As a professional hurler on the ditch (I rate cars but very rarely actually buy one) I have long extolled the merits of the Citroen C3 Picasso. Yes it’s French and yes it’s quirky (two things more or less guaranteed to have arch-conservative Irish car buyers heading for the door) but I’ve always reckoned it to be the pick of the mini MPV brigade. In a sea of plainly-styled tall hatchbacks, the Picasso is a cubist painting of a car, and therefore the most appropriately named Citroen Picasso yet (Picasso was a cubist, right?).
Of course, underneath it’s all simple C3 mechanical parts. Now, the C3 itself is a pleasant but ultimately unremarkable small hatch, but already it has donated its oily bits to one of the most enjoyable hot hatches out there; the cute and fun DS3. Can lightning strike again, but in an entirely different section of the market? Time to put my money where my opinions are...
Well, first impressions. Our C3 Picasso rocked up on the driveway looking a bit more distinctive even than the already left-field standard car. Bright white paintwork could have made it look like a delivery van, but the Code special edition trim (costing €21,250 to the standard VTR+’s €20,850) brings with it glossy black inserts around the grille and lights, red piping on the side trim and, best of all, seriously cool alloy wheels with red inserts on the inside of the spokes. It must be the big kid in me, but I really love these.
Inside, you get an excellent level of standard kit including air conditioning, Bluetooth phone, cruise control and speed limiter and an iPod-compatible stereo.
In the back, where the non-big-kids go, there’s a decent amount of space. The Picasso is kind of unfashionably narrow, which means squeezing people into the centre rear seats will take some... well, squeezing, but two up in the back should have plenty of room, and if you need to juggle things around to make some space, the seats split, fold, flip and recline.
Up front, you would think that the narrowness would have driver and passenger rubbing