Tag Archives: Citroen C3 Picasso

Family Car of the Year: Winner

After failing to post another category winner yesterday due to lack of time, we reveal our Family Car of the Year today. Lots of space and a clever interior is what we’re searching for, but good looks and proper handling are the really big pluses. And our Family Car of the Year is:

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Car of the Year Nominees: Part 2

Continuing with Car of the Year nominees, here’s the second part. Family Car of the Year and Cheap Car of the Year are here.

Family Car of the Year

This is where we choose the ideal car for people with big families. Lots of space is an absolute must.

Fiat Doblo: Looks great, seats plenty of people, and it’s quite economical as well.

Toyota Sienna: The looks are a bit iffy in some places, but it promises sporty handling with a comfortable ride, great interior, and plenty of room.

Volvo XC60: A good looking car with a great, spacious interior. Very safe as well.

Vauxhall/Opel Insignia Sports Tourer: New Vauxhalls/Opels have said good bye to their old, conservative, ugly ancestors and buried them in the middle of nowhere. As a result they now make good cars and this good looking estate Insignia is one of them

Dacia Duster: A funky looking car with plenty of space, promising a low price tag.

Citroen C3 Picasso: Funky Citroen looks, with plenty of practicality and a reasonable price.

Cheap Car of the Year

These are cars for those of us who don’t want to, or simply can’t, spend too much money. Price range we set is $25,000 CAD and under.

Renault Twingo: A nice looking car with good handling and interior. Comes in a fantastic Renaultsport trim too.

Ford Fiesta: Ford has launched the new Fiesta hatch in 2008 in Europe but not in North America so we actually found an excuse to nominate it as it is a very, very good supermini.

Volkswagen Polo: This small, German hatchback has actually won the European Car of the Year Award, but that’s not important, as now it faces the most important test ever: Will it be our Cheap Car of the Year?

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The New Fiat Doblo

Fiat Doblo

The latest edition of Fiat’s family bus was launched. And can I first say, although quite embarrassed, that it’s quite a handsome looking thing although not as good as the new Citroen C3 Picasso. But let’s get back to the facts.

When on sale it will be offered with four engines: a 94bhp petrol, and three diesels with 89bhp, 104bhp and 133bhp. It sounds ok for a car like this but 89bhp does sound a bit depressing. But these types of 7-seater cars never seem to be anything other than depressing. Well, I don’t think this is the case here, you see this is made by Italians. I’m not suggesting in any way that it’s passionate or any other thing that some Italian cars are but it’s not as bad as a Renault Espace for example.

Fiat Doblo

The interesting thing is that it will be offered with a dual fuel engine which will work on petrol or methane. There will also be a new diesel later with a paddle shift gearbox. No comment on the dual fuel engine, that sounds ok but a paddle shifter? On a 7-seat family car? Who is going to buy that?  Another good thing for the family oriented motorist is the start-stop system which will come as standard. And it’s ecological too with only 129g/km of CO2.

Unfortunately, Fiat hasn’t announced the prices yet.

Source: Autocar

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