Life with the C1

I predict comments resembling "the loud pedal's the one on the right, you know", and "you're obviously not driving it properly. HTH".....

Could or couldn't? The Aygo I hooned around York's roundabouts was remarkably stable when you exceeded available grip. It drifted into understeer and drifted out without that edgy snatchy underdamped nasty short wheelbase front wheel drive thing that lots of small machines suffer from. I remain slightly tempted, especially as I'm not going to be driving as a commute for much longer... :-/

It's still tight, man! Give it another 12,000 miles or so... ;-)

Ooooops, I meant "couldn't" of course

Over the Christmas weekend I'd imagine we'll be using at least a tank of fuel, so I'm hoping that will show us economy in the 50s as there'll be plenty of time stuck at 70 and I wont be driving at least the first half of those miles :)

You'll be proud to know that in the new Evo mag, there's a 'group test' of tiny hire cars - The new Ka, the C1, a Matiz and a Fiat 500. The C1 wins with 4 stars, because it's the most fun, and they say it sounds like half a

911 heh! It also has the best handling and because it's so light and revvy it feels the zippiest (that is so a word...), able to c*ck a wheel in hard cornering, diving in and then bobbing out of the other end hehe! It basically beat all of the others in every single way :-)

The Ka only gets 3 stars because whilst it's quite competent it's completely lost the fun factor that made the other one so well liked. They referred to it as being numb and lacking in feel. The 500 beats the Ka, 3.5 stars plays

3, although it doesn't drive as well, with "scarily light steering" they say Fiat have sacrificed everything for style, demonstrated when the Ka was able to pull out quite a big gap over a few miles of chase fun - but at least it has some character. I don't really agree with that, because it's a base model 500 and looks really crap, especially in the sort of dark brown sludgey colour on the outside of it, combined with a cream everything interior. They mention all the other baby Fiats around are much better colours and combos than theirs heh. Oh and it'd done sub 10k km's, and the gearknob was wobbly.

The Matiz is the first car I've ever seen in Evo to get one star. The nicest things said about it are that it's a "coffin with castors", and that "...the one-lunged, asthma-sufferer of an engine delivers all the pace of a motability scooter...". I don't think anymore needs saying on the Matiz :-)

Is there any intersection between the market for the Matiz and the market for Evo mag?

One did well for us though once. Freewheel broke on our tandem on the way to a wedding party. Got a mate also going to the same party who'd hired a car for the trip to come and pick us up. Now we did wonder how we were going to get 3 bodies, one tandem (which didn't fit easily in the back of a CX estate with the seats down, and you know how big one of those is compared to a Matiz), bike trailer (we were camping) and panniers in, but it all made it. Ok, the bike was poking out of the boot a fair way, but it wasn't a long trip and rural Ireland is used to things like that :-)

'course, loaded like that, there wasn't really any testing of the engine or handling going to be happening :-)

Hehehe, a mate mentioned this to me and I had a read of the article yesterday. Looks like we made a good choice ;)

Still very happy with the wee thing - the revvy little engine is good fun now we can give it some welly!

The side bar stories attached to that group test made me laugh so hard. Of course I'd never treat a hire car that way.

They certainly do. Although the same thing can be said about many three cylinder, small capacity engines such as the Corsa's unit... :-/

Sounds interesting enough. I liked the Aygo that I tested enough to contemplate one. I still am contemplating one, in a remote, "well if I break the Saab" way heh.

Sounds like the Fiat influence... :-(

Pah. Fiat influence.

I've not read the article, but if they hired something to test, rather than were given something... sounds about right.

LOL!

Personally, I would run a Matiz. Because it would be very cheap to run, it wouldn't encourage hard driving in the slightest, old people would let me out at junctions, BMW, Audi and Alfa Romeo drivers would too out of sympathy, and then after three years, it will have cost less than a season ticket. I would, however, need to be going through a mid life crisis of some sorts... :-)

Heh, it was a thing about abusing hire cars, they all had to get one from the lowest group, and couldn't have one the same as anyone elses. Then they drove like mentalists :-) Apparently the Matiz showed a few signs that suggested this wasn't the first time it had been abused, such as a very slack handbrake cable...

Hehe yea, they were better than the article itself - especially the Polo that skipped right round the rev counter to 9,000rpm, and from then on wouldn't run under 4krpm. Then, the use of another mates hire car to push it up to speed so it could be started, after it had died at a toll booth.

The *tyres* fall off the wheels of your hire cars...

Faulty tyre.

;-)

And the replacement car had a faulty diff...

Surely not. I try to be fairly courteous on the road, but even I tend not to let guaranteed rolling roadblocks get in front of me. The matiz, possibly along with the picanto, have to be a the bottom of the 'likely to be let out' league?

Heh!

LOL! Could be "a different part of the world" attitude?

Could be. To be fair, if the traffic were always a snarled up glory of congestion, then I'd be as likely to let one of the legion of crapikar out as anything - there's not much opportunity for them to hold me up. York ring-road at rush hour probably qualifies, so maybe you're right.

I still wouldn't have one, mind.

I've been given a Creative Vado video recorder thing as a corporate gift* and if it weren't for the fact that my commute is so incredibly boring*** I would demonstrate how busy York's ring road can be.

*same place who took Tim Kemp, Charlie and I to the Grand Prix!** **am I not supposed to admit that we had a freebie and took advantage of it? :-) ***I mean, unless you like watching tachometers think about reaching 2,000 rpm and then dropping back again? ;-p