CITROEN’S MEAN AND GREEN SMALL CARS Everyone’s thinking green these days when it comes to cars, not so much for the colour as green is still an orphan hue, but more for the environmental credentials they can display. Citroen is well armed in this respect, for C1, C2, and C3 models are star performers when it comes to clean running. With the little C1 and C2 that’s only right but the C3 is that bit larger yet still manages good results. It’s especially so where the car is fitted with Citroen’s 1.4 litre petrol engine and its Stop and Start technology, which cuts the engine when the car comes to rest and helps avoid clogging city air with unnecessary CO2. Autocar magazine showed this system could cut in-town fuel consumption by up to 27 per cent. Citroen is no stranger to making small, sensible cars. It all started with the 2CV and many people reckon the C3 is the spiritual successor to the “Tin Snail”. There’s a certain similarity in the shape, that’s for sure, with the arched roofline and sloping back panel. But the C3 is rather more sophisticated than the 2CV ever became, even in its most luxurious form. As a small family car, the C3 makes a lot of sense. If you like the frivolous approach then the C3 Pluriel gives you that. It’s four or five cars rolled into one, starting as a three door hatchback and ending as a pick-up truck with drop-down tailboard. It has suffered some roof seal problems, though. The C3 first appeared in May, 2002, and has been selling well, thanks in no small part to the fantastic cashbacks and special offers Citroen runs as a constant promotion. There’s always some great deal going on from this French maker. As a result, it pays to check what’s available on new cars before you take the plunge with a late plate used one. It also means that used values are slightly depressed compared with list price new because the list price never means what it says. My advice is to shop very carefully and weigh up whether the new deal will give you sensible money off or still leave you facing a large depreciation hit when you want to sell. If it will, then buy used. The C3, apart from in Pluriel form, only comes as a five door hatch. It’s a replacement for the five door Saxo - the three door Saxo has been superseded by the C2, which only comes as a three door, four seat-only shortened version of the C3. The tall body means the C3 has excellent headroom, possibly the best of any supermini that’s not a mini MPV and maybe even better than some of those. There’s also a decent amount of boot space inside that rear hatch. There are five engine choices in the C3, 1.1, 1.4, and 1.6 petrol and a 1.4 diesel in both eight and 16 valve forms to give two power outputs. The 1.1 is really too small while the 1.6 comes coupled to Citroen’s awful SensoDrive system, an automatic that can give manual changes but is jerky no mater which way you use it. Settle instead for one of the manual 1.4s and you can’t go wrong. The petrol engine will give 40 mpg with no trouble at all while you can expect well into the 50s with the diesels. The 16 valve just gives more performance to go with it. Service intervals are 20,000 miles for the petrol, 12,500 for the diesel. Either way, you won’t see the inside of a garage too often provided there are no problems. Insurance starts at Group 2, rising only to Group 4 for the adventurous Pluriel. Prices are now very reasonable and the car is worth looking at as a used buy, provided you remember my previous advice. Early 1.1 petrol cars are now less than £4,000 on a 02/52 plate but go instead for a 1.4 petrol at the same age and you’ll pay only £500 more. You’ll appreciate the difference. If you want diesel, a 16 valve SX on an 05 is £7,500. Maurice Hardy