France DS4, Germany 0 if it’s down to design

MERCEDES, AUDI AND BMW CAN’T BEAT THIS FOR APPEAL

Many people make their car choice online – and even buy it with a click of the mouse or tap of the finger these days, but I’m going to use a quaint expression here all the same.

This DS Automobile DS4 has enormous showroom appeal.

I’m rapidly forming the opinion the German brands are really lagging behind when it comes to design.

Take Hyundai’s Ioniq 5, for example, a newly arrived EV that looks far more appealing than any Merc, BMW or Audi.

The same with the Frenchmade DS4 which not only goes up against the BMW 1-Series, Mercedes A-Class and Audi A3, but also against these firms’ crossovers due to the fact the DS strikes a crossover-like pose.

The proportions are what make this car stand out, with a short front overhang and coupe-like roofline. You have a choice of up to 20-inch wheels which really fill the wheelarches (more on the wheels later).

DS gives you plenty of choice with its new baby – several trim levels start with the Bastille, running through Trocadero and Rivoli to La Premiere – and there are also sub styles.

The straight DS4 gives you cars that have chrome details and trim. Performance Line converts those pieces to black and adds black wheels. And finally Cross

adds faux off-road cladding which really makes the car look like a BMW X2 or Audi Q2 rival.

We drove a handful of DS4 variants but we’re focusing on the E-Tense 225 Rivoli because DS says the models with the E-Tense PHEV powertrain will be the most popular versions. That means a 1.6-litre petrol engine

producing 178bhp and a 107bhp electric motor which together produce 225bhp.

On battery power alone you should, driving carefully, manage around 30 miles.

Performance is brisk with 0-62mph taking 7.7sec. More than quick enough for a family car. Pull on one of the neat

recessed external door handles and you will see inside a typically appealing DS Automobiles interior. Here’s another area in which many manufacturers are showing greater inspiration than the Germans.

Where to look first? A knurled aluminium strip runs across the dashboard and contains buttons that shortcut to common operations. Above is a large touchscreen with another one below.

As you have no doubt twigged over the years, I loathe hugely complicated infotainment systems that often verge on the dangerous. So the DS4’s arrangement should send my blood pressure soaring – but I have to admit there’s a bit of good sense gone into it. That small touchscreen, which is at the front of the centre console, can be configured into a shortcut device for getting up to six different favourite functions – a sweep up and down gives you two and diagonal sweeps give you another four.

So you can set up your favourite radio stations or destinations, for example.

It’ll take a while to work out how to use, but it would be helpful. There’s also a configurable head-up display which works well. You certainly get plenty of tech in the posher DS4s. Elsewhere, there’s acres of soft furnishings and imaginative stitching patterns.

It has plenty of space front and rear but the shallow windows take away a bit of light. The seats are comfortable and when running on electric power only, the car is quiet and luxurious.

But now back to those wheels. Big alloy wheels are heavy and that means a lot of unsprung weight. Not good for ride quality. We drove DS4s on both the 20in wheels fitted to our test car and on 19in versions. The bigger wheels crash into potholes and across ridges while the inch smaller rims are barely an improvement.

Choose them over the larger ones anyway, because they look just as good.

Our test car costs £40,100 which is more or less what you’d expect for a PHEV with this equipment level.

The range itself starts at £25,350 and although you’d lose a lot of gizmos and be making do with a conventional 130bhp petrol (with a mild hybrid starter generator) engine, you still get those flush door handles, LED headlamps and extremely appealing styling.

Proportions make this car stand out and there’s plenty of choice on trim levels