Today sees a new series, looking at driving school cars. We start with the one I (mostly) learned to drive in myself, a 1996 Citroen Saxo 1.1 SX. This largely forgotten French supermini was hugely popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Let us look at why this may have been.
Launched to replace the venerable Citroen AX, and indeed sharing many components with it and the Peugeot 106 (Peugeot and Citroen have been the same company since 1974), the Saxo came out in 1996, which means the one I learned to drive in was a very early car, like the one pictured. It was a slightly different colour from this (more like a sandy gold shade), but otherwise identical. The engines were largely carried over from the AX and 106 too, which in this case meant a 1.1 litre TU series motor developing around 60 bhp. This may not sound like much, and by modern standards it is not, but with a kerb weight of around 850 kg, the performance was perfectly acceptable.
Acceptable performance it may have had, but refined it was not. Before being implemented in the 106, the Saxo's twin (many parts are identical), the TU engine series was also used in the Peugeot 205 from 1988, and actually was derived from an even earlier type of unit, the X-series, originally introduced in 1972. Thus, the Saxo always seemed a bit unrefined, particularly at speed. I was thankful that the driving school actually had not chosen the 954cc unit from the basic Saxo. The loss of an extra 150cc may not sound like a big difference, but having spoken to people who drove the 1 litre cars, they were pretty much unbearable.
Another bad area was interior quality. The dashboard was ugly and crude, with a haphazard and dated arrangement of switchgear, some of which was lifted straight from the later years of the Citroen AX, and looks REALLY dated now. The driving position was also terrible, with no seat height or steering wheel adjustment. The ultimate evidence of cost cutting, however, was electric window switches by the handbrake so that they did not need to be moved for left or right hand drive cars. At least there was a standard driver's airbag on all models, but with such a low kerb weight, the car never felt that substantial in comparison with a Corsa or Polo.
Light weight, however, did have some advantages. The Saxo (which always sounds like an uncomfortable combination of Paxo stuffing and Saxa salt in this country) was generally a basic car, and lower specification models, such as the 1.1 SX, did not even have power steering. I thus passed my test in a car without this mostly essential feature, and to this day am pleased that this was the case. The lack of any sort of hydraulic or mechanical assistance meant very good steering feel, which also complemented the Saxo's nimble chassis, a trait shared with the Peugeot 106. The handling was very good indeed, although the car did lean a lot in the bends.
The sportier Saxo VTR and VTS models were massively popular 15-20 years ago, as they were relatively powerful (between 90 and 120 bhp from a 1.6 litre engine), but had a low kerb weight. Citroen also did free insurance deals for young drivers, and Saxos are generally unsophisticated vehicles (even by late 1990s standards), so modifications were easy. It is therefore very, very hard to find a good condition unmodified Saxo these days, particularly one of the performance variants. That is if you genuinely want one...
Another annoying trait in the early models was a keypad immobiliser. I well remember having to punch in the code every time before starting the engine, which got very, very irritating, very, very quickly. Once stalled, there was a bit of grace to get the engine restarted before having to put the code in, but not much. I don't know how reliable the system was either.
The car was not the last word in quality, as I once had a driving lesson cancelled because the gear selector arm had fallen off. I know it was a learner car, but at just four and a half years old, it wasn't exactly impressive. The funniest memory I had was once the car had been sold on, it ended up at the local Citroen dealer in Winchester, and my mother and I drove past. I recognised it immediately, and it was being sold at some super inflated price. Little did they know....
Saxos are not exactly expensive these days, but with mediocre quality, poor reliability and less than impressive ergonomics, money for a cheap runaround can be better spent elsewhere.
