Introduction
The Citigo is Skoda’s city car that came out of the partnership between VW group stablemates Seat and Volkswagen, who make the Mii and Up! respectively.
It has a cheap yet cheerful interior, and despite an underpowered engine, it is quite good fun to drive on twisty roads and cities.
The changes that have been made to this facelifted version have been kept to a minimum and include little more than slight tweaks to the rear and some LED daytime running lights.
Our test car was a Colour Edition model that came in Candy White with a black roof and black alloy wheels. The colour edition model does have a portable Garmin satellite navigation unit that mounts on the top of the dashboard.
Performance
Our test car was fitted with a 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine that produced a measly 59bhp. While completely out of its comfort zone on motorways, it felt surprisingly fun on back roads. The Colour Edition is only available with this engine, although higher trims can be had with the nippier 74bhp version.
Ride and handling
On twisty roads, the Citigo is brilliant and definite proof that you don’t need lots of power to enjoy yourself behind the wheel. The five-speed manual gearbox works well with the 1.0-litre engine, while the handling also impressed us and made it quite joyful to drive on the right roads.
The steering does lack feel, although its light steering does make it a doddle to manoeuvre around towns and cities and makes it great for using in urban environments.
Interior and equipment
The interior of the Citigo well-made and solid. It may not have much space inside but with the boot space being only 30 litres less than the much larger Ford Fiesta (251 litres) and once the rear seats are folded this increases to 959 litres which is good for such a small package, you really can't complain.
As previously mentioned, our test car was a Colour Edition which gets jazzy additions such as black alloy wheels and a black roof. As standard you get Bluetooth, air-conditioning, a phone/infotainment system cradle and front electric windows.
Cost
In Colour Edition trim the Citigo makes great financial sense. It has £1,485 worth of kit such as the satellite navigation unit and the quirky colour scheme for just £630 extra. While it does miss out on important equipment that really should come as standard, it is still a good value car.
As for running costs, the 1.0-litre engine is very frugal, returning 64.2mpg and emits just 101g/km of CO2. For cars registered before 1st April this year, the annual tax bill well be just £20, but for brand-new cars, the annual road tax fee is a costly £120.
Our verdict
The Skoda Citigo it is hard not to love! It is fantastic around town, very frugal and surprisingly fun to drive on country roads. This vibrant Colour Edition makes sense because of its standard kit.
