Citroen C1 Airscape Flair

[Y16 SES]

So I'm a new person here and it seems a Readers Car Forum is a good way to introduce, So here I am with my 2014 Citroen C1 Airscape Flair!

It isn't a typically PH car, nor some would argue is it an enthusiasts car, however it's still my pride and joy so i am posting here so others can see it (if they want to, which they probably don't 😁😂)

I'm 18, bought the car a couple of weeks after my 17th birthday (July) and I passed my test in February. I haven't crashed it as of yet, however it is damaged...

Couple of weeks after I passed I was up in Loch Lomond shores where a (roughly) 10 year spoiled brat swung their door open renting my wing (didn't known it was dented at the time), which really annoyed me. Everything was all fine and well until I was parked at work and someone scraped down the side of it and drove off, CCTV was broken and so now I have a quite a few large scratches from the rear wheel to the front door, only in the clearcoat though (goes away when wet) so some polish and t-cut should remove it.

Bit of a downhearting first post, but they have been the more memorable parts of owning it. I'll stop babbling on about what some would call a shopping trolley now and show some pictures. Okay, so apparently I can't add pictures yet so hopefully I'll work it out and some pictures will be up at some point (will try and look at it tomorrow)

[Y16 SES]

DJC said:

Any pics?

Got about hundred on my phone, but the file size is to big to be directly put on. Tomorrow I plan on getting it sorted with Photobucket etc

Once that is all sorted then I will certainly get some up

[Y16 SES]

Thanks for the kind comments! I was not expecting such a positive response by soo many people! I was prepared for everyone to be saying stuff along the lines of "why would ant car enthusiast drive that!?", although considering this is Pistonheads it will come in time

As for pictures, bloody nightmare! I have tried everything except one and it isn't working, so on Sunday I will be trying that one last option.

[Y16 SES]

Manxwilliams said:

Cool cars,



Daughter just got this.

Loving the colour! Are those black alloys I spy? Recommend getting Alloygators, they've saved my alloys on more than one occasion (more so when learning, as I'm now very vigilant when parallel parking)

[Y16 SES]

bitwrx said:

I like you enthusiasm! No idea on the car, but at your age - well, a bit older - I had the contemporary Peugeot equivalent of your basic little runaround, a 106 XN. 954cc carb fed petrol, four speed box and a manual choke (that's a thing to increase the fu.... oh, sorry, back to the less boring bit).

It was brilliant. Had it for four years. Took it to Italy for 6 months when I was studying abroad fully loaded with all my stuff. Hilarious fun handling with soft damping and skinny, high profile tyres. Got 8 people in it on the way back from our last lecture in 1st year. By any rational measure, it was not an enthusiast's car. But it was ace. Still have very fond memories of it. I'm sure yours will be the same.

(The real reason I posted was to say there are a few apps out there you can use to downsize phots for posting on PH. Bit of a PITA, but needs must since photobucket cut off their own nose despite the somewhat deleterious effect it had on their face.)

Can you give me a few app recommendations? I've tried Flickr, and other like that!

[Y16 SES]

GrandAndrew said:

They are great cars and in my humble opinion are the best looking out of the 108/ Aygo/ C1 trio. Once Spring arrives you'll love the Airscape roof and I think that the spec of the Flair is better over the 108 Allure as you don't have keyless entry which for me is something none of us needed!

Enjoy your car, I'm sure they're great in the Highlands!

I actually prefer the looks of the Aygo, however I could never manage with the smaller engine! I sometimes want more power with my 82hp so having only 68hp would be torture!
I already love the roof, can be in the minus temperatures and so long as it isn't raining (and the roof isn't wet) it's open. Heating on full blast into the face, radio on and life feels good!
It is possible to get keyless entry on the C1 as well, luckily though mine doesn't have it. I'm paranoid about my car being locked and having keyless entry would just cause so much anxiety!
I haven't had it up near the North Coast 500 or anything but in places like Glencoe it is an absolute dream! I've also kept up with a 997 GT3 on the road towards Knockhill before (admittedly the Porsche driver was using nowhere near the potential of the car while I was ragging it, but I still kept up!

[Y16 SES]

Croutons said:

Brilliant, wholly sensible first car.

Real shame others have bashed it, good on you for remaining upbeat. Enjoy building up some decent no claims and experience!

It is, sensible, safe, practical, reliable while also being a lot of fun!
Got 1 years No claims now, and Hastings Direct allowed me to protect it. Will getting it built up for quite a few years then will upgrade (not getting rid of this though) to something even better!

[Y16 SES]

Slushbox said:

Congrats on the car. Small city cars are getting better and more fun every day. In proportion to city parking spaces which are getting shorter and rarer.

