Citroen C4 PureTech 130 – long-term review

Alors au revoir, Citroen calme. As the chilled little C4 takes its languorous leave, time to consider our six months in its company. Which has been, as the French say, un sac mixte. Actually that’s not fair. Less un sac mixte, more un sac entirely lovely but just a little totallement baffling.

Because the way the C4 goes, I love. Not because it’s a fizzy, engaging drive, but because it really isn’t. Citroen promised a driving experience all about the comfort, nothing about the sportiness, and boy have they delivered. 

The C4 is a terrible car for a track-day, and a wonderful car for bimbling your way across the country. That, regular readers will recognise, suits me down to the muddy ground of the lanes near where I live. The suspension is airy yet wallow-free, the controls feather-light but reliably progressive, the three-cylinder petrol and eight-speed auto quietly anonymous. Everything in calm, even harmony. It’s exactly what I want from a family car. 

No, my sole issue was, and remains, the shape of the thing. Not the C4’s surface design – by the end of our time together, I’d developed a sort of grudging respect for its curious creases and layering – but its silhouette.

The whole coupe-SUV shtick. I know it’s the trendiest trend, but, in a car that’s all about the comfort, is it really necessary?

An X6/Cayenne Coupe profile is almost understandable in a car with vague sporting pretensions – look at me! I’m ever-so-slightly more thrusting than your average crossover buyer! – but the C4 doesn’t have vague sporting pretensions. It doesn’t have any sporting pretensions. It’s for the buyer who’s, if anything, less thrusting than your average crossover buyer. 

The sloped rear doesn’t only pinch headroom for those in the rear – not to mention make it a real pain to strap kids into car seats back there – it also limits the usability of the boot. And treats you to a rear screen with a spoiler right through your line of vision, and no rear wiper. It is, in short, a bit annoying.

Maybe there’s some real-world benefit of the squished roofline. Citroen says it helps to ‘express the aerodynamics’ of the vehicle, but is unforthcoming about precisely what expression that might be. Maybe it’s a visual nod to the glasshouse of the old Citroen GS. But mostly I fear it’s just there to look funky. Citroen describes the C4 as boasting a ‘ready to pounce’ stance. I don’t want my tranquil hatchback to be ready to pounce! I want it to be ready to fall asleep in front of a roaring fire!

And it's not as if said aerodynamics have made the C4 outstandingly, world-changingly economical with fuel either. It's pretty average.

Whichever way, it all adds up to a car which, while lovely to drive, feels – to me at least – a little confused about its purpose. Ultra-comfy… apart from at the rear. And maybe I’m in the minority prioritising bootspace over a slinky silhouette. But if so, how about a C4 estate for us untrendy, practical-minded souls, Citroen? 

Sure, I know the C4 SpaceTourer MPV-thing is still knocking around, but that’s an old car now. What I want is this new C4, with its squooshy new suspension and squooshy new interior, just with a bit of extra space in the back. Is that too much to ask?