Anyone anxious to try a brand new car would usually have to buy it to drive it around – something most engineers do not recommend that you do. As production matures, vehicles tend to get much better. If you want to avoid that, car-sharing programs can be the right call. PSA has the Free2Move in some countries, and it already offers the Citroën Ami. Sadly, the urban EV showed recently why engineers prefer to wait.
Vincent Desmonts shared on Twitter last September 11 that he was anxious to drive an Ami that day but was not able to do that. His tweet about the whole situation explains why much better than we ever could.
Even if you do not speak French, the pictures are more than enough to understand his frustration. Check in which condition its “gear” selector was.
According to Desmonts, he could not get the buttons to work in any way, and we cannot say that is any surprise. The D, N, and R buttons are misplaced as if someone punched them hard. On September 15, the Free2Move customer asked on Twitter in a good mood – but for real – that the company did not charge him for the use of that car.
That gives us the impression the app does not allow owners to report issues on the cars. If it did that, Free2Move would probably be able to discover if this was a vandalism act and who was the perpetrator. Worse still, it makes us wonder if car-sharing is a good solution during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The other hypothesis is not flattering for PSA: what if the selector panel just did not stand heavy use?
More Citroën Ami News:
If that were the case, we would probably have more Amis with that issue soon, especially the ones adopted by Free2Move. Apart from Paris, the urban vehicle was also presented in Berlin, but we are not sure if it is already in the Free2Move fleet there. Free2Move’s car-sharing currently works in Paris, Washington, Madrid, and Lisbon, according to its website.
Have you ordered or driven a Citroën Ami already? What was your impression of the “gear” selector? Is it robust or fragile? Are you aware of any similar issue anywhere else? In case you are, please let us know more about it at contact@insideevs.com or our Facebook page.
