CITROEN C3 AIRCROSS

Flawed but irritatingly appealing baby SUV

Character goes a long way, as does uncommon baby SUV practicality

THE CITROEN C3 Aircross isn’t a car that does great first impressions. Its minor controls seem putzy, the ride and handling are nothing to write home about and the unremitting hard interior plastics lack the sort of quality sheen you’d get from something like a Mazda CX-3. Then you hear that Citroen is planning to price it somewhere in the $30K to $35K bracket and you figure it’s dead in the water right from the get-go.

That sort of money buys you top-spec rivals like the Toyota C-HR Koba or Mazda CX-3 Akari which, like the Citroen, drive the front wheels only. That’s quite some company to be rubbing up against.

Riding on the same 2640mm wheelbase as the Opel Crossland X, the Pierre Authier-styled Aircross is powered by an 81kw/230nm 1.2-litre turbo threepot engine, mated to a six-speed Aisin torque-converter automatic gearbox. Start flinging it at a few corners and it’s certainly game, clinging on keenly at the front, albeit with a fairly neurotic ESC calibration. Unfortunately, there’s a fairly firm primary ride, which can manifest in an unsettled, agitated comportment on poor surfaces. Citroen claims to have increased the roll stiffness on this car versus the C3, but it’s still pretty lax. That’s odd for a company that’s trying to reassert its credentials in ride comfort.

Unlike European models, the Australian car will miss out on the sliding rear bench, the seat instead being fixed at its further forward position, so both variants get an identical 410 litres of boot space. That’s a clear 60 litres more than a CX-3 and 33 more than a C-HR and what’s more the Citroen offers more rear legroom than either of these rivals.

It also features a flat folding front seat which means that you can slot items up to 2.4m long inside. Couple that with the most headroom in its class and up to 1289 litres of luggage space with the rear seats folded flat and you have a small SUV that punches above its weight on utility.

Despite its litany of manifest shortcomings, the Spanish-built C3 Aircross emerges as something unexpectedly charming. It’s well equipped, easy to live with, is more practical than any of its rivals, comes with a five-year unlimited kilometre warranty and your neighbour probably won’t have one. Citroen is still working out final specs for the Aussie market, but if that price tag can come in closer to $30K than $35K the C3 Aircross will definitely be worth a place on your shortlist.

There may be other compact SUVS that can carve a cleaner corner than the cute Citroen, but if you prefer stacks of equipment and a certain cheeky charm, the Aircross is worth a look.