Citroen C3 Aircross

THIRD REPORT Load-lugging Aircross takes over as airport shuttle for holiday season

I LIVE in London, so the Citroen C3 Aircross I’m running doesn’t usually rack up too many miles. But that has all changed over the past three weeks, because it’s been put to the test carrying people and luggage around the country.

My brother, his wife, three daughters and two boyfriends came over from the United States to visit, so our Citroen has been doing a lot of airport trips and then ferrying people about. As five relatives arrived in one go, it was a step too far to collect them and their bulky luggage in one car; we had to take two.

Still, the C3 was a hit with its plentiful space for driver and four passengers; and the boot took three cases and a rucksack with ease. That was in contrast to the return journey to the airport, when they were due to go home with another of the cars on our fleet, the Alfa Romeo Giulia.

On that trip we could only fit two big cases in the boot, and legroom in the back was tighter than in my smaller – and much cheaper – Citroen. Several other trips to Gatwick and Heathrow airports recently have left us in absolutely no doubt about the C3 Aircross’s suitcase-carrying abilities.

Of course, it’s not just other people’s holiday plans that the Citroen has been helping with; a recent trip to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire for a family party meant I was able to play the part of a passenger, because my husband Dave offered to take over driving duties.

There were only three of us in the car, but once again the roomy boot proved invaluable as we took extra luggage for the rest of the family; they had a sevenseater, but with all the seats occupied, there was no room for their bags.

The C3 Aircross is definitely set up for comfort. It’s really smooth on the motorway and the road noise wasn’t too intrusive as we were able to keep the conversation going without having to raise our voices.

Both Dave and I found the steering a bit too numb to enjoy using on some of the forest’s country roads, and the soft suspension means lots of body roll, so we realised it’s better to take it easy.

Still, my Dad loved the roomy seats in the back and because he had it all to himself he was able to pull down the middle seat. This meant he could use the handy cup-holder on the other side for his coffee. Having not spent much time in the back, I hadn’t even noticed this before, but it’s a really thoughtful addition to the Aircross’s rear accommodation.

But it wasn’t all good news from the trip west. Dave found the lane departure warning system really irritating on the country roads, because it kept going off, despite the fact we were clearly on the correct side of the road. To make matters worse, the set-up restarts every time you get in the car, so you have to go through the settings menu and turn it off whenever you start the engine.

Another gripe was the sat-nav, which we relied on heavily driving to and around the Forest of Dean. Annoyingly, if you go to the ‘enter destination’ menu, the system won’t allow you to punch in a postcode. I eventually found a way round this using the search tool at the bottom of the screen. This enabled me to enter a postcode and find our destination much more quickly and easily.

But it shows a bit of a flaw with the Citroen’s touchscreen display in general; the interface is slightly annoying. There aren’t enough physical buttons, for example, for the air-con. The car also has to be stationary for you to be able to use it effectively because the on-screen buttons are quite small. Try to operate it on the move and you end up hitting the wrong thing if you go over a bump.

The touchscreen could be more responsive as well. The display in the other small orange SUV on our fleet, the SEAT Arona, responds quickly to your finger, but the Citroen’s is slow in comparison and sometimes doesn’t register a press at all.