Faults:

The hazards button is cracked.

General Comments:

Wonderful car and very affordable!

The fuel consumption is excellent. I have had the car now for 2 years and haven't had a single problem with it! (except for the hazard button which is cracked), but mechanically we have not had any problems.

The power steering is very light.

The fact that the car is a 1 liter has never stopped us to reach 130km/h with the utmost ease! Obviously we need to gear down when approaching a hill, but that can be expected of a 1 liter engine.

Would not trade the car for anything!

Faults:

2 minor squeaks/rattles.

First was the trim, which runs on the door pillar adjacent to the windscreen; this was easily removed and a bit of "packing" inserted into the lower slot, problem solved.

Second was a creak from the drivers seat, which was very annoying; this was solved by removing the two bolts at the rear of the seat and refitting them, creak solved.

General Comments:

I had three goals when searching for a car:

Cheap tax.

Cheap insurance.

Economy.

The C1 fits them all perfectly.

My initial preference was for a Fiesta/C3 sized vehicle, however finding a good condition second hand one was proving difficult; my standards are maybe too high?

I decided to widen my search and did some research on the C1, 107 and Aygo (number of good reviews on this site).

After looking at all three, I decided on the Citroen; Aygos were more expensive and the spec did not reflect the price. I was not overly keen on the front of the 107, so decided that the C1 was my choice.

I picked up at June 2009 model for £6600, one owner and less than 5000 miles on the clock.

It is difficult to get a feel for a car in a short test drive, and having never owned a car as small as this, I did not know what to expect.

My first impressions were that it felt spacious inside, if not a little sparse, but you have to compromise (I couldn't compare this to my previous car).

On the test drive there did seem to be quite a lot of road noise, other than that everything else seemed fine, handled well, coped with the uneven road surface reasonably, and the engine was lively.

The initial road noise did not put me off, and I parted with my cash.

I was glad that I was not put off, as driving home (30 odd miles) it was not bad at all, maybe I got used to it?

Living with the car has proved quite easy, it took a while to get used to the seats, they felt uncomfortable at first, but I am now used to them. The trim is basic but functional, everything is within easy reach (except if you want to lower the passenger window and you have to lean over to hit the switch).

I am traveling fairly short distances, approximately 25 miles per day, this is over a variety of road surfaces though, living in the countryside with quite poor single track roads (which it copes with well as long as you avoid the "big potholes") to main A roads, it copes with them all (even on motorways it keeps up well with the flow).

It has not had its first service yet, so I cannot comment on dealer service or price, but then after a Subaru most things will be cheaper.

I would recommend a C1 to anyone, they look funky and the economy is superb, I am looking forward to many happy cheap miles of motoring.