Country Living: Our Man in Arundel

The voice in my head says “hold on a moment, the back window isn’t closed”. It’s closed.

“Perhaps it’s the back door”. Also closed.

“The back window?” Definitely closed.

No, the road noise I’m hearing is literally just that. Hardly surprising, really, when I’m driving a car that costs less than the optional extras on an executive saloon. Welcome to the Citroen C1.

I fancied trying one of these for three reasons. Firstly, they’re economical. Over 60mpg on a good day. That’s good for my wallet, given that my girlfriend lives 30 miles away. It’s also considerably better for the environment than my previous car. Mind you, my previous car left its parking space looking like it had been visited by the Torrey Canyon. Not that it was a bad car – far from it. I liked to think of it as the automotive equivalent of Amy Winehouse. You can draw your own conclusions.

But back to the C1. Reason number 2: it’s small. Parking is at a premium here in Arundel, especially as summer gets closer. And reason 3? It looks cute. As a bonus, it ought to still be in demand in a couple of years if I want to sell it.

Anyway, the road noise was forgotten by the time I’d left Worthing town centre and was on the A27 dual carriageway. This was fun. I’d expected to need a calendar to check the acceleration, but we shot away from the traffic lights in a manner that I felt to be fairly impressive. I’m not sure that the tractor driver had expected me to pull away so quickly. We headed over the South Downs into Steyning and then back towards Shoreham. Oh. It’s a bright, sunny day and the black dashboard is reflecting onto the windscreen. It’s rather like driving through mist. It probably won’t be so bad with a layer of dust on it… or when some of the polish has worn off.

Back on the dual carriageway and we accelerate up to the 70mph limit with relative ease. The first 50mph was easy – it’s the next bit that seemed to take slightly longer. We’re back at the Citroen dealer before too long.

Now it’s time to talk money. I’m still interested. I’ve been checking prices online and know what they’re going for. Of course, I’d have to wait a month or two for delivery – and the dealer has one in stock. He takes me out to it. It’s metallic blue, just like the courtesy car I’d driven. I remark that I’m pleasantly surprised I can fit inside such a small car – I’m just over 6 foot tall - although I didn’t also have any problems with the ‘old’ mini when I had one back in the mid 80s. In fact, I suggest, the two cars are pretty similar in many ways. Yes, the salesman agrees. In fact, he drives an old mini.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should, too.