Skoda Citigo (2012 – 2019) Review

Skoda cannily borrowed almost all of the Volkswagen Up to create its own Skoda Citigo model. As the name suggests, it’s a car intended primarily for urban use, but the Skoda can tackle faster roads with confidence. It’s also appealingly low-cost to run, giving the Hyundai i10, the ever-popular Fiat 500 and distinctive Toyota Aygo a hard time. Read on for our full Skoda Citigo review.

The Skoda Citigo may be a small car, but it has big talents as a used buy. It’s easy to drive and park, surprisingly practical and well put together, plus it’s cheap to buy and run.

The Skoda Citigo costs a little less than its near identical Volkswagen Up and SEAT Mii stablemates, so if you’re seeking the best value for money it’s a great choice of city car.

All versions of the Skoda Citigo use an economical 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine, with either 60PS or 75PS.

In real-world driving, there’s very little between the two, especially around town where the Skoda Citigo is most at home. For those who spend a lot of time on the motorway, the higher-powered version is a better choice.

It’s great fun to drive despite having very little outright power – the ‘wheel in each corner’ design makes it nimble, agile and easy to thread through gaps in tight urban traffic jams.

Even out of town, it’s enjoyable on a twisting road, but the suspension shows its lack of sophistication over broken surfaces, where the ride can become noisy.

Despite the Skoda Citigo’s small size, it is surprisingly spacious. From the driver’s seat, the car feels a little on the narrow side, but headroom is excellent and it’s easy to get comfortable.

The back row is tight, but it’s fine for short journeys or for children, plus there are Isofix points for child seats. Both three- and five-door versions are available and the latter has wide-opening rear doors.

There’s plenty of equipment on offer, including an easy-to-use navigation system on upper trim grades, but those who go for an entry-level S model will do without a few key creature comforts including electric windows and electric door mirrors.

Numerous extras packs offered features such as a panoramic glass roof, cruise control and parking sensors. 

Looking for a second opinion? Read heycar’s Skoda Citigo review.

The Skoda Citigo might be small but it’s also surprisingly practical, with a reasonably sized boot, Isofix child seat mounting points and good comfort levels.

Skoda offers both three and five-door models, the latter of which has surprisingly wide-opening rear doors to make loading child seats easy.

The boot might not be huge, but compared to a Citroen C1 it’s generous. At 251 litres it’s actually not that far behind the Ford Fiesta, although the Skoda Citigo does have a high load lip to lift heavy items over. The seats also fold forward, giving more than 900 litres of load space.

The front seats are comfortable and there’s enough adjustment to find a good driving position with impressive visibility, plus there is space for smaller adults in the back row.

Taller passengers won’t be too comfortable, but teenagers and children will have ample leg and head room.

Standard equipment on entry-level cars is acceptable if you’re after back-to-basics motoring, with an aux-in audio system but little more – windows and mirrors are manual.

Moving up to a higher trim level doesn’t cost very much and brings better equipment, so go for an SE if you want air-conditioning and remote central locking.

Material quality impresses and although soft-touch materials aren’t used, everything is very solidly screwed together and feels hard-wearing.

That said, you can see where costs have been cut – the front seats, for example, have one-piece backs with no adjustable headrests.

Originally, Skoda offered its PID (personal information device) in place of an infotainment set-up. It was standard on the range-topping SE L model and was much the same as many portable sat-nav devices.

The only difference is its small touchscreen could also be used to work a mobile phone connection, music from devices and some basic driving data. It's easy to use and can be quickly removed for security.

From 2017, Skoda ditched the PID and just offered a mounting point for a smartphone. This might have seemed like a cop-out, but given how good most smartphones are compared to many infotainment systems, it made a lot of sense and works just fine.

You will have no trouble finding well maintained Skoda Citigo models from £4000 with around 80,000 miles on the clock. This will get you an S model, while the SE and SE L are a little dearer.

Choose a four-year-old Skoda Citigo in SE trim with 30,000 miles to its name, and you will spend around £8000.

