage.

Dealer service from the supplier was reasonable, although other Citroen garages have been less than helpful.

Citroen also missed out by offering almost no options on this car. The addition of air-conditioning and leather seats would have been a nice option to have had.

Faults:

No.

General Comments:

I am 20 years old, so the Desire was the right Saxo model for me.

The car cost £6300.00.

The car cost £800.00 to insure for last year, which I think is very good.

My Desire is in Arctic Silver, which looks great!! I have the silver petrol cap and gear knob.

I have just had the 1st service done, which cost £119.00. I didn't this was dear. The service from Citroen Birmingham is excellent. I would buy another car from them.

The Saxo is so easy to park.

For £6300.00 I got a lot of kit electric windows, CD player, power steering, front fog lamps, remote central locking, and tilt/slide sun roof.

Faults:

Squeaking when changing gear after approximately 5000 miles. This was due to the 'gear linkage' according to the dealer.

General Comments:

Being only 18 means that because of insurance I can't exactly afford a VTS, GTi or anything that helps you get from A to B about 15 seconds quicker so this car was ideal, especially for someone new to the brand new car market.

People laughed and scoffed when they heard that my next car was a little 1.1, but that didn't bother me. Knowing that it was brand new, had a 3 year warranty and of street credibility helped me ignore the narrow minded 'my car is a 1.6 16 valve and can dust anything on the planet' attitude. Please ignore this narrow mindedness, you don't need a car that guzzles petrol to have fun!

The car is cheap to run with average monthly repayments of around £130 for three years and fuel economy of about 50 miles per gallon. I went to Birmingham from Newport, South Wales with 2 passengers and heavy DJ equipment (doing motorway speed limits and slightly more for overtaking). It cost £13 worth of petrol to get there and back, which is approximately nearly 250 miles.

Performance is good. Parking is superb, steering is light no matter what speed, corner or road surface. The car is quiet around town and under speeds of 60 mph. Traveling on the Motorway can be a little noisy, but turning up the stereo a little will hide it and the car can overtake safely. Reaching motorway speed limits is easy and there are no relevant signs of struggling.

The interior is a little cramped for rear passengers and drivers exceeding 6ft in height. The lack of space between pedals can take time to get used to. Window buttons are in an awkward position, every passenger will have trouble trying to find them. After owning the car for nearly 8 months the interior space has grown on me and I now find it quite cosey.