Colt 5-door
A five-door "super-mini" (as it's known in Britain), our tester was a longish hatchback comparable in size and height to a Suzuki SX4. Long but clean lines were rescued from boxiness by a tidily abrupt rear end.
The cabin features playfully modern design and nice detail, although there are some hard plastics that detract from the overall quality.
The upright seating position was comfortable, afforded good visibility, and the tall roofline provides plenty of headroom. This Colt carries four people comfortably, the four doors provides easy ingress and egress, and the gas strut assisted hatch lifts to reveal adequate trunk space.
The beauty of this car is its fuel-frugal powerplant. This particular model was powered by a 70-bhp 3-cylinder 1.5-liter direct injection engine linked to an automatic transmission with sequential auto-shifting. I disliked the transmission intensely and found it behaved much like "lag and lurch" gearbox in the smart car. We both opted to use the autoshift feature -- imminently preferable than waiting for it to heave itself into gear. The steering was very good -- a little bit on the heavy side, which didn't bother us -- it was accurate and tight. The suspension leans on the side of comfort -- literally. Although comfortable and well insulated, the 5-door Colt is probably best suited to daily commuting, and not spirited corner carving. On tight curves, it displayed lots of body roll, although braking didn't produce any noticeable amounts of nose-diving.
Colt CZT
Most of the journalists I talked to were unanimous in their praise of this little hatchback. Despite a couple of flaws, it displayed plenty of character and was so much fun to drive that most drivers exited the car wearing huge grins. The CZT is the "hotter" version of its more plebian coltish siblings.
Similar in size and shape to a Toyota Yaris, there are a few subtle design cues that separate the CZT from the ordinary Colt. The front air dam is chunkier with a slight chin spoiler, side-skirts visually lower its profile and behind there's a tailgate spoiler.
Inside, the red and black steering wheel, highly-bolstered seats and aluminum pedals set an overall sporty tone.
A five-door "super-mini" (as it's known in Britain), our tester was a longish hatchback comparable in size and height to a Suzuki SX4. Long but clean lines were rescued from boxiness by a tidily abrupt rear end.
The cabin features playfully modern design and nice detail, although there are some hard plastics that detract from the overall quality.
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The upright seating position was comfortable, afforded good visibility, and the tall roofline provides plenty of headroom. This Colt carries four people comfortably, the four doors provides easy ingress and egress, and the gas strut assisted hatch lifts to reveal adequate trunk space.
The beauty of this car is its fuel-frugal powerplant. This particular model was powered by a 70-bhp 3-cylinder 1.5-liter direct injection engine linked to an automatic transmission with sequential auto-shifting. I disliked the transmission intensely and found it behaved much like "lag and lurch" gearbox in the smart car. We both opted to use the autoshift feature -- imminently preferable than waiting for it to heave itself into gear. The steering was very good -- a little bit on the heavy side, which didn't bother us -- it was accurate and tight. The suspension leans on the side of comfort -- literally. Although comfortable and well insulated, the 5-door Colt is probably best suited to daily commuting, and not spirited corner carving. On tight curves, it displayed lots of body roll, although braking didn't produce any noticeable amounts of nose-diving.
Colt CZT
Most of the journalists I talked to were unanimous in their praise of this little hatchback. Despite a couple of flaws, it displayed plenty of character and was so much fun to drive that most drivers exited the car wearing huge grins. The CZT is the "hotter" version of its more plebian coltish siblings.
Similar in size and shape to a Toyota Yaris, there are a few subtle design cues that separate the CZT from the ordinary Colt. The front air dam is chunkier with a slight chin spoiler, side-skirts visually lower its profile and behind there's a tailgate spoiler.
Inside, the red and black steering wheel, highly-bolstered seats and aluminum pedals set an overall sporty tone.
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