Road Test: Citroen Ami

In the current economic climate, people are anxiously trying to find ways to save money on their daily lives, be it with energy expenditure, food, and even travel. At just £19.99 a month, the Citroen Ami quadricycle seems like an effective way to get yourself a form of mobile transport that doesn’t consume enormous amounts of fuel and running costs that conventional cars are affected by. All over Europe, many people use vehicles like this to commute to their city jobs and back – and aren’t phased by the fact they resemble toasters with number plates. So, could the Ami be a viable method of urban commuting?

With a 28mph top speed, immediately you begin to realise that it would be a silly idea to take the Ami outside of a city-based environment. That’s because it was designed to tackle exactly that; to be an easy-to-use and very cheap urban commuter vehicle that takes the stress out of negotiating tight gaps and cramped parking spaces. The Ami was designed for the congested streets of Paris or Vienna, can legally be driven by 14-year-olds. So, how does the Ami fare with the rather less glamorous city of Coventry? Well, for a start, it’s an incredibly easy thing to see out of. Unlike every modern car on sale, the Ami effectively has a panoramic view of the road which makes zipping in and out of lanes a total doddle. And over the uneven, pot-holed roads of the West Midlands, it’s surprisingly supple.

It’s by no means hydropneumatic sort-of comfortable like in old Citroens, but it doesn’t break your back despite sitting on a couple of plastic chairs with some padding. With that said, once you go over a speed bump at anything above 5mph, you may have to admit yourself to hospital after getting a concussion from the exposed metal strut directly above your head.

The Ami does have supercar qualities. Not only is it mid-engined like a Ferrari 488, has door straps like a 911 GT3, but it also attracts an unholy amount of attention on the street. Park it up near campus and suddenly, every student and passer-by is asking questions and taking photographs. People love the Ami; it was like going through town with a pet rather than a Lamborghini and the delightful people of Coventry favoured it. Around cities, the Ami is an easy-to-use and understandably practical on the urban commute around Paris, London, or Rome. Around Coventry however, the roads are littered with 40mph limits, and you suddenly get the sense that while the Ami is cute, it also holds everybody up.

Interestingly, the fastest speed a barn owl has ever been recorded at is a tip over 50mph, and the little Citroen can only manage 28. With that said, on a downhill slope, I managed to squeeze 33mph out of it – meaning this has to be the first car which is slower than the living thing it looks like? Nevertheless, the painfully slow top speed isn’t helped by the fact that it takes a considerable amount of effort to get there. From 0-10mph, it’s pretty sprightly, but after that, it climbs at a rate of around 1mph every second – and on busy roads when you need to get up to speed, it’s pretty dangerous. So, you have to wait until a gap the size of the moon is available.

As for the turning circle, it is a little bit bigger than you’d expect. Turning around on the relatively wide road towards Combe Abbey still requires a 3-point turn, which is a bit disappointing and removes some of the ease of driving it. Safety? Well, because the doors are easy to swing open, simply bailing out for dear life probably will be the best option. But you should be okay because you’ll never be going fast enough to experience anything more than a tap on the edge of a curb.

As for range? For its intended purpose, you should be okay if you commute from Twickenham to Central London and back again – that’s generally what this quadricycle was designed to do. If your commute involves any sort of dual carriageway or 60mph road, stay clear and get a proper car. Another point worth mentioning is that whilst you hear a lot of horror stories about electric car batteries slashing in range due to cold weather, this wasn’t the case with the Ami. It was incredibly frugal with every mile that passed, and this road test was undertaken in bitterly cold temperatures.

Is the Citroen Ami therefore, a recommendable choice for commuting in urban environments? Absolutely: it’s the same price as a box of chocolates per month, easy-to-use, and has a lovable character attached to it. The ideal environment to live in would be Paris or Vienna if you intend to zip around in the owl, and in a world when cities are having increasing battles against cars with low emission zones, a case can easily be had for a car like this, thus saving your proper car for longer trips.

It may not be as fast as a barn owl, or as stable, or even as safe, but the Citroen Ami wasn’t supposed to be. It was designed for one purpose in mind, and that was to be cheap, quirky, and convenient in the city. And for that, the Ami is very good indeed.