We’re all familiar by now with why you might buy a Citroen Saxo VTS in 2025. With a world full of overcomplicated, oversized and overweight cars of every stripe, so the appeal of the light, simple, honest stuff absolutely soars. Even by the standards of its time, the VTS was a proper little scamp of a hot hatch, lairy and lovable in best French style. Also why there aren’t very many remaining, which we all know far too well.
The survivors more than 20 years after the end of production tend to follow a similar pattern. They’re either tired facelift versions, which really never looked quite as pert as the originals, or one of those early cars that’s been so mollycoddled that you’d be scared of driving it. No need to worry about lift-off oversteer - you wouldn’t want to lift off the car cover having paid what’s asked for some.
Then there’s this one, a VTS for the ages if ever we’ve seen one. It’s a 1998 Phase 1 car, for starters, so it looks like a VTS always should have, complete with 16v badges and modest spoilers (though these look like VTR wheels to us). There’s a full size spare still lurking under the boot, in that bizarre but brilliant French tradition, and all the jazzy 90s seat fabric appears present and correct. It’s a real treat.
Then there’s the Saxo’s USP - the Magenta paint. Typically we think of VTSes being blue, silver or black, and if it’s red Saxo you’re talking about it’s probably an old tarmac rally car. But here we have a glorious deep red, a wine-like kind of burgundy that’s nothing if not unusual on a car like this. The seller believes that there were only ever 42 of these, with just three remaining in the UK. In case a plain old Saxo VTS wasn’t rare enough already.
A non-traditional hot hatch colour - imagine how good it might have looked on an XM - only serves to make this VTS even more interesting. The paint looks to have been cared for well, and gleams nicely for what’s now 27 year old paintwork. The mileage is low at 65,000, the service history is said to be good, and there’s nothing scary to report from the MOT. Having been off the road for a few years, it now looks back to its best.
At almost three decades old, a Saxo VTS deserves fairer treatment now that it would have likely enjoyed at the end of the 20th century. That being said, for the simple joys of pocket rocket motoring, with a fizzy 16-valve up front and barely any weight to fling along, it’s hard to think of very much better. Certainly it’s hard to imagine a VTS being anything less than a seriously covetable classic Citroen. Even in the colour nobody knows about.
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