Drive it and enjoy it. :-)

They really are, the step up in quality and well everything between this and the old one is huge!
I don't actually live in a city, and I absolutely loathe driving in Glasgow (not driven into the centre of Edinburgh yet) so I'm not that experienced with city parking. I did have to go into Glasgow City Centre for work once (I've since left that job but that's a story for another day) and I parked in a multi-storey. I then forgot what multi-storey I parked in and spent about half an hour trying to find the car!

[Y16 SES]

S.H.A.D.O. said:

Are you commenting on the right thread, I can't see one single negative comment?

I think he means literally, with the door dinger and hit and run incident

[Y16 SES]

This is a test to see if this works. Can you guys see this? All it comes up with me is a tiny little thing you have to tap, which then brings up the picture. I'd prefer for the picture to be directly seen as it allows me to give descriptions and for it to flow better however if this works I will set about going about it this way.

This picture is from when I first picked it up from Motorpoint Glasgow

Edited by Y16 SES on Saturday 20th January 23:44

Edited by Y16 SES on Saturday 20th January 23:45

Edited by Y16 SES on Sunday 21st January 11:21

[Y16 SES]

Mercury00]Did you put [IMG] [/IMG said:

at the ends of the link?

I put [pic] [/pic] as that is what the original post in the "How to post a picture" thread was. I'll edit it with "img" now
Edit: Done that, made any difference to you guys?

[Y16 SES]

Muddle238 said:

Great cars. I had a 107 for a bit, still in the family. Apart from the clutch, virtually indestructible. No experience of the new generation city bugs, however the open-top versions look a lot of fun.

Very almost bought another recently as a runaround, good cars.

Definitely should have got another! What did you get instead?
It really is, an open roof completely transforms the feel of the car (although that might be due to me being 6'2")

[Y16 SES]

I've got the pictures working now! Here is the long post, with many many pictures. The picture is first sith description afterwards.



First picture I took of it, when I picked it up with my dad from Motorpoint Glasgow. I didn't have my full license at the time so my dad drove it home (one of just twice he has driven it)



When we got it home and parked it to the side of the driveway. First picture of the roof open as well. Taken so I could make it my Facebook Cover Photo, cover photo has been changed many time since then as I just keep getting better photos!



A couple of weeks past, my sister bought a car. The red Fiat 500 (biggest load of crap to sit on the drive imo) so I had to get a picture of the car next to hers and my dad's (dad has since bought a 2010 Toyota Urban Cruiser to replace the 2006 Picasso)



My driving instructor lived across the road from me so she made sure I got some Alloygators fitted, by coming over and helping fit them. Will freely admit they have protected my wheels on many an occasion and I thoroughly recommend them! I will not be putting them back on after replacing tyres in a few months though.



I then passed my test on 10 February 2017, however it was a long weekend and teachers had given excessive amounts of homework to do so I couldn't take full advantage if my new found freedom. Did spare a few moments to go to a local park and get a reasonably scenic picture though!



Few weeks passed with nothing exciting so no pictures. Did buy a private plate though, which is also my username on here. Y16 symbolises that I bought the car in 2016, while SES are my initials. Dad's Urban Cruiser sitting in front of mine here



Skip to July, and a few thousand miles later (do have pictures but it will cause this to be stupidly long, rather than just unnecessary long like it currently is going to be). Went in convoy with my dad's car down to Yorkshire on holiday. Stupidly I only got this picture the whole week we were down there. Parked over 2 spaces on a coastal car park so I had a scenic backdrop, got some filthy looks of some people despite the fact the car was parked like that for less than 2 minutes...



Back up to Scotland and I went off to Glencoe. Car was great fun to drive there, if a bit underpowered at certain points (even though it has the 1.2 82hp engine). Scenery allowed for some great pictures, only posting this one though.



Again, few months pass with nothing exciting so I drove to the Bridge of the Atlantic. That little humpback bridge goes over a tiny piece of water which technically is part of the Atlantic Ocean. Nice backdrop to, sadly it was raining so I couldn't take advantage of the roof opening.



Many months later and 2018 comes around. Weather gets worse and I decide to find out how good the car is on snow/ice. Answer: Suprisingly well considering it is on Eco tyres.



Again, few weeks pass and the weather gets worse. As I already knew the car handled it fine I went back up to Callander and took this picture in the deep snow (I amn't getting cocky or anything, don't worry). Trying to get out of the area I took this picture from however caused a few problems... The snow got deeper and I didn't realise, thus grounding the car out and getting stuck. Luckily a guy in a Scottish Water van had been watching me the whole time and came over to dig me out. I didn't have a shovel so was using my hands, the reason I managed to get the following picture of him digging the car out. Friends on Facebook and Twitter found this hilarious



And now to the present day, my home town got some snow (very rare) so I popped off to the only reasonably large car park which wasn't going to be gritted. Fantastic fun then ensued, although admittedly the picture is pretty rubbish...

