STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

Citroen’s quirky crossover is comfortable and chic but the price is hard to swallow

CIAIN CURRY & JULES LUCHT

itroen laboured to just 175 new car sales last year. The brand’s quirkiness is apparently not compelling enough in the face of strong and usually cheaper rivals. Citroen’s new C4 small crossover has launched in one well-equipped Shine grade, ready for our family of testers.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

IAIN: Your French heritage means you love Citroens. I imagine your school car park was awash with 2CVs, DS Cabriolets and croissantselling H vans?

JULES: Of course. And aligning with your antiquated stereotypes we were wearing onion necklaces while munching garlic.

IAIN: I thought so. Your thoughts on this Frenchest of brands’ new C4?

JULES: I love how you won’t mistake it for anything else, but it’s a bit fussy and angular rather than chic.

IAIN: I like its skinny lights, classy doublechevron badge and sloping rear roof. Its rump I’ll describe as busy rather than beautiful.

JULES: Its high ride height and plastic body bits mean it qualifies for an SUV premium I imagine?

IAIN: Naturally. It’s high-spec, but at $42,000 drive-away it’s pricey. Similar money buys a 2WD Hyundai Kona Highlander, Mazda CX-30 G20 Astina, Toyota C-HR Koba Hybrid or Skoda

Kamiq Monte Carlo.

THE LIVING SPACE

JULES: It’s not huge inside, but the leather seats are beautifully comfortable and the cabin design is fantastically edgy.

IAIN: Being a Citroen, let’s list the more eccentric things in here.

JULES: Okay. The steering wheel’s flatbottomed and flat-topped; the driver’s seat is electric four-ways but not back and forward and while there’s cavernous storage for phones, I can’t fit a coffee cup in the holder. Why?

IAIN: A can of Perrier or tiny French coffee fits, but not a takeaway servo coffee. My favourite oddities are the “e-Toggle” metal gear shifter which heats up in summer and burns your finger; random fabric straps for the doors and a rear window bar affecting visibility.

JULES: Goodies include a fancy 10-inch widescreen, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and heated front seats with massaging for the driver. Dual-zone airconditioning is faster operating and more effective than any I’ve used.

IAIN: On recent Citroens, drivers have had to adjust the climate controls via the screen, but the C4 has handy, quick-use physical dials.

JULES: In front of the passenger there’s a slide out iPad tray plus a robust holder to mount it. You can now ignore the driver while playing on your tablet.

IAIN: There’s a mix of hard and soft plastics, but overall, touchpoints feel quite classy.

THE COMMUTE JULES:

The French do plush seating so well.

IAIN: True. The C4 seats have 15mmthick surface foam for a padded effect. It makes the commute sofa-like.

JULES: The engine makes an eager raspy noise, but doesn’t back it up with much zoom.

IAIN: It’s a little three-cylinder, turbocharged to bring 114kW and 240Nm. I think it’s a great engine, but its eight-speed auto gearbox gets jerky and takes some shine off an otherwise polished, smooth drive.

JULES: God, it’s comfy. It seems to float along the road at times, especially the highway.

IAIN: Lots of suspension travel means bumps are easily mopped up, but the trade-off is a large helping of body roll if you enthusiastically tackle corners and roundabouts.

JULES: Which most users won’t. Just cruise and you’re in cloud-like happiness.

IAIN: Agreed. The sound system’s pretty pumping, there’s a welcome head-up display, but the digital dash is small and not terribly customisable.

THE SHOPPING

JULES: The C4’s catwalk enough for a fancy shopping strip, but don’t buy too much. The boot handles the weekly shop, not much more. IAIN: At least loading’s easy with its wide tailgate. A birds-eye 360-degree camera stops car park bumps.

JULES: Maybe, but it’s not very clear. The camera image is too small in the giant infotainment screen.

SUNDAY RUN

IAIN: With a manual gearbox I could make the little three-cylinder sing. That would up the driving joy.

JULES: Your gearbox desires are as ancient as your French stereotypes. There are paddles to shift gears, Mr Control Freak.

IAIN: They do help. I used them constantly as the auto was always overly keen to shift up. I want to hear that engine rev! It feels light and playful on twisty roads, but the steering needs more feedback to be truly fun.

THE FAMILY

JULES: The rear seats aren’t huge, and its sloping roof and small windows don’t help.

IAIN: But it’s not bad for a small SUV. Unlike some others, you get rear air vents and USB charge ports.

JULES: How’s the safety?

IAIN: It’s good to have blind-spot monitoring, lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition and radar cruise control, but rear cross-traffic alert’s absent. It only has a four-star crash rating, but that’s under new stricter rules. No centre airbag hurt the C4’s score.

JULES: I expected better than our 6.8L/100km fuel use, especially as it needs 95 unleaded. Little French cars are usually more economical.

IAIN: Well, its diesels are. With services at $2484 over five years, it’s not the best small SUV for the family budget.

THE VERDICT

JULES: The C4 has a chic, comfy cabin so I’d be more than happy with it, but I can’t ignore its very strong $40,000 rivals.

IAIN: It’s well-equipped, striking and incredibly comfortable, but struggles in the face of superior opposition at this price.