This car is very good at doing what it was designed for : being a small, nippy runabout that's ridiculously cheap to buy, ridiculously cheap to run, while still being stylish and funky.
I come to you with a direct quote from my previous loaner car. As today, the Picasso had to go in again, to solve the very same problem (French electronics, how do they work?). The car I received though, was at the time aiming for much the same thing as I described above, but somehow failed miserably.
The dude at the garage almost apologized for giving me this one, and noted "this isn't the newest loaner car we currently have, but it's still good. It's also all we have left".
He then handed me keys and pointed me to this wedge shaped object : (pic stolen from Wikipedia)
A lovely Citroen ZX 1.9 diesel.
Well,where to begin? It seemed they bought this off an old person, as the car was 16 years old according to the documents, but had only covered 133.000 kms. Mechanically, it was OK, but the interior did smell of old people, and whoever thought those fabric seats was a good idea should be shot.
We also have a "classic" Citroen 2 spoke steering wheel without airbag, which was actually quite OK.
The drive then.... first thing I noticed that (like the C1) this one didn't have power steering, but here it annoyed me. It was too heavy most of the time and really too heavy when parking. In stark contrast to the C1 this one did have a radio, but I've never seen one as old as that.....
Analog scrolling FTL!
As I drove more and more I really felt that this car has its best life behind it, the needle of the speedo did a particularly big wobble pretty much constantly, so you were never quite sure how fast you were going, always "between 70 and 80 kph... ish"
The 1.9 engine was pretty much dead in all but the narrowest of rev bands... it revved very slowly up until about 4000, then you had a weak moment of power,then the rev limiter at 4,500. Ungood. Upon researching the car afterwards I found out it had 70 hp, but it felt sloooooooow
Also unlike the C1, 145ish was the top speed, and when I did this (eventually) I couldn't help but notice that it felt like this was the first time this car had gone that fast.
All in all colour me very unimpressed. Sure it may have been cheap at the time, but IMO the looks are some of the worst Citroen have ever produced, it was neither fun to corner nor quick, nor refined. The ride was the best quality, and I'm being generous....
I won't say it was the worst car I've ever driven (that honour is reserved for the special level of hell that is the Rover Streetwise), but it's damn close.
A car that really makes you appreciate modern cars...
