Cactus: a breath of fresh air
The Citroen Cactus is quirky and loaded with individuality and uniqueness, says Damien O’carroll.
The Citroen Cactus is a car that only the French could make and, indeed, they used to all the time. Quirky, boldly styled and just plain interesting and completely different from the bland mainstream. That is what makes the Cactus such a breath of fresh air now – even the French have largely given up on being outside the mainstream. Except for the Cactus. The Cactus is all kinds of wild. While at its heart it is a relatively simple design, that simple design has been draped with some incredibly bold styling decisions that just happen to work together brilliantly. You will, of course, either love it or hate it, but during our time with the Cactus we met very little in the way of hate. The most striking feature of the exterior would probably have to be the remarkably bold “Airbumps” on the doors. They really are full of air, and not only look completely unique, they are also extremely functional, doing a remarkably complete job of protecting the doors from, well, almost anything really. On the inside the Citroen continues with the fantastic “retro-futuristic” theme and features a great mix of materials and colours without being over the top. The sensationally comfortable seats are better than they have a right to be - and they look brilliant too, looking for all the world like a bench seat, yet offering fantastic lateral support. Wonderful visual quirks like the big handbrake and pushbutton transmission abound and the whole interior of the Cactus just feels special. The big downside inside the Cactus, however, is the touchscreen that is rather inadvisably used to control everything. All the separate screens and menus means lots of pointless flicking through menus for EVERYTHING, including adjusting the fan speed or temperature. Plus the single cupholder is tiny, low-sided, badly placed, largely pointless and typically French. The Cactus gets a 68kw/230nm 1.6-litre diesel turbo four-cylinder engine hooked up to a six-speed single-clutch automated transmission. While the engine is an eager little unit, the transmission throws up the usual frustrations of an automated single clutch unit – shifts that feel painfully slow and unrefined. The traditional way to avoid this frustration is to treat it like a manual and shift gears manually using the paddles and lifting off the throttle as you do, but the Cactus frustrates this technique by not offering a full manual mode. You just have to get used to it, which, surprisingly, you do. The Cactus is a remarkably comfortable small car. While the ride is actually slightly on the firm side, the incredibly comfortable seats and complaint damping make for an extremely relaxing driving experience, completely at odds to all the quirks that it offers up. The odd-ball transmission makes parking, hill starts and, well, most things more difficult than they should be in a car this size, but the Cactus’s extraordinary comfort, high quality and fantastic looks make up for these foibles. While slightly on the expensive side for what it is, the Cactus makes up for this with a vast sense of uniqueness and individuality.