What’s hot?
- Seats four adults in fair comfort
- 5 star Euro NCAP crash rating
- Tardis-like boot: 959 litres with rear seats folded
- Unclip-and-go removable multimedia unit
- 5-30kph automatic “anti-collision” system (when it works)
- Sub-99g/km CO2 for “Greentech” models – which means company car tax of just 10% for 2012/13…
- …and full first year writing down allowances
- Stylish good looks
- Useful storage nooks and crannies, plus bag hook and documents folder
- Lowest, A-band VED for Greentech models
- Agile handling
- Surprising refinement
What’s not?
- Least powerful 59bhp engine has to work harder. Refinement suffers mildly as a consequence at higher revs.
- Even 74bhp version’s straight-line performance slightly leisurely
Skoda Citigo 5 door 1.0 MPI Elegance 75PS GreenTech – the low down
| P11D Value: | £ 10,155 |
| Monthly business rental (ex VAT): | From £162 (3yrs/30,000 miles) |
| Tax Bands 2011/12 to 2013/14: | 10%, 11%, 12% |
| Benefit in kind 2011/12 to 2013/14: | £1016, £1117, £1219 |
| Engine: | 3 cylinder,1 litre petrol |
| CO2 Emissions: | 98g/km |
| Power/torque: | 74bhp/95lbs ft |
| 0-62mph/top speed: | 13.2 secs/106mph |
| Economy (official): | 67.3mpg |
Verdict
The Skoda Citigo packs improbably large interior space and height into a body that’s just 3.56 metres long and 1.64m wide. Particularly in its 74bhp form, it is surprisingly fun to drive although not fast in a straight line. Its steering is precise and ride comfort is good for such a relatively short-wheelbase car.
Citigo sales are expected to start out around 85 per cent retail, although Skoda is starting to explore more seriously business user potential for such cars.
A widespread take-up among SMEs, however, will require a greater change in business culture towards minimising car costs than has been seen to date, even in the depths of recession.
But the Citigo, like Fiat’s just-revised Panda, the Up! and others have at least the potential to encourage a shift in thinking. The Citigo’s “grown-up” nature does not require much in the way of compromise. Four really can travel longish distances in relative comfort and reasonable refinement, all while loping along at motorway speeds and with real-life economy overall of around 60mpg.
Sales targets for the Citigo in the UK seem modest in the extreme: UK brand director Robert Hazelwood predicts around 4,000 in the first full year; around double that in a year or two as the sub-compact city car sector, already 200,000-strong, continues to be one of the few areas of the new car market enjoying significant growth, even if private sales currently predominate.
Asking executives of VW group, of which Skoda forms an increasingly important part, why VW has effectively sat on its backside and watched Hyundai’s i110 already take over 22,000 UK sales a year in precisely the sector Citigo is entering, tends to evoke a “better late than never” shrug in response.
