Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £9,545 to £14,145
Comfy ride, spacious in the front, cheap to buy and run, cheeky styling.
Limited rear room, tiny boot, SensoDrive gearbox; not as cute-looking or well-packaged as newer C1, or indeed, Renault Twingo.
Great value for money, as long as you don't bother spending out on the larger engines - 1.1 is a surprisingly good all-rounder. Feeling dated now, however.
The driving position is good and visibility is fine, with front-window glass which slopes towards the front of the car. Visibility to the rear isn't too bad although the rear window is a little small. On manual cars, the drivetrain is smooth and the gearbox largely unobtrusive, with a short-throw and a little notchiness here and there. SensoDrive models are slightly more difficult to use, especially if you want to swap quickly between first gear and reverse, when you confound the system which stays in its current gear, infuriatingly. VTR models only come with SensoDrive, but the more performance orientated GT and VTS models have a proper manual 'box.
The basic cars aren't much fun to drive at all. Sure, the ride's comfy enough, but this has its drawbacks on the open road where they pitch, wallow and roll unenthusiastically. The VTR/S is a much better proposition, cornering with some composure and resistance to roll. It grips well and, if you're really keen, is quite adjustable on the throttle too.
The C2 is offered with a 'Stop & Start' system with the 1.4-litre engine / SensoDrive gearbox combination only. This automatically cuts the engine whenever the car is at a standstill, restarting it within 400milliseconds after you take your foot off the brake to move away. This reduces emissions and gives a better overall fuel consumption - especially if you spend a lot of your time in heavy traffic.
The 61bhp 1.1 belies its modest performance figures on paper (0-60 mph in 14.4 seconds, 98 mph) to be a surprisingly good all-rounder. It holds its own on the motorway and nips around town nicely. In fact, it makes spending extra on the 1.4 (75bhp, 12.2sec 0-60) seem pointless, unless you're desperate for the clutchless SensoDrive gearbox, optional with that engine. Not that we'd recommend this; it slows the C2 right down and isn't very smooth. And sadly, the VTR's 1.6 16v engine only comes with the SensoDrive 'box - although power is now 110bhp, up from the 90 bhp of the outgoing Saxo VTR, it fails to feel as urgent and stops well short of hot hatch fun. Strongest drive, dare we suggest it, is the 1.4 HDI diesel (70bhp, 110lb ft of torque) - with the manual gearbox. The petrol VTS is the most powerful with 125bhp, and a more exciting drive than the sluggish 1.6i 16v HDI VTS, which has all the same looks but takes 9.4 seconds to accelerate 0-60mph and feels slower still. The diesel VTS is also noisy at motorway speeds, with its low-set fifth gear, and lacks mid-range pull and flexibility for overtaking.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Citroen C2
wrote on 12 08 2006
wrote on 29 05 2006