Hi Maeve,

You really are looking for the impossible – no car company we know of has ever made a 1.4-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine for a production car. Skoda (and the wider Volkswagen Group) did do a 1.4-litre, three-cylinder turbodiesel for a while, but that has been canned in recent months.

Your Citroen sounds like it has an issue that needs rectifying at a garage; cars can pass the NCT with mechanical faults, as the NCT is primarily aimed at checking the safety of your vehicle – so the amount of life left in tyres and brakes etc. Realistically, even if you decide to change the C1 for a new car, you’re going to have to get it fixed, as trying to move it on with a mechanical issue will either seriously depress its value, or simply put potential buyers off altogether.

You can choose from a wide variety of 1.0-litre, 1.2-litre and 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol motors, which are the typical capacities of these sorts of ‘triple’ engines. Peugeot and Citroen use the 1.2-litre PureTech petrol in vehicles like the Peugeot 208 and Citroen C3, while a tie-up between the two French manufacturers and Toyota means the Peugeot 108, Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo all use a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder engine. Skoda offers only a 1.0-litre engine in its Citigo and Fabia models, which comes with and without a turbocharger for varying outputs. Ditto Volkswagen (the up!) and SEAT (the Mii and Ibiza). Ford has a variety of three-cylinder engines in its Ka+ and Fiesta ranges, Opel does a good three-cylinder engine in the Corsa and Adam line-ups, and one of our favourite small cars of the modern age – the Hyundai i10 – employs three-cylinder engines as well.