Citroen Saxo 1.4i Review

Overall Rating

The Citroen Saxo is very quick for a 1.4. It handles like a go-kart on rails. It also looks great, and gets a lot of admiring glances. GREAT INSURANCE FOR A FIRST CAR - group 5!

The heater controls aren't lit up at night, so it can be hard to see them.
The standard speakers aren't to good.

I have the mark 2 Citroen Saxo 1.4i Furio.

My car is fully modded with lowered 60mm, VTS styling, delocked, Lexus lights, debadged and different front grille, Corbeau bucket recliners, Momo millennium steering wheel, re-trimmed back seats, door panels in black alcantara, and carbon gear stick and handbrake. It also has full spax adjustable coilovers and 16" 100+ alloys.
The engine has cat back magnex system and a green induction kit. I believe the owner before me has done some kind of head work to the car because it is quicker than a VTR.

Even with all these modifications, and I have probably missed a few, the car is still 100% drivable for everyday use! On full lock I get the slightest bit of rub on my tyres (they are continental 195/40/16). Despite being lowered to 60mm, it does not bottom out on sleeping policemen, and you can go over them doing 20mph quite easily. With this suspension set-up I can quite easily embarrass much more powerful machinery, as the car only weighs 830KG, so as you can imagine, it handles great.

The car looks fantastic, and even though I haven't got mad body kits etc., the car gets loads of attention when cruising and just driving around towns.

The car is very easy to drive. The steering is quite light, so around town and parking is easy, but it's not so light that you lose the feel when driving at speed. The 1.4 gearbox is very nice. I had 130mph out of it and then put a VTS box in, and now it definitely accelerates better, but it hasn't lost any top-end really.

The car will cruise at 90mph all day, or more if you want. The ride is a tad hard over big bumps, but with the advantage of having coilovers, it is much better than the rock solid ride achieved when you just lower the car on springs! The car will cruise nicely with not too much road noise on the motorway, but when you boot it you obviously get the excellent roar from the induction! The induction kit does make your MPG worse, but not by a massive amount, and the sound and power advantages do compensate and out-way the scales.

In terms of room in the car, we can sit 4 people in it quite comfortably. Obviously you haven't got acres of leg room in the back, but what do you expect from a small hatchback?

Overall, I think this has been the perfect first car. The insurance is very reasonable at group 5, for the speed and the performance, as it is very good at beating brand new 206 1.4 sports, Escort Xr3i's and Rover 216's etc. I really can't fault it, and getting 70 miles on £10 is great when you're a skint 17 year old!!