There was some variation in the official combined fuel economy of the Skoda Citigo depending on the exact trim you chose, but most earlier cars registered in the mid-60s.

When the Skoda Citigo underwent re-testing with the WLTP method, its official consumption was rated at 58.9mpg and you should get pretty much near that in normal driving.

Most of the Skoda Citigo models registered prior to 1 April 2017 emit less than 100g/km of carbon dioxide, so they pay zero road tax at the time of writing. Cars registered after this date will stump up the flat £180 for 12 months’ tax.

Insurance is not going to worry many Skoda Citigo owners as the car sits in Groups 1 to 4, with commensurately low premiums.

It’s also very cheap to keep maintained and serviced, although it’s recommended the gearbox oil is replaced every three years and the timing chain at four years or 40,000 miles, based on which comes soonest.

The Skoda Citigo has a typical small hatchback design, with a wheel in each corner and very small overhangs. This makes it very easy to judge its size – parking is tremendously easy, as is getting through gaps in traffic.

Despite having little in the way of outright power, the lightweight Skoda Citigo is sprightly enough away from the lights and up to 30mph.

It’s great fun to drive thanks to well-weighted and precise controls. Because of the light weight, there’s a great feeling of nimbleness through tight twists and turns, plus driver enjoyment is enhanced by an engine note that remains quiet at most speeds, but comes alive with a buzzy, enjoyable thrum at higher revs.

The Skoda Citigo is an inexpensive car, so there is some evidence of cost-cutting.

The suspension typically offers a good balance between ride quality and handling, but over rough surfaces it shows its lack of sophistication. The ride quality deteriorates and there’s quite a lot of suspension noise transmitted into the cabin.

Refinement could be better, too – you can hear the gear linkage clunking when stationary and there’s quite a lot of wind, engine and road noise at motorway speeds, although no more so than you’d get from rival cars like the Peugeot 107, Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo.

The Skoda Citigo uses a 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine with a choice of two power outputs – 60PS or 75PS.

If you spend most of your time in town, then there’s no real reason to go for the higher-powered engine – there’s very little between the two until you get up to motorway speeds, thanks to identical torque figures of 95Nm.

The standard gearbox is a five-speed manual which is precise and easy to use, unlike the slow-witted ASG automated manual which isn’t recommended unless you simply must have an automatic.

Its saving grace is that it’s cheaper than a conventional automatic, but it takes some getting used to and is far from smooth.

When new, the Skoda Citigo achieved a five-star rating for its Euro NCAP crash test results.

All have four airbags, rear Isofix mounts and ABS anti-lock brakes as standard, but only the SE trim and above had ESP traction control included in the base price – S model customers had to pay extra.

City Safe was also an option and brought automatic emergency braking to the mix.

From 2017, the facelifted Skoda Citigo received ESP across all models, along with a tyre pressure monitoring system. However, auto emergency braking remained an option.

The Skoda Citigo is not rated for any towing capacity, either with or without braking on the trailer.

The Skoda Citigo S is the entry model and features include head/thorax airbags, height adjustable steering wheel, power steering, daytime driving lights, preparation for portable infotainment device (PID), CD player with aux input and 14-inch steel wheels.

The Skoda Citigo SE is the mid-level model. It comes with electric front windows, body-coloured door mirrors and handles, ESP, remote central locking and air-conditioning as standard.

The Skoda Citigo Elegance, which changed name to the Skoda Citigo SE L, gets electrically adjustable and heated door mirrors, 14-inch alloy wheels, heated front seats, leather steering wheel and front fog lamps.

It also comes with the portable infotainment device (PID) on pre-2017 cars, which includes an on-board computer, navigation system, hands-free Bluetooth connectivity and a multimedia player.

The Skoda Citigo Monto Carlo was a special edition that become a near permanent fixture in the Skoda Citigo range, based on the SE trim.

It offered a sportier look with its rear privacy glass, black and red upholstery, leather-covered steering wheel, and black-painted alloy wheels with matching side stripes along the doors.