Ahh yes this was when top gear actually reviewed cars the majority of its audience can afford.

This exact saxo was mine to it was stolen in 2008 and was never seen again, had no clue it was on top gear

Mad hearing Clarkson say 120 hp is alot.

Always loved the Saxo VTS not easy to find a good one now. Rust and Barry boys have killed them all off.

This music. THIS music was my teenage years, Sunday roast diner and a shandy courtesy of my dad. God how times were good a d we didn’t know it.

Awww, good old days, when 120 horsepower used to be a lot back then. Now it's all numbers and no fun in most cases. Thanks god we still do have cars like Fiesta ST and Abarth 595 and many more, that still offer fun first, performance second.

"Now 120 horse power is a lot" I wonder what Jezza would make of that statement now.

I just love their pop songs added I have even heard "my milkshake" play during 1 episode

I´ve a 106 GTI and it´s from 1996. The car has almost 240000 Kms and performs like new. It reaches 210 kmh on straight line and handles like anything. I use only 98 octane fuel and the oil 10W40 is Sheel or BP. It´s a pocket rocket. I also have several magazines (Top Gear, Evo, Car magazine, Autocar) from 1996 and on handling test in Castle Combe, MIRA, Rockingham, Thruxton my car is one of the best in handling (beating Porshes, M3, Ferraris on gforce). Cheers

Great audio quality.

Amazing to think 120-130bhp was enough for small hot hatch once upon a time. 0-60 in 7.2 seconds is still decent today! But then of course small cars were actually small back then too and weighed about half as much as they do now. Also amazing to think that Clarkson was once an avid Peugeot fan, and that Top Gear featured normal affordable cars.....how times change!

My parents had a Citroën Saxo 1.4i form 2000 and drove it for 10 years. It was a amazing pocket rocket. Cheap, light weight, spacy and simple to work on if you did the maintains yourself. The Peugeot 106 is also a great car and shares the same technology. But after a long time, They started too rust, more than a Saxo ever does. So if you wanted to buy one, look for rust.. Engines are amazing thou, but the 1.1 and 1.0 have just not enough power.

3:41 was that a cat! That keypad on the VTS was a great idea and wonder why something similar wasn't kept to stop modern car (theft).

a n o r a k b i t coming up

Funny fow the 106 had the reg say P 407!

Hot hatches have obesitas these day, like all cars and occupants. 120BHP on 850kg was good.

That song is Thin Lizzy boys are back in town

The Saxo VTS and its PSA Group neighbour were great classic hot hatches of the 90's

Watching this.....we've gone to complex and joyless cars very quickly.

Had that same immobilizer keypad in my Xantia. It was a bloody nightmare tbh. Slow to respond and the buttons would get stuck. Still a good car for its time though. French cars were just better then.

‘Now 120bhp is a lot.’

3:23...........................I really think this feature should be considered as a required anti-theft feature on all new cars here in America.

Polo 6n GTi 1998 120hp

👏

3:40 meow

I love how he is praising Peugeots in an old episode, now they're known for being overly terrible.

Funny thing is my mk2 Skoda fabia diesel has more power than a few of these hot hatchbacks and mine isn't even the hot hatch model haha. How times have changed

Insurance is ratherly Meow inexpensive.

last of the real hot hatches.

Was hoping for the 158bhp Civic Vti

бойз аре бекинтаун

0-60 don't matter, I want it to be satisfying to drive

substantial, quality car. hahaha

I never saw the appeal of this kind of car, to be honest. Not really fast (top speed), or quick (acceleration), either. Every one I've been in felt a bit "bouncy," like it was designed for roads that didn't have bumps, potholes, or railroad crossings. Or like they would have benefited greatly from having a longer wheelbase, IDK. If you own one, you can fold the back seats down in order to carry things - but then your vehicle is, in practical terms, a two-seater. And what good is its good handling (especially if that's actually "good handling for a front wheel drive vehicle that was probably originally designed to be an econobox") if it's greatly outclassed on the straights? In 1997, when this segment was being filmed, I'd recently purchased a 1986 Buick Regal T-Type. It was really quick, then, amazingly quick when new - and would still be considered to be pretty quick today. Less than $100US got it into the 12s. Admittedly, it handled like a 3,800-pound cinder block. After some minor suspension work (including adding the body bushings that the dipsh*ts at the factory neglected to), it handled like a... slightly better-handling 3,800-pound cinder block. However, on the dragstrip, handling was largely (but not completely) irrelevant. Hypothetical street racing in and around the city? No hairpin curves there. Backroads? Ditto, for the most part. There is one road that, unusually for a 55 MPH two-lane highway, has three curves with posted advisory speed signage stating 15 MPH - but it's so torn-up/bumpy that anyone trying to make up serious time on those curves would be on fire at the bottom of the ravine, wrapped around an oak tree, or in the river (depending on the specific curve). I've only been to ten track day events at local (not really, but...) "road course" tracks - but what I discovered was that it didn't help to be a little quicker through a curve when the other guy (me) has already accelerated away from it before you've even entered the curve. So, really, what is the big appeal? After installing 3,000 watts' worth of speakers, you don't have room to take your little brother to school? You've no difficulty parking it at your local ChinaMart, even when the guy in the next slot has stuck his F-350 dually partially in your space? After the wife barred you from building a "man cave" in the basement, you needed a car that's short enough to fit into the garage without having to remove the couch and television, lol? What? *Yes*, this is a serious question. And, yes, I'll accept "I can't really say; I just like the things" as a valid answer.

So you used the top specs for the others but a mid range Polo. The Polo GTI would have won on speed alone -.-

I'd never ever own a french car ever again!! Especially Schitroen

A saxo a quality substantial car?? I dont think so. I know someone who hit a curb and bent the a pillar, wrote the car off!!

£400 for insurance for a 29 year-old to drive some crappy little FWD hatchback?! I wouldn't pay £400 for the car alone! I dread to think how much worse the price would be now!

Saxo VTS, Pug 106GTi. Same turd, different polish