Citroen C3 review

Well, the controls are all feather light, from the steering to the gearshift to the pedals. That’s okay around town, but it does mean it’s lacking a little in the fun department. It’s not a Sunday afternoon blast kinda car.

But that’s fine, it’s not intended to be, and you’ve only 99bhp to play with anyway. Zero to 62mph takes a leisurely 10.6 seconds, and while it’s nippy enough around town and at low speeds, it does start to run out of steam elsewhere.

Of greater pertinence is the running costs and economy: on our 60-mile route on smooth Hungarian roads, we saw 46.3mpg. No official economy figure from Citroen yet, but we’d expect around the 50mpg mark.

Will I get on with the driving position?

It’s a similar setup to Peugeot’s i-Cockpit, and like there you view the dials (or head-up display, in this case) over the top of the small steering wheel. However, where some struggle to find a driving position that works in the Peugeot, we didn’t encounter any issues here. Good news for any longer-legged folk.

It doesn’t take too long to get used to the head-up display either, largely due to its simplicity, with fuel displayed on the left, speed in the middle, and economy on the right. It's a shame it’s not more customisable, but then we’d get annoyed if it were too complicated. Looks smart though, and it’ll impress your friends.

Our only real complaint is the thick A-pillars, which we found blocked visibility a fair amount, particularly around roundabouts. Depending on how you have the seat positioned, you might find different.

What's the ride like?

Citroen makes no secret that the C3’s reason for being is comfort above all else, and it now gets Citroen’s advanced comfort suspension, complete with hydraulic bump stops at each corner, and it is impressively smooth riding.

With that said, it’s not quite the ‘magic carpet’ ride Citroen would have you believe, and it does become slightly unsettled over larger potholes/imperfections. But that’s to be expected, and there’s little else, if anything, in this sector that will trump it.

The payoff of course is that there is a noticeable amount of lean and bodyroll, with the raised ride height meaning that it’s now even more apparent than the previous generation. The electric variant fares slightly better, due to the added weight.