A brand new car at a used car price: Citroen launches the C3 YOU!

Forget the travel chaos on the roads, railways and at airports. 

With the UK weather forecast looking bright, if you’re relaxing at home this holiday weekend, it’s the perfect time to check out some new Easter bonnets.

By that I mean mulling over potential cars you’d like to own — and maybe a few that you’d wish to, if only you could afford them.

For the start of spring is the time when car makers add new variants to their line-ups. 

They also unveil new bargain pricing packages and offers designed to tempt hesitant buyers back into the market. 

French bargain

As the cost-of-living crisis begins to bite for most of us, Citroen has brought out a new bargain basement hatchback trim level — the C3 YOU! — costing £12,995 on the road.

Dubbed ‘a new car at used prices’, it’s now the cheapest conventional new Citroen on the market. 

Promising generous levels of standard equipment and safety features, it follows the removal of the Citroen C1 city car from the range earlier this year. 

It’s powered by a 1.2-litre three-cylinder PureTech 83 petrol engine and offers a frugal 54 mpg as well as a 300-litre boot, which extends to 992 litres with the rear bench folded down.

Standard equipment on the YOU! includes LED headlights, body-coloured bumpers and door handles, Bluetooth connectivity, a five-inch central touchscreen and DAB digital radio. 

Safety equipment includes hill-start assist, tyre pressure monitoring, a video-based lane departure warning system and speed-sign recognition. 

It also comes with cruise control and a speed limiter, as well as a ‘coffee break alert’ feature to ensure the safety and comfort of everyone on board on longer journeys.

Citroen’s UK managing director, Eurig Druce, enthused: ‘This is a brand new five-door supermini at a used-car price.’

It comes as standard with Soft Sand metallic paint. Five additional body colours are available at extra cost, including Elixir Red premium metallic paint, costing £695. 

Previously, the most affordable C3 in the UK range was in ‘Sense’ trim with the same PureTech 83 petrol engine — priced from £16,260.

However, versions of the new Citroen C3 YOU! are available only via the online Citroen Store, which allows customers to configure their vehicle from the comfort of their own home.

Toyota, Renault, Vauxhall and Suzuki are among the manufacturers announcing new deals this Easter.

Nothing beats an old-school car catalogue 

Websites are fine, up to a point. But when it comes to car price guides, there’s nothing like the charm of a physical book that you can thumb your way through.

That was what I found myself musing, anyway, when a lovely compact Hagerty Price Guide for Spring and Summer 2022 dropped through my letterbox this week from the classic car price experts and insurers — an invaluable tool for the enthusiast.

It covers an astonishing 48,432 collectable classic cars, ranging over 99 years from the 1923 Austin Seven Chummy Tourer (from £8,600 to £20,800) to a last-of-the-line 70th anniversary 2018-19 original 5.0-litre Land Rover Defender (valued from £125,000 to £159,000).

The fastest car mentioned in the guide is the 242.96mph McLaren F1, which is valued at up to £19.3 million, while the slowest listed is the 49mph Citroen 2CV with a tiny 425cc engine, priced from £3,500 to £22,100 depending on the year, model and overall condition.

I even found the first family car of my childhood — a much-loved Austin A55 Cambridge saloon, which can be picked up from between £3,400 and £9,600. 

I can still smell the red leather and horsehair seats, and loved the starting handle that doubled as a means of lowering the spare wheel from under the boot.

The Hagerty guide, which uses auction price performance, data from private sales and finance companies, insurance values and wider economic considerations, notes: ‘We believe that rising interest rates, financial market uncertainties and continued pandemic challenges will continue to drive both investment and enthusiast purchasing.’

• The hard-copy Hagerty guides cost £8 each and some will soon go on sale online (hagerty.co.uk/valuation).