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All-New Citroen C1 is a Naturally Urban Runabout

If you're in the market for a tiny, frugal, practical and funky motor, look no further than the Toyota Aygo – Citroen C1 – Peugeot 108 trio. These city dwellers are underpinned by the same platform, but they're very distinct as far as styling and features are concerned.
Citroen C1 Airscape 14 photos
Photo: Citroen
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While the Aygo is the exuberant of the lot, the C1 is the eccentric proposition and the 108 is the most elegant of the three brothers. The car we're talking about today is the Citroen C1 and boy how things have changed from the previous generation of the French city car.

Already availabe for order in the United Kingdom, the all-new Citroen C1 retails from £8,245 to £11,935 OTR and can be customized with an Airscape retractable roof for an open-top driving experience. The latest generation of three-cylinder petrol-fed powerplants can deliver up to 74.3 mpg and 88 grams of CO2 emissions per kilometer driven, making it a pretty cost-conscious vehicle that's also friendly to the environment and very cheap to tax.

The first-gen Citroen C1 wasn't the type of car to make you go "Wow!" and it was a bit spartan with standard and optional features, but it still managed to sell more than 780,000 units since it was introduced back in 2005. With the new model, things have changed for the better all things considered. Thanks to a upbeat personality and bold aesthetics, the new model will certainly give its predecessor a run for its money in terms of sales volume.

Available either as a three or five-door, the second-gen Citroen C1 is offered in three distinctive trim levels: Touch, Feel and Flair, while the soft top Airscape model (pictured above) is available only in Feel and Flair flavor. Styling is underlined by the seemingly continuous glass area from the windscreen into the side windows, with black windscreen pillars and depending on the trim level, chrome-finished weather strips and dark tinted rear windows.

No less than eight exterior colors are available at launch: Smalt Blue, Caldera Black, Gallium Grey, Carlinite Grey, Tapenade Grey, Lipizzan White, Scarlet Red and Sunrise Red. Whichever you go for, you can further enhance your C1 with a choice of chrome door mirrors and handles only if you opt for the Flair trim level. LED daytime running lights and the square light clusters at the read emphasize the car's cheerful design and overall jovial character.

14 or 15-inch wheels and covers are offered, but we recommend to take the 15-inch diamond-tipped alloys for added urban chic. The new Citroen C1's cabin is bright and airy with a colourful ambience. With clean, structured lines, the dashboard can be customized with bright colours on the multimedia panel, air vents and gear lever surround. A leather-wrapped steering wheel is also fitted as standard on Flair versions.

Automatic air conditioning, reversing camera, memory settings for the seats, a 7-inch Touch Drive infotainment system, USB slot, Bluetooth connectivity for your smartphone and satellite navigation are some of the highlight features certain to float your boat. The boot boasts 196 liters storage capacity, but you can further increase that figure by folding the rear seats as simple as A-B-C for a total capacity of 780 liters.

Even though it weighs a tad over 855 kilograms, the Citroen C1 comes as standard with a suite of safety features including ABS, EBA, ESC, Cornering Stability Control, six airbags and two rear Isofix mounting points for a relaxed driving experience for everyone on board. Two three-pot mills are currently available: a 998cc engine marketed as the VTi 68 that can also do stop&start duties, and a 1.2-liter PureTech 82 petrol.

Both motors use multi-point electronic fuel injection and are coupled as standard to a five-speed manual transmission. Handling-wise, you get MacPherson suspension at the front with triangulated lower arms, while the rear wheels are taken care of by a trailing arm type with deformable crossmember.

Check out the PDF below for the specification sheet and price list of the all-new Citroen C1.

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 Download: New Citroen C1 Price List & Specifications (PDF)

About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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