Top speed 99mph
Keeping a tab on who's getting into bed with who in the motoring industry requires all the relationship savvy of a divorce-hardened couples counsellor. Unlikely alliances seem to spring up faster than they do during the last dance at a youth club. And the results of these automotive liaisons mean that the car you are driving may not be exactly what you think it is. Would you have guessed that your Volvo S40 has the same DNA as a Ford Focus and a Mazda 3? Or that a Ford Galaxy is a VW Sharan, which is a Seat Alhambra by any other name?
This week's example of a motoring cross-fertilisation is the Skoda Citigo: a city-friendly supermini designed to cope with the horrors of urban motoring. It just so happens that the Citigo is the same as the VW Up! and the Seat Mii. By the same, I don't mean that all three share a passion for congested streets, red lights and speed bumps – I mean that they are essentially identical triplets. They all come off the same production line in the same factory in Bratislava in Slovakia. All three manufacturers are, of course, owned by Volkswagen, and other than the badge and the odd very superficial difference, you'd be hard-pressed to spot the difference. Interestingly they don't all cost the same, though. The Up! is the most expensive and the Citigo the cheapest, but only by a few hundred quid. When you are spending less than eight grand on a car, the differences in price are never going to be that great. But why would VW make three different cars the same? It's all part of the huge German firm's masterplan for global domination and goes back to that basic tenet of marketeering: give the customer the impression of choice.
The strange thing is that the impression of choice is very real. I have test-driven the Up! and now I am driving the Citigo. My head tells me that the cars are the same, but my heart insists there's a difference. The Up! felt innovative and new, while the Citigo feels economical and sensible. But then that is Skoda's home turf: the brand is a byword for cheap, reliable, no-nonsense motoring. And that is exactly what the Citigo feels like. It'll be hard for Seat's Mii to carve out a role in this triumvirate. The quirky black sheep of the family, maybe.
The Citigo (and its brothers) makes a decent fist of taking the pain out of city driving. It's remarkably roomy for a car with such a small footprint and can easily seat four adults. The boot is narrow but surprisingly deep, so there's plenty of room for the shopping. Driving in town is not so much about driving as pausing – it's a waiting game – so, as you would hope, the Citigo comes with a decent stereo, a nifty detachable (theft-proof) infotainment device, loads of small clever storage cubbies, comfortable seats with plenty of headroom, and effective air con. It's a great car to be stuck in traffic in.
It can handle the open road, too, its high-revving 1-litre engine coping with the demands of the motorway better than you would imagine. True, a long haul up to the Highlands or down to the West Country would be pretty knackering – but any pain you felt in your back would be compensated by the gentle ride the car gives your wallet: it'll do up to 78.5mpg on a steady run.
So, easy to drive and easy on the wallet – the Citigo/Up!/Mii hardly seems like an intimidating weapon as VW goes head to head with GM and Toyota in the battle for global sales, but in a fight that's all about numbers, it's three in one.