CITROEN GRAND C4 PICASSO

Bargain prices and capable performance make this a good used option, says Euan Doig

Used tow car review Citroën Grand C4 Picasso (2007-2013)

Citroën Grand C4 Picasso // Need to know

How much? £5000-£11,500

You can spend as little as £500 on a Grand C4 Picasso, but we would really advise against it, because it will have done almost as many laps of the world as the International Space Station, and have gone through more hands than a ‘pass the parcel’. Tread cautiously.

A budget of £2500 will get you a post-2011 facelifted car, which will have had fewer owners and done fewer miles. The inside might also have seen a vacuum in the past few years!

The latest models still sell for more than £6500, but for that, you’ll get a vehicle in good condition, with a sub-70,000 mileage.

What will it tow? Kerbweight 1620kg

Towing limit 1500kg

Noseweight limit 70kg

85% match 1377kg | SUMMER SPECIAL 2020

How much is a towball? Witter flange towbar £153.01

Witter detachable towbar £238.56

Fitting extra (from www.pfjones.co.uk)

What about servicing? Interim service £78.14 Full service £116.72

(Prices supplied by Servicing Stop, 0844 324 5262, www. servicingstop.co.uk)

BACITROEN HAS LONG been renowned for doing things its own way, with a bit of Gallic flair and a highly commendable disregard for the ‘norm’.

Well, at least it was until the late 1990s, when the company seemed to lose sight of what made it different, and decided instead to chase bigger sales.

Thankfully, it began to plough its own furrow again in the mid-2000s. First of all came the gloriously idiosyncratic C6 executive car, in 2005, and then at the end of 2006, Citroën managed to blend the practical and the avant-garde in one package, with the seven-seat Grand C4 Picasso MPV (A).

This was followed just a couple of months later by the five-seat C4 Picasso, but it’s the seven-seater model that we focus on here (B).

There was quite a selection of engines available in the Grand C4 Picasso, with

1.6-, 1.8- or 2.0-litre petrols, and 1.6- or 2.0-litre diesels. The first four of these came with a six-speed manual gearbox as standard, although the 2.0 diesel was only available with a six-speed semi-automatic EGS gearbox, which came with paddles mounted on the steering wheel.

However, while this makes swapping gears easy while you’re on a run, the jerky way in which it takes up drive when you

Cpress the accelerator has turned out much more of a pain when you’re manoeuvring.

But two important things that all Grand C4 Picassos have as standard are seven seats and a brilliant system for folding them flat.

Model history

Citroën’s previous foray into the world of seven-seat MPVS was courtesy of the C8, designed in collaboration with Fiat, Lancia and Peugeot. But the Grand C4 Picasso was all Citroën’s own work, and it showed.

For a start, it had a stunning up-and-over windscreen, which bathed the whole cabin in sunlight. Citroën even thought to include retractable sunvisors for when the sunlight became just that bit too bright (admittedly, not quite such a problem in Blighty!).

The good news is that the Grand C4 Picasso does everyday life very well indeed. The seat-folding system is a work of genius, so that a simple tug on a couple of levers is all that’s required to have the five rear seats folded down flat.

When they’re raised, the middle bench can slide backwards and forwards to vary the rear-seat legroom and boot space as required (C). As a family MPV of the time, the Grand C4 Picasso had few equals.

The Picasso was designed to be easy to drive precisely where it was going to be used most of the time – in town. To that end, the glass area is huge, and allows for a genuinely panoramic view all around, while the steering is extremely light (D).

We’d choose a 1.6-litre diesel model, which is little slower or less powerful than its 2.0-litre sibling, and which has a manual gearbox as standard. Don’t get us wrong, the manual is still a bit slow and notchy to change; but it does make low-speed manoeuvres a lot easier than they are in the EGS model, whether you’re hitched up or otherwise. And talking of when your Citroën is in harness, it will remain stable and unflappable throughout.

Avoid the entry-level LX model, which didn’t have air-con as standard – a cardinal sin for a vehicle that will be carrying a family on a daily basis. You’d do better to look for an Sx-trimmed version, which gives you air-con, cruise control, a speed-limiter and electric windows – pretty much the MPV essentials.

Trouble spots