24 Aug 04
Progress, eh? You can't stop it. Politicians will cheat, prices will rise and so on, etc. And seven years is a long time to make progress in motoring. In 1997, the Ford Escort was still a top seller, Damon Hill was reigning F1 world champion and Citroen launched the 16-valve Saxo VTS, which cost a shade over twelve grand.
Fast forward those seven years. Focus has replaced Escort atop the sales charts, Michael Schumacher iszzz...ooh, sorry, dozed off there, and Citroen has launched the new Citroen C2 VTS. Which costs, hang on, it says here: a shade under twelve grand.
It's £11,995, to be precise, while it's also bigger, safer and a lot more refined than the Saxo. Why so cheap? Thank price realignments which have brought UK prices into line with European ones over the years, and - to be fair - Citroen does price its cars pretty competitively.
In fact, Citroen's going so far as to claim that the new, 125bhp VTS offers 'thrills without the bills'. True? Well, yes and no. It doesn't thrill like the old Saxo, but it was never really going to. The small old car's agility and poise is rarely matched anywhere in hot-hatchdom these days, except in cars like the Renault Clio 182. And that's a different kettle of fish entirely: more powerful yes, but also £4000 more expensive, and a lot more to insure - a sure-fire way to alienate the types of customers which Citroen's looking to attract.
