Citroen's C1 made its world debut in Geneva. Sitting below the C2 super-mini, the C1 was developed with city dwellers in mind. At launch, the C1 will be available in either three or five-door format, with a choice of petrol or diesel engines - one of each. Either a manual gearbox, or Citroen's 'SensoDrive' automatic may be specified.

The C1 is very much part of the Citroen super-mini family, sharing its bigger siblings' curves and friendly appearance. Unique to the C1 is the glass rear hatch, and the five-door's rear door shape. Elsewhere, it is apparent that an exhaustive amount of work has been carried out on both space efficiency and safety. Despite the diminutive exterior dimensions, the interior of the C1 stands up well to comparison with cars in the class above. The front seats are thinner than usual to liberate precious inches of rear knee room, and the five-door version does without sliding rear windows so as to increase elbowroom and allow the fitment of a larger cubby. There are apparently 12 such storage areas in total. The interior of the C1 is quite a cool place to be too, with contemporary design that is on the fun side of practical, sharing its shape with the Toyota Aygo and Peugeot 107.

With both the Citroen C2 and C3 gaining a respectable four stars in the benchmark Euro NCAP safety tests, it was important that buyers of the smallest car in the Citroen range felt as safe. ABS is standard across the range, as is CSC (Cornering Stability Control). The cheapest model is predictably low on equipment, but in anything above it there are four airbags as standard, with the option of more. There are also less visible safety systems such as the pyrotechnic seatbelt pre-tensioners and a collapsible steering column. UK pricing has not yet been announced.

Shane O' Donoghue - 7 Mar 2005