Toyota, Peugeot and Citroen’s seven-year-old joint venture – TPCA – in the Czech Republic launched updated versions of the Aygo, C1 and 107 at the Brussels motor show.
It’s an important car for all three partners. The C1 is Citroen’s best seller here in the UK – volume in 2011 was close to 15,000, taking sales to more than 80,000 since it was launched in 2005 while Peugeot’s total 107 sales are nudging 100,000.
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The objective of the facelift was to differentiate the trio even more, said Francois Dabadie, Citroen’s C1 product manager. “We haven’t changed the number of different parts but we have underlined the differences more,” he said.
New features include LED daytime running lights, described by Dabadie as a big step forward for a small car, “and the one very visible change”. The C1 also gets an integrated Bluetooth system and an electronic automated manual gearbox with steering-wheel mounted paddle shift.
CO2 emissions are down to 99g/km from the 1.0-litre, three cylinder petrol engine but Dabadie said he ruled out adding stop-start because the cost outweighed the benefit. “Adding GBP400 to an GBP8,000 car to get an extra four to 10 grams off the emissions isn’t worth it in my opinion. It’s a price-sensitive car,” he said.
Brussels was chosen for the launch mainly because the cars were ready and Belgium is an important market for all three partners. It also meant they avoided the changes getting overlooked at Geneva where Peugeot’s big story will be the 208, a full redesign of the 207.
