A Skoda Citigo with the manual gearbox is the better bet, but only one that selects first and reverse cleanly with a quiet clutch; skip the ASG automated manual, which has stranded one car and worn its clutch on another.
owners report 55.4 mpg, 82% of the official figure. Everything below is built from that data and the archived owner history, not from a press car.
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Check a Skoda Citigo advert (free) →Buy a manual Citigo from anywhere in its 2012 to 2019 run and leave the ASG automated manual alone. Owner complaints about this car keep coming back to the gearbox and clutch, and the ASG's failures are the kind you can't spot on a test drive: one stopped a 2013 car dead, and another's clutch began to go.
The manual isn't trouble-free, and it's only the better bet because most of its complaints show up on a test drive. Gears that won't select, a click from the clutch and crunching or clunking through the lower ratios are all things you can feel or hear before you hand over any money. A manual that shifts cleanly and quietly is the one to buy, whatever its year.
There's no year to target or avoid. The gearbox and clutch reports run from 2012 cars to 2015 ones, and there's too little on later cars to say they're any better. The one recall reprogrammed the airbag control unit on some 2013 cars so a side crash sensor fault would trigger the warning light, so a 2013 car needs proof it's been done.
The 1.0 MPI petrol isn't what decides this purchase. Owners' complaints centre on the gearbox, clutch, brakes and water leaks rather than the engine, but a quiet record isn't a clean bill of health, so listen for a smooth idle and steady pull rather than taking it on trust.
Pick the manual gearbox, but test it hard. The owners of a 2012 and a 2013 car had real trouble getting first and reverse to go in, one had to select a gear before starting the engine to get it to engage at all, and another found first sticky on a fairly new car. Crunching on a one-year-old car and clunking through the lower gears on a 2015 car are on record too.
The manual's failures can go further than a stiff shift. One 2015 car's gearbox bearing failed, first showing as a throatier sound and a vibration at 2500rpm in first to third, and a 2013 car's gearbox failed after water got in through its breather. Clutches have gone early too: one owner was charged £700 for a burned-out clutch on a 14-month-old car, and a 2015 car's clutch failed at just 5,000 miles.
Avoid the ASG automated manual. Besides the 2013 car that stopped completely at 34,000 miles, a 2014 car's ASG clutch started showing signs of failure. That's two Citigo ASGs in trouble, and unlike most of the manual's faults, neither is something you can rule out on a short drive, so the automated version carries risks you can't check for.
Lift the mats in the front and rear footwells and feel the carpet for damp, because water getting in has come up more than once. On a 2016 car, leaves blocked the bulkhead drains and rain reached the passenger footwell; a 2012 car leaked into the rear footwell, with the door membranes, drain holes or seals the suspects. On a car with a panoramic sunroof, look at the roof seals: they aren't sold separately, and one owner was quoted £913.25 for a whole new roof.
On the drive, select first and reverse several times from a standstill; any baulking or crunching is the fault owners describe. Listen for a metallic click as the clutch bites, feel for clunking through the low gears and notice any new vibration around 2500rpm. Don't dismiss a clutch that smells, since one owner's burned out 3 months after the smell started. Take it over a rough road too, because the simple suspension shows its limits there.
Brake firmly from speed and feel for judder through the wheel or pedal. Warped front discs needed replacing at 11,000 miles on one car, and another's discs were juddering again by 17,000 miles after being changed. If it pulls to the left, a binding brake is one cause to rule out. One car's knock from the rear nearside was traced to the rear pillar chafing against the panels around it, which had to come off and be greased.
Ask when the stop-start battery was last replaced; one failed at 4 years old on a car used only for trips under 6 miles. Sit in it and make sure you can read the grey display in the speedo, which also sets the cruise control and speed limiter where fitted, as two owners found it hard to make out. For a 2013 car, get proof of the airbag recall work.
Paste the advert into the free check and it runs these against the listing, the MOT history and the DVLA record before you travel.
Sellers rarely admit these faults outright
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Check an advert now (free) →Owners report 55.4 mpg across the Skoda Citigo engines with data, about 82% of the official figure, from 418 submissions.
Skoda Citigo Real MPG by engine →It's more practical than its size suggests, so don't write it off as too small for your needs just because it looks tiny from the kerb. It's solidly put together as well, and it feels like it, with nothing flimsy about the way it's built.
One Citigo reached 80,000 miles with nothing significant going wrong, so a car that's covered plenty of miles needn't be ruled out on that alone. It's only one car, but it shows a Citigo can be a long-term buy rather than something you'll want to swap after a couple of years.
A Skoda Citigo with the manual gearbox is the better bet, but only one that selects first and reverse cleanly with a quiet clutch; skip the ASG automated manual, which has stranded one car and worn its clutch on another.
Lift the mats in the front and rear footwells and feel the carpet for damp, because water getting in has come up more than once. Read the MOT history for repeat advisories and ask for invoices for any work the seller mentions. Then paste the advert into the free check, which reads it against every known Skoda Citigo fault before you travel.
Owners report 55.4 mpg on average, about 82% of the official figure, from 418 submissions. Skoda Citigo Real MPG by engine.
If you used the Honest John car-by-car reviews before the site closed in 2026, this is where the Skoda Citigo buying advice now lives. It is written from the archived owner reports and model notes (archived page, 38 items read for this model), our own known-faults database, the confirmed service intervals and the Real MPG figures. Every number on the page comes from that data, not from the text. The same data feeds our free advert check.
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The Skoda Citigo is one decision. Reading the advert, the history and the seller are the rest, and these cover them.
Looking at a Skoda Citigo right now? Check the advert before you go and see it.