Peugeot 107 First Drive

Mini1 you are right, its a very sloppy article. The pictures are of the latest one, as you expect, but the text refers to the second generation of spec, so it shows the CO2 at 103g/km. Now i know 4g/km doesnt mean much, except it does mean free road tax, and for some free entry into the congestion charge zone. There is also a comment saying cheap to run but not cheap to buy.

You can put a mid spec one with air con on the road for £7,500. Try that in an UP! And that wouldnt be CC exempt either.

Truth is, the car is getting old and the deals will only get better until its replacement arrives. Given it remains an enjoyable drive that must be good news for anyone in the market for a city car

I agree the trio are slated of late but represent better value to my mind, as with discounts they're cheaper to buy and inspite of being old they're still cleaner than the up, of which I saw my first the other day, a white up passed me when I was walking, looked like a fridge, none of the psa trios charm or character.

Further to this, I test-drove a Skoda Citigo on Saturday. Having seen a few Ups on the road, I still feel they look very boxy and upright, which seems to cancel out any character. 

I was impressed with the Citigo on lots of levels - equipment tally is especially impressive (far better than equivalent Ups or Miis) and refinement is a definite improvement on the PSA triplets at all speeds. Quality and space are also an improvement. In the Elegance Greentech model I drove, I was also getting 62mpg, as the fantastic little PID thing was telling me. Having said that, performance isn't as good - the 75bhp model was noticeably less buzzy than my 69bhp Aygo, so I dread to think how the 60bhp models would cope. Economy on the non-Greentech/Bluemotion models are also, as previously noted, no better than average.

But overall I was pleasantly surprised. Lacking the fun of the PSA triplets, and the range-wide low running costs, but equipment levels and refinment (and boot space) are a bit better.

Are you thinking of changing your car or were you just interested? Was it good enough to justify the change? the lack of fun element, and poor performance both sound disapointing to me.

Its good to hear the opinion of an Aygo driver in relation to the VAG offerings, i think the Motoring press are too often influence by the 'latest thing'.

I was looking at the Up on the VW web site and see that there is a £200 'sports' suspension option. Do Skoda offer this too? it might help add some of the missing fun. Overall i expect better versions of the Up triplets will come out during their lives, and of course there will be a 108/new Aygo before too much longer as well. 

A bit of both. Thinking of changing possibly at the end of this year/start of next. Aygo hasn't really depreciated that much but I don't want to let its value slip much further.

I have to say that looking at the refinement and equipment of the Citigo, for instance, as a young person who's on a budget, I would give it strong consideration. Leccy mirrors and the Personal Infotainment thing were very appealing. I was even more surprised to discover that the Elegance model has heated seats.

Performance isn't something that bothers me greatly - it's great to use in my father's Octavia vRS when you need it (accelerating onto motorways, overtaking etc) but most of the time of course, you're limited as to how much power you can use in a car. My Aygo has been perfectly acceptable - yes it's a mission climbing a hill with 4 adults + luggage, but it's just funny! You don't get that kind of fun anywhere else. So I'm not that bothered that the Citigo felt a litte underpowered in certain gears. In fact, it is possible that I was fooled into thinking it was less powerful because it made less noise than my car. I think it's more important to use the available power to your advantage - that's what brings the fun factor.

Fun factor - as I've said, the steering was still good and gearchange is more solid than my car, but that feeling of working it hard and listening to the engine buzz along is lacking. I'd have to give the Citigo another drive to see just how much character I can live without (I like my car to have character though). I'd say the Citigo feels more grown up and solid.

I think Skoda do offer the sports suspension - something that is standard on the top-of-the-range Seat Mii Sport. However, I wonder if this would make the suspension a bit crashy - I already found the Citigo's ride quality to be not much better than the Aygo's - which again, is perfectly fine if you like to feel the road rather than glide over it (I quite like feeling bumps in the road - there's a certain connection between you, the car and the ground in that sense).

Overall, I would consider it. But not before having a longer test-drive and weighing up what else I could have for the money (and I wouldn't pay full whack list price of course, and I'd aim to buy nearly-new/used rather than new). I'm keen to see what the PSA triplet replacements offer, too, and I'm hoping we'll see those sooner rather than later. In the meantime my Aygo is still a hoot and I do think that despite the Citigo/Up/Miis advancements in this sector, the PSA triplets represent fun and value for money on a shoestring, just without the solidity, equipment, safety and refinement of the more modern alternatives.

which still offers up a mix of character, performance, economy and reliability that is still quite hard to come by. I've seen a few Volkswagen Ups on the road now and to me, they look far less striking than they did in the initial press photos. The Up looks particularly boxy in some colours.

And how long was the spanner then. Many wheel nuts are 100/120 Nm and you are not pulling that with a spanner and two fingers. If the OP thinks he tightened the wheel bolts/nuts correctly then I suggest he rechecks the caliper bolts with a Torque wrench ASAP and before he drives the car again.  Regards Peter

are you female? if not then it's a big no no, otherwise it sounds alright.

I've driven two Aygos (old style) and an Up. Even the older Aygos were better than the Up, so the new ones must be far better. OK, the VW's interior was slightly more posh, but the Aygo's interiors were much better laid-out and didn't feel particularly low rent.

The Aygos get another point for being cheaper than the Up. Also, they are cheaper to run due to impressive fuel consumption and low CO2 emissions, resulting in low road tax. The more expensive Up emits over 100g/km of CO2, and if you want it to emit less than that, you have to pay even more for the Bluemotion version, which only has 59bhp, less than the PSA trio.

The Aygo is also much more charismatic than the Up. VW has tried to make a grown-up supermini, and that means the Up is boring. The Aygo has character and charm, thanks to its nippy handling, revvy three cylinder engines and solid feel.

The Aygo, 107 and C1 all have very strong residuals as well, because demand for them on the used car market is very high indeed. They have also proved to be extremely reliable due to their mechanical simplicity. This means that it's unlikely to go wrong, and if something does happen to go wrong, it will be cheap and simple to fix the problem.

I know which one I'd rather have, despite what the majority of 'journalists' say.

Youve driven everything haven't you? Do a thread, before you get banned again, on cars you haven't driven.