One-owner-from-new Citroen Saxo VTR for sale
Precious few speedy Saxos survive in 2025 - and even fewer with just 45,000 miles
Even in its nascent stages, the revival of the small hot hatch - with battery power and modest weight - is to be celebrated. Cars like the Alpine A290 and Mini Cooper SE are already very good, and the return of the 208 GTI sounds like great news. Small, light, fast and fun is a recipe for entertainment, whatever the power source. Now we just need Citroen to join the fun. It has a long and storied history of GTs, GTIs, VTRs and VTSes and now there’s a new electric small car, the e-C3, which shares its STLA Smart Car Platform with the Fiat Grande Panda. An e-C3 VTS or GT or whatever doesn’t seem like the silliest stretch of the imagination; presumably the rest of the Stellantis brands will see how the e-208 GTI turns out before committing any further. But Citroen has been off the enthusiast radar for too long, probably since the old DS 3 Performance, and it would be great to have them back.
It remains so cherished because of cars like this Saxo VTR. Classic French pocket rockets weren’t complicated, or tremendously sophisticated, or expensive, but they delivered fun like little else. So people kept buying them - helped by free insurance and cheap finance back in the day - and Renault, Citroen and Peugeot kept making them. Until they didn’t. Or rather they did, but they were cars like the 207 GTI and C4 VTS. And it would have been better not to have bothered.
Anyway, this is not your average Saxo VTR. We all know what happened to most: thrashed from new by a first owner, who will have moved it on when they could get a Civic Type R. Thrashed by a second owner until they wanted something more practical. Thrashed by the next until they were told they needed something safer. Cherished (and thrashed some more) by a young PHer who can just about afford the first fast French fancy. Then probably scrapped, or crashed. Rinse and repeat.
These are old millennials’ RWD Escorts, those cheap and fun old cars that were traded for buttons when they were plentiful - and now worth a whole lot more with the supply dried up. Thanks to scrapping and crashing. This one, somehow, has just one previous owner for its entire 22 years, and considerably fewer than 50,000 miles. It’s borderline unprecedented for this kind of machine, the junior hot hatch that represented a stepping stone onto more serious machinery.
But somebody kept the VTR, and kept it nice. There’s not a modification to be seen, for starters: the crummy radio-CD player, a rear wiper the length of the wheelbase, an untouched parcel shelf and modest wheels are all present and correct. As an 03-registered car, it’s one of the last Saxos, and the MOT history is overwhelmingly green, again not another guarantee given build quality was hardly a strength.
Now it’s for sale at £8,495, or not a whole lot less than it would have cost in the early '00s. As back then, a 16-valve VTS remains the most desirable of the Saxos, but it feels like they’re even thinner on the ground these days. Even as a mere eight-valve, a VTR is going to be admired wherever it goes, and must surely be one of the cheapest classics to keep on the road. Maybe it’ll stick with the second owner for another couple of decades - Citroen might finally have decided to make another performance car by then…
I had a VTS back in the day at 21 with nut crushing insurance but I did feel the dogs danglies when my mates were going about in VTRs and Zetec-S's. Changed it for an EP3 at 24, fun, simpler times.
It got thoroughly abused, from cold, daily. It was however, brilliant. Throw it into any corner at any speed and it would come out the other side, likely on three wheels. Plenty fast enough for me as a rather daft 18-20 year old, and I put almost 60k miles on it in just under 3 years!
Moved on when I could afford (and afford to insure) a lightly used Seat Leon Cupra R, which was treated with much more respect.
I had a VTS back in the day at 21 with nut crushing insurance but I did feel the dogs danglies when my mates were going about in VTRs and Zetec-S's. Changed it for an EP3 at 24, fun, simpler times.
VTR or VTS then onto Type R. The good old days
The gave free 1 year insurance on the VTRs if IIRC
I could go for an actually decent one someday.
1.1 8v (mk1 converted to mk2 - VTR bodykit in Posy Blue)
1.6 8v mk2 VTR in Icelandic Grey
1.6 16v mk2 VTS in Posy Blue (Supercharged 220bhp)
1.6 16v mk1 VTS in Venetian Red (Supercharged 252bhp)
1.6 16v mk2 VTS in black (converted to mk1) (Turbo 371bhp!)
Still have the last on the list. Build thread here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
It got thoroughly abused, from cold, daily. It was however, brilliant. Throw it into any corner at any speed and it would come out the other side, likely on three wheels. Plenty fast enough for me as a rather daft 18-20 year old, and I put almost 60k miles on it in just under 3 years!
Moved on when I could afford (and afford to insure) a lightly used Seat Leon Cupra R, which was treated with much more respect.
Brilliant little car and fond memories. Mine was the MK1 which I prefer before the headlights went rounder.
Was thinking of it the other day actually when discussing the modern car thefts and thinking about the PIN number immobiliser in front of the gearstick.
1.1 8v (mk1 converted to mk2 - VTR bodykit in Posy Blue)
1.6 8v mk2 VTR in Icelandic Grey
1.6 16v mk2 VTS in Posy Blue (Supercharged 220bhp)
1.6 16v mk1 VTS in Venetian Red (Supercharged 252bhp)
1.6 16v mk2 VTS in black (converted to mk1) (Turbo 371bhp!)
Still have the last on the list. Build thread here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Fond memories of the car overall. The VTR was always not quite quick enough I thought. Good finance and insurance combo deals on them at the time though I remember.
Always sounded good with an air filter and being smashed of the limiter.
Good old days!
I always preferred the 106 myself based purely on looks but either way these cars are so much fun, I’m sure there are many of us with memories of doing frankly silly things in cars such as these a couple of decades ago.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff