1.4 HDi 16v VTR+ 5dr Hatchback

The worst car I have ever driven in my life

I am so disappointed with this car I cannot tell you; well, actually I can otherwise I wouldn't be writing this review!!!

The car does look rather nice it's true. The interior is pretty spacious for a supermini and the seats are comfortable. The 'Zenith' windscreen is, I have to say, just a flashy gimmick as when the sun shines, both front and rear seat occupants need to have the roof visor pulled all the way down and the sun visors that are attached are cheap, nasty and flimsy. However, there is no storage space in the front cabin. The glove box is pathetic and an awkward shape, there are no cupholders either, and the door pockets are also too small. The build quality feels pretty cheap also, although I haven't had anything fall off yet unlike some other owners who have reported problems with kick plates falling off etc. Visibility isn't great, and there are a lot of blind spots with the door mirrors being pretty inadequate.

So, how is it on the road? Well, don't expect this to corner on rails, or feel as if it has a good grip on the road. It is, frankly, about the most terrifying car I've driven in my life. It wallows into corners, even at very slow speeds and slow speeds are about all you feel you can safely do in this thing, the car feels as if it has no grip whatsoever and the steering is impossibly light. You get hardly any feedback at all as to what the wheels are actually doing on the road. It's absolutely fine on smooth, straight roads if you are driving between 30-50 mph, and it is very easy to park, but other than that, this is most definitely NOT a driver's car.

The suspension is awful. If you are on the motorway or a dual carriageway, and you happen to hit some rather uneven road surfacing, be prepared for the rear end of the car to bounce and swing alarmingly all over the place. I'm afraid I'm not exactly well up on the technical spec speak as it were, but the arrangement of the rear suspension where the wheels are not independent and are linked to each other with a solid bar so that if one wheel bounces, the other one cannot adequately soak up the vibration leads to a very unstable rear end. Also, if you dare to risk taking the car above 65mph, then the whole handling makes you feel as if the road has turned from dry tarmac, to being covered in sheet ice and ball bearings. You don't feel as if you have any control as to what the car is doing thanks to the over light steering and poor suspension. Awful.

The fuel consumption however in the 1.4 HDi model that I have is fantastic though, but then that could also be because I very rarely go above 60mph due to the aforementioned problems. It does have a very good stereo, but it doesn't like working with my iPod which is rather annoying even though it should. Another plus point though is the extremely low road tax, and that and the fuel consumption is a big part of the reason my husband thought it would be a good car for me (as we're skint and I'm a student nurse so I needed something very cheap to keep on the road).

This car was not entirely my choice I have to say, and the dealer (Citroen Edinburgh) did not let us take the car out for a test drive before my husband committed to buying it. If we had, I very much doubt I would have it sitting outside my house now. Perhaps they didn't let us because they knew how r****** it was, who knows???

The car's front end suspension bangs alarmingly if you take it over a sharp speed hump, and it has also started to make a very loud knocking noise and the car refuses to move when trying to pull away from a junction. Re-selecting first seems to cure it, but a new car really should not be doing things like that.

Overall, the Citroen C3's plus points are:- its looks, the stereo, the comfy seats, boot space, nice size steering wheel, fuel consumption and cheap road tax.
Negative points are:- the utterly cr*p handling, cabin storage, driver visibility, poor quality finishes.

Another wee pointer while I think of it, is to be very very wary of taking this car out on the open road when it is windy. This car just cannot cope with the wind at all. You will be blown all over the road, quite literally and it is a deeply unpleasant experience.

In conclusion then, I would cheerfully hand this car back to the dealers tomorrow and never look back. I hate it and I am very annoyed how much this has hammered us financially now and I can't stand the car!!!!! I cannot wait for the next 3 years, or rather 2 years and 10 months to be over so I can hand this thing back to Citroen, and I think I can safely say that I won't ever be buying another car from them again. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY; THERE ARE FAR BETTER CARS OUT THERE!!!!

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