Citroen C3

[drakkie]

Hi guys,

For my internship I have been on the road and track the entire week in this car. We drove about 3000km since last week. It was powered by a 1.6 litre engine found in many Citroens and Peugeot's. A quick (and probably poorly written ) first report.


Finally a good looking vehicle from French soil. It looks absolutely great from the outside. The rounded forms of the previous model are recognisable. However it is far less conservative with more attention to detail

When you open the door the first thing you see is a very shiny dashboard. It is made of plastic that even the cheapest korean car is jealous at. When you look further you see a highly recognisable audio system integrated. It is placed in the center of the dashboard however the controls are placed very low. Very annoying to operate whilst driving.

Having a seat first thing you notice is the difficulty to get in. It aint so easy and there is a big chance of a headache. Also your feet bump into the big storage boxes in the door easily. In the back it is even more cramped. At 1m 81 cm I bump my head into the roof. At normal driving position for me I also have knees against the front seat. The seats are typical french. Soft and not giving support in corners at all.

The special front window is nice. It gives a lighter impression of the cars' interior. It has a sliding roof piece that you can slide open for the sun screens. However quality is very poor. When driving on not perfect tarmac the screens start moving very swiftly. Also it leaves huge gaps which cause a lot of sun still coming into your eyes. I am convinced the weak mechanism will break and start to rattle over time. It ruins the plus points i would otherwise give it, because of the windscreen.

So we fire it up. There is no sound. A quick look at the tacho confirms it's running. Very silent engine at idle. This silence disappears though when driving 120 + as we did most of the time on our test drive to France. Shifting is allright. The 1.6 is fitted with a 6-speed box. The quality is horrible though. At a mileage of +/- 4000km it allready makes all kind of noises. I wonder if consumers will get problems with it. Usually they don't drive it in such extreme conditions as we do offcourse.

Steering is very light. Maybe even too light. The car rolls a lot, in part caused by the geometry and softness of the suspension. This is very soft and not balanced. The rear is allright, but the front is poorly dampened. The outward damping should be much more. You almost get sea sick on a bumpy road in Belgium.. If you like soft french driving and the 'Citroen' feel you will love it.
Understeer occurs very fast in this car. Especially in the rather poor result of the elk test. We more or less went straight ahead and over the cones with the left wheels. Fast corner was more fun. The ESP reacted too slowly resulting in understeer going into oversteer going into ESP-correction. Unexpected!

Conclusion

Nice car. If design and comfort are what you are looking for you got the right car. If build quality, handling in any way, fuel economy (test usage 1l:13km !!) and price are important, get something else.

[Ferrer]

Petrol or diesel?

[henk4]

"Finally a good looking vehicle from French soil".......are you writing for one of those German biased magazines that flood our markets?

[drakkie]

Petrol or diesel?

1.6 litre petrol.

"Finally a good looking vehicle from French soil".......are you writing for one of those German biased magazines that flood our markets?

No, not at all. In this segment I have to admit though the new Polo does look good. Offcourse you pay a lot of more money as well. Why it became COTY still puzzles us though. When we turned in our lists to our editor in chief (who is a jury member) it was a very good mix. Most put the Toyota IQ, Mercedes E-class and Skoda Yeti in their top 5. I'd say that is not too german biased. Autoweek however is German biased.
Offcourse we realise it is never to every body his liking. People like you complain it is too german biased. Others complain Japanese cars always are winners. Others complain if a vehicle that wins is not the most fuel efficient one. When it comes to cars, everybody thinks he knows what is best. Even I have prejudices some times. However I have seen these proven false a number of times allready.
Now what we do to try and minimise the 'feeling' part of driving a car is run through a set series of tests. We have enormous check lists for this. They are about 15-20 A4 pages for each car. The include measurements of interior, exterior, elk tests, test bench runs and so on.. At least we minimize the risk of not being objective this way.

Did you even read the magazine last months? The VW group was almost never the winner. We only liked the Yeti a lot, although it has a steap price tag when you get some extra's.

Compare it to it's two competitors from France:

Peugeot 207:


It's not too beautiful looking right? Not sleek or anything. Basically looks like everything else on the street. It sells okay but that is mostly because of the comfort and price. The wide open mouth is pretty ugly in my opinion. Before this came the 206. Pretty boring as well.


The Renault Clio:


It looks out of balance in my opinion. Almost as if the designers had to hurry to get it finished so they just stuck on some lights somewhere. Round shapes, sharp angles.. What were they thinking ? The generation of Clio before this can also hardly be called a design miracle..

Now watch this one:


Trust me, in real life it looks even better. They put some tiny details everywhere. They just finish the car. For example there is a tiny roster under the edge of the headlight.. The interior is rather shiny, but yes it looks good too. Link to a picture. A pity it did not convince me in the road tests.



We tested the C3 in a multi-test against a MiTo, 207 and Clio.

[Ferrer]

7,6l/100km for a 1.6 petrol with high speed trips on the motorways is quite acceptable I'd say.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

To me they all have overly large grilles, gloopy headlights and oversized insignia.

I don't see redeemable qualities in any of them design wise, but the Clio at least looks grown up.

[henk4]

The first sentence of your article that provoked my comment, was far too general. It does not invite reading the article, it starts with a blunt, unsupported statement, which does not add anything to the car.
"Finally" ignores master pieces from the past and even the current C5 seems to meet general appreciation in the "looks department".
I think in general cars should be judged more on their capabilities than on their country of origin.

[Beckerman]

I drove the new C3 recently and was quite impressed. The quality and appearance of the interior was a massive improvement over the original (not hard I admit as the old one was pretty shoddy). The example I drove was in a pastel blue colour which seemed to divide opinion but most other colours suited the car. For a supermini the motorway refinement was above average but it did seem to pitch a bit at highway speeds. Around town the ride seemed to ne very well judged - if this sounds like a cliched appreciation of French cars it is actually because I thought it worthy of comment given the the Clio etc don't live up to expectations in this respect. Overall it is a car which I approached with low expectations and came away pleasantly surprised. In my opinion it is a far better car judged in the context of its target market than the C5 is for instance, I also may be in the minority here but I think it is a better looking car than the DS3.

[henk4]

I drove the new C3 recently and was quite impressed. The quality and appearance of the interior was a massive improvement over the original (not hard I admit as the old one was pretty shoddy). The example I drove was in a pastel blue colour which seemed to divide opinion but most other colours suited the car. For a supermini the motorway refinement was above average but it did seem to pitch a bit at highway speeds. Around town the ride seemed to ne very well judged - if this sounds like a cliched appreciation of French cars it is actually because I thought it worthy of comment given the the Clio etc don't live up to expectations in this respect. Overall it is a car which I approached with low expectations and came away pleasantly surprised. In my opinion it is a far better car judged in the context of its target market than the C5 is for instance, I also may be in the minority here but I think it is a better looking car than the DS3.

I am also reading french reports here that the handling of the DS3 is on par with that of the Mini...

[Dino Scuderia]

Who would want to own any of those econo boxes anyway if one had a choice?

They are all basic transportation to get from point A to point B.

If they were all I could get or could a afford then yes...they beat walking.

But to look for more in them than that is a waste of time.

[henk4]

Who would want to own any of those econo boxes anyway if one had a choice?

Europeans who actually have to pay for their transport and fuel, and where cities designed before the car took over, dictate that behemoths are not always the way to go. I hope your question was meant tongue in cheek, if not I find it rather shortsighted.

[Wouter Melissen]

Who would want to own any of those econo boxes anyway if one had a choice?

They are all basic transportation to get from point A to point B.

If they were all I could get or could a afford then yes...they beat walking.

But to look for more in them than that is a waste of time.

Have you ever tried parking in European cities?

[Dino Scuderia]

Have you ever tried parking in European cities?

Well, that gets to my point. They may fit a 'need' but are far from desirable given a choice.

[Ferrer]

I am also reading french reports here that the handling of the DS3 is on par with that of the Mini...

I've also read the same. And the Turbo version is fast, frugal and a bargain. No xenons though...

Who would want to own any of those econo boxes anyway if one had a choice?

They are all basic transportation to get from point A to point B.

If they were all I could get or could a afford then yes...they beat walking.

But to look for more in them than that is a waste of time.

Well, that gets to my point. They may fit a 'need' but are far from desirable given a choice.

What's more deisrable a Ford Taurus or a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano? Sometimes it's not only the need but also the budget. If we could we'd probably all be driving around in Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches but we can't afford them. Given our budget constraints and our needs we try to choose what fits us best. And yes a Citroen C3 might not be the most desirable car in the world, but I'd say that a Twingo RS is quite desirable.

[Dino Scuderia]

Why would you desire a car as fugly as the Twingo RS???