Getting yourself a compact, five-door hatchback these days with an affordable price tag and a non-electrified drivetrain is becoming rather tricky, but luckily the new fourth-generation Citroen C3 has the solution if that’s what you’re looking for. Yet, with advanced e-Hybrid and all-electric e-C3 alternatives in its own range, does this 1.2-litre PureTech feel like an evolutionary dead end?
In the metal
Looks are subjective, naturally, but we’d defy anyone with a heart to look at the latest Citroen C3 and say it’s ugly. In fact, we think it’s a clever piece of design, because it’s not needlessly cute and trying to con affection out of you with over-the-top aesthetic flourishes, yet similarly it’s not boring and anodyne either. Various two-tone colour options work for it really well and while it is more than 100mm taller than the car it replaces, it’s important to remember two things about the C3: one, it’s barely any longer, having grown less than 2cm from tip to tail to an overall length that is the merest shade beyond four metres; and two, while it might have various SUV-like styling features such as its roof rails, fake underbody protection, wheel-arch cladding and its height, this is not referred to as a crossover. That job will be handled by the incoming Citroen C3 Aircross, so the C3 is just a tall supermini, really.
Inside, some of the material finishing is on the cheap side, but that’s because this car is (hopefully) so affordable. Otherwise, Citroen’s work within the C3 can be deemed a success. There’s a high-set digital instrument cluster, while the central belt of the attractively tiered dash is taken up by a neat, light-grey fabric that breaks up any expanses of charcoal-grey plastic that might otherwise abound.
The stylish two-spoke steering wheel both looks and feels good, the 10.25-inch infotainment touchscreen (base cars will get a cradle for owners to mount their smartphones in, which will then serve as the onboard entertainment) is fine to use and graphically capable, and the seats are wonderfully comfortable yet supportive.
Space is also excellent, with plenty of room for taller rear-seat passengers, good oddment storage about the place and natty light-coloured door bins so that you don’t lose small items in a dark, unlit cave. As a 1.2 petrol, this C3 has a six-speed manual gear lever and while the knob on top of it is a little oversized and ungainly, this set-up nevertheless doesn’t rob the C3 of any interior practicality when compared to the automatic models elsewhere in the line-up. Boot space is also decent, at 310 litres and rising to 1,188 litres with the 60:40 split-folding rear seats tumbled away, but there’s no adjustable floor in the cargo area so the Citroen does have a sizeable lip in its loading bay.
Driving it
This little 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine, called the PureTech 100, has been around in the Stellantis group for some time now, but it has by no means outstayed its welcome. In the C3, which tips the scales at significantly less than 1.2 tonnes, it proves a willing and thoroughly likeable performer. It is mated to a light-of-throw manual and the gearing is fine, although the way the Citroen can sometimes labour at 70-90km/h in sixth suggests it’d probably be ok with just the five ratios if they were spaced correctly.
Despite this, the engine doesn’t make too much noise and gives the C3 a fairly sprightly turn of pace, where the offbeat thrum of a three-cylinder layout cheerfully makes itself known if you hold a gear for any length of time. Like some Citroens of the past, such as the original C4 Cactus, there’s no rev counter, but as this is a supermini geared for comfort and not speed, redlining the 1.2 is simply not going to be in the remit of the buyer of this sort of car.
Luckily, there’s enough torque to allow the driver to avoid such unseemly antics, and thus equipped the 1.2 PureTech is a little dream to drive. We elicited an easy 5.3 litres/100km from it on a mixed test route where we weren’t exactly always going easy on the drivetrain, so in terms of its real-world returns it is about bang in the arena of fuel economy that similar cars with the same engine officially lay claim to.
As a Citroen, though, its real strength is not its efficiency, which is good if not outstanding, but rather its ride comfort, which is magnificent. With its lovely little three-cylinder engine reduced to a background rumble at lower revs, and both wind and tyre noise minimised to an impressive degree, this is a car which feels deeply assured to a level much grander than its compact hatchback status. And the chief ingredient is the supple ‘Advanced Comfort’ suspension, which does a fantastic job of smoothing out almost all road surfaces, without letting the body control of the C3 ever become loose or discombobulating.
You drive it slowly at town speeds and on bumpy streets riddled with crater-like potholes, you urge it along faster or flowing country routes where the traffic is moving briskly, and you cruise along at a high pace on the motorway, and it pretty much excels at all these scenarios, with the acceptance that its handling capable, if never thrilling. For an urban and semi-urban runaround, the damping and rolling refinement in this Citroen C3 is verging on the exquisite. Certainly, there is nothing in the class which covers ground as effortlessly as this French supermini.
What you get for your money
We’re still awaiting pricing from Citroen Ireland, but it has assured us that it is doing all it can to preserve the C3’s incredibly good-value pricing in other markets, including right-hand-drive territories. The PureTech will be a little more for taxation purposes than the hybrid and electric models elsewhere in the range, but it shouldn’t break the bank either with its acceptable 128g/km CO2 output. We ought to get base-space ‘You’ C3s here, which will be pretty simple inside, but at the other end of the scale the Max we’ve driven for this review comes with 17-inch alloys, all-LED exterior lighting, cruise control, climate control, nav-enabled 10.25-inch infotainment with wireless smartphone mirroring (Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), rear parking sensors with a reversing camera, and heating elements for all of the front seats, the steering wheel and the windscreen, among much more equipment as standard.
Summary
While the eventual pricing in Ireland will be pivotal to just how highly we regard the Citroen C3, it’s clear to see that as this petrol model, the basic package is quite superb. Citroen has set its stall out to make this the comfiest and most stylish car in this class, and on those scores, it has delivered in spades. That it is also a delight to drive, well-equipped, spacious and economical only makes us love it all the more, as we are sure many supermini buyers will do too. So, unless Citroen Ireland slaps an exorbitant windscreen sticker on the new C3, we reckon you could very well be looking at the best new car of its type that’s available right now.