[Y16 SES]

Muddle238 said:

Rover 75 Tourer for a 100-mile a day motorway commute as well as a runaround, the 75 shed takes the strain off my DS5. A C1 would have been good for the runaround bit but the motorway isn't it's natural habitat.

Enjoy the car!

A C1 to a Rover 75 Router, certainly an interesting change in choice. The C1 is alright on the motorway, if a bit skittish

[Y16 SES]

Stedman said:

Fantastic cars for the price - I leased one for a year for my girlfriend. The only issue we had was the rear screen imploding, which was odd.

I heard about that happening! Luckily it hasn't happened to me nor anyone I know personally. Not to sure how it happens though

[Y16 SES]

Dinoboy said:

Great photos, good to hear your enthusiasm for your car and driving!

Got to love your car, otherwise there is no point in owning it! Don't plan on ever getting rid of it, unless it gets written off (that includes keeping it on the road even when it starts costing stupid bucks)
I think I'm still in that "new driver, new found freedom" stage. Plus the fact I don't currently have a commute of such means the vast majority of my driving is for things I want to do rather than need to do

[Y16 SES]

There was a break in the rain so my dad and I went out and took my Alloygators off.

I prefer the looks without, and I'll just be be very careful around curbs. Although, I washed the wheels just after taking then off so I now have pristine wheels and a really dirty car, funny looks from neighbours already!



This picture was actually taken before I washed them (oops)



That's my dad's hand in the picture, he was the one that actually did all the work (but I'll never admit that, haha)



Got a "moody" picture a couple of minutes ago. The wheels shine even in this darkness! (These wheels always seem extremely shiny after being washed)

[Y16 SES]

Update, even though it hasn't been that long since my last one, haha

Anyway,I took advantage of having some money in the bank and a lot of free time (long story) and took a trip to Cornwall. From house to hotel door it was 550 miles and over the course of 6 days I then drive everywhere and in total the car covered 1773 miles!



Mileage aside, overview of holiday:



So the first place I went was Lands End, spectacularly beautiful place, although I didn't get a picture of my car with the sea behind so we'll have to do with one from the car park, as above. It was exceptionally windy, as in I struggled to stay on my feet at times, but on the coast at winter I sort of expected that. Did get some "tourist" shots but won't bore you with them





Next day was the Newport Transporter Bridge, which I wanted to go over. However I didn't do my research to the usual extent that I would and it was only after I got there that I found out it was only operational on Bank Holidays... Nevermind though, got a picture of the car with the front quarter and side and one parked in one of the bays, some wierd looks from the workers in some vans parked just out of shot!



Next was the Moretonhampstead Car Museum, which was also a complete fail... There were no opening times etc on Google so I went on the day I thought it was most likely to be open, a Saturday. It wasn't, closed. However, I followed a National Express Coach down a single lane road and ended up coming across a gem of a road, well it would be for a more powerful car, mine struggled to get up a few of the hills. Fantastic scenery though and I got a picture of the car sitting in a layby with the roof open with the spectacular views behind. Plan on making it my Facebook Cover Photo, just can't be bothered to actually do so.

That's all the car pictures I got, I would add some "tourist" shots but then it would become less about the car.


Now to today, it has been exactly 1 year since I passed my test! I haven't crashed, yet, although that doesn't mean I am getting cocky. As a treat to the car I gave it a wash, the first one since about October. Looks sparkling now:



Ignore the dreadful framing and huge piece of red crap to the right, I took the picture quickly.



Rear pic, the best way to see how clean the car is now! However: The next picture isn't so nice...



That is the paint torn off the bottom of the bumper, with the plastic all rough and scraped. It's worse than the picture shows but was either caused by one of the abnormally large speedbumps in Newquay or (more likely) caused when I got the car beached on the snow a while back, extremely annoyed but can't exactly do anything about it now... Don't know why it is upside down, I'm in Scotland not Australia, haha

[Y16 SES]

avenger286 said:

You have done some miles! Nice picture of the car with the seil bridge in the background. I used to live on the island as a kid in the village of balvicar and went to primary school in easdale. While you were in Glen Coe you should of went down Glen etive.

I have, bought the car with 3147 miles on it and it now has over 15000, the vast majority being for “pleasure”. Hasn’t put a foot wrong either, despite being on some pretty dreadful roads (like the single lane one up to the Seil bridge). The passenger window rattles, dealer says there is nothing wrong though

It looks exceptional, you were very lucky to live there!

I’ll put it on my list, when the weather gets better I’ll be making a trip back up

[Y16 SES]

avenger286 said:

Yes I was very lucky to grow up there! I was up in Glen Coe last weekend pity the snow was about gone. I would recommend going over to Mull if you liked Seil. I still get back up there 3/4 times a year as I live in Seaton Carew in England now. Usually get up to Mull for 2 weeks in October to do the Mull rally.

I’ll try to get over as soon as I can, weather means I can’t right now (well I could but parents strongly discourage it)