CITROEN has shaken up its Saxo line-up, axing more than half its trim levels, discarding almost all the diesel models and increasing prices. But Citroen says the increases are designed to only partly make-up the big price reduction of the range earlier this year. This saw cuts of £365 from the VTR, bringing it to £10,675 on the road, £1,185 off the 120bhp 16V VTS at £11,995 and the best -selling member of the range, the three-door 1.1iX, fell £560 to £7,830. This week's increases see these models priced at £10,880, £12,200 and £7,985 respectively on the road.

The biggest change to the line-up comes with the axing of 14 of the 24 variants of three and five-door Saxos. The Stateside and Exclusive trim levels are scrapped, a diesel option is no longer available on three-door Saxos and, in the five-door line-up, the diesel range is cut to just the 1.5D SX (£10,020 on the road). It is also now only possible to get an automatic transmission option in a single vehicle - the five-door 1.4i SX auto at £10,535 on the road.

Citroen is also slashing the price of models in its MPV Synergie range by up to £420, with the entry level 2.0i X five-seat falling from £17,285 on the road to £16,865. Also down in price is the 2.0i X seven-seat at £17,295, the 1.9 turbo DX five-seat at £17,575 and the 1.9 turbo DX seven-seat at £18,005. Prices of the SX and Exclusive trim level variants are unchanged.