Citroen C3 1.6 VTi Exclusive review
by David Finlay (8 April 2010)
The first thing to say about the new Citroen C3, which arrived on the UK market in January 2010, is that it's a major advance over the model it replaces. I was never a big fan of the old car, and its successor is much better-looking and vastly more up-to-date. Unlike some other superminis, I can not imagine this one having been possible in the 20th century.
Having said that, I wouldn't necessarily pick the model reviewed here as the best of the line-up. That's because it has a 1.6-litre petrol engine, and if I were choosing a C3 for myself I would go for a diesel every time.
This is not a criticism of the engine itself. It makes the C3 perform well, it gives pretty good fuel economy (47.9mpg combined) and it's so quiet that at low speeds you sometimes doubt that it's running at all. On more than one occasion I nearly convinced myself, while manoeuvring into a parking slot, that I was driving a hybrid.
No, the snag is that Citroen has made the suspension of all the petrol C3s incredibly soft. The ride is therefore very good, and I know of no supermini which rewards smooth driving to anything like the extent that this one does. But there is too much body movement, and even when I was being careful I occasionally found myself becoming slightly queasy. The diesels are firmer and much more relaxing to drive, as well as being much more economical and therefore cheaper to run (though of course more expensive to buy in the first place).
The test car was in Exclusive trim, which is the highest available, and among other things it therefore had the Panoramic Zenith windscreen which continues over the heads of the front-seat passengers, and which Citroen fits to all C3s expect the entry-level VT.
You may love this, and I wouldn't argue against you, but it makes me feel very vulnerable, and as soon as the car was delivered I pulled forward the cover which blanks off the overhead bit and makes the windscreen seem a conventional size.
After a few days I told myself to stop being silly about this and pulled the cover back to enjoy the feeling of open space. I hated it, and put the cover into its previous position within half a mile.
The cover itself has a problem. The sunvisors are mounted on it, and they are shaped so that they follow the roofline when they are folded away. This shape is completely inappropriate for when they're being used for their intended purpose, and when driving towards a low sun I found that they blocked an unnecessary amount of the view because they couldn't be folded flush with the windscreen. This simply added to my feeling that Panoramic Zenith is more trouble than it's worth.
In other ways the C3 was very impressive. There is a feeling of quality about it which used to be entirely absent from small Citroens, it's very handsome (though the Botticelli Blue paint scheme made it stand out from the crowd a little more than a shy, retiring fellow such as myself might wish) and it has lots of room. I wouldn't say that a pair of six-footers would last long in the back, but the front is very spacious, and the 300-litre luggage volume is the best in the class, though not by a dramatic amount.
I still think that the even roomier C3 Picasso is a better car overall, but I would not object to having the hatchback version in my life. Given the choice, though, I would definitely go for a VT version with a normal-sized windscreen.
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