Citroen
Nissan Micra £18,010/£18,560 Citroen C3 £16,825/£18,710
“So what do you drive?” is the frst thing people ask when they fnd out you work for TG. This presents a problem, as for the next few months my answer will be “a Nissan Micra”. I imagine the laughter will last for some minutes.
I’d understand if it was the old Micra – the one that’s built in India, sold all around the world and in the UK bought mostly by geriatrics – but it isn’t. Unlike that car, the new ffth-gen Micra was designed for Europe. It’s built in France, but the platform (a very heavily revised version of the old car’s) shares nothing with the car it replaces. It’s longer, lower and wider. Engines come from Renault, tech from Nissan’s best-selling Qashqai and it rides and drives with more verve than many in its class. So please, please don’t laugh at me.
Ours is a top-grade Tekna in Power Blue, with the 898cc turbo petrol and 5spd manual. It’s probably the best of the three engines available (we’ve driven the 1.5-litre diesel, but not the N/A petrol), but in no way fast: 89bhp means 0–62mph in 12.1secs and 109mph. It’s a decent little thing, not as good as, say, Ford’s EcoBoost, but quiet at a cruise and happy enough to rev, which is handy because slip roads require it. However, it’s a bit surgey in frst, which can make clean, smooth, swift getaways tricky.
Before options, it’s £18,010, though the range starts from £11,995. Still thousands more than the old car, but it occupies a diferent space in the market. That car competed with Dacia Sanderos; this one competes with VW Polos. Ours has just one option, the Vision+ Pack, which gives an “Intelligent Around View Monitor with Moving Object Detection and Intelligent Blind Spot Intervention” for £550. That makes OU17 LRZ £18,560 – a lot for something that only has electric windows in the front. Nav, a fancy Bose stereo, 17s, keyless locking/go, lane-keeping assist, trafc sign recognition, high-beam assist and much besides is standard, though.
The frst two C3s were highrise geriatro-hatches, and when the old car spawned the cooler, on-trend DS 3, it looked like the last nail in the cofn of a cool, small Citroen. Then the C4 Cactus became a phenomenon, and Citroen had the good sense to transplant that imagination – and plenty of lessons from the Cactus’s faws – into this new C3. Spot the Airbump acne, the cutesy face with sunken headlights housed below LED running lights? That’s all Cactus. So are the leather door strap handles, and the “foating” roof. It’s… so fashionable.
And not in the slightest bit sporty. While Tom’s new Nissan has regenerated into a Fiesta-baiting wannabe go-kart, the new C3 is all about easy-going. Its seats are wide and deeply padded, but you’d see bigger bolsters in a dentist’s waiting room. The controls are so light you could blow the gearlever between gates, and nail a three-point turn with one fnger on the steering wheel.
Spec-wise, our Power Orange (£495) C3 with no-cost black roof and £300 black 17in alloys is a top-spec Flair model. Why? Well, we wanted the most fexible engine, and since diesel in small cars is at death’s door, that’ll be the elastic 1.2-litre 3cyl turbo. The throttle response is as spongy as the chairs, but the power will be welcome for regular motorway work.
Flair trim brings ConnectedCam, a built-in dash camera (actually housed in the rear-view mirror). Gimmick? Social-media dream? Insurance lifesaver? We’ll see. The options I ticked were £380 copper-coloured Hype interior highlights and the £500 Connect box nav to hook up Apple CarPlay, but Citroen decided to add in a glass roof (£400), keyless go (£250), and blind-spot monitoring (£100). Still, it’s a spec-match with Tom’s Micra, and there’ll be more for us to explore. This is a C3 you wouldn’t mind actually being seen in, after all…