Too much like the old one; too similar to the rest; too reliable, even: hackneyed they may be, but there’s many a line about modern cars being too damn similar to have any character.
Well, Citroën is clearly rebelling.
While the Ami’s name will invoke memories of an old (sorry) friend, there are few similarities beyond the wilfully different approach to answering one of the challenges in life you might have thought had been solved long ago: broadly how to get from At o B, but mores pecifically how to do so in the city.
In fact the Ami is not a car but a quadricycle, which puts it in the company of some rivals of rather dubious sales credentials, from the G-Wiz and Aixam Crossover to the Renault Twizy.
That means it can be built to less stringent crash regulations – and therefore, if it goes on sale in the UK (which is still being decided), sold at a comparatively bargain price of around £6000, or with a £2500 deposit and £20 a week thereafter.
Or even for 25p a minute, hired like a ‘Boris Bike’.
What you get is inevitably basic – a top speed of 28mph; 8bhp of power and 29lb ft of torque; an electric range of 43 miles; pull-cords for door releases; and body panels that swap back to front and side to side (hence the rear-hinged driver’s door) – but, for even the most frozen of cold-hearted souls, utterly charming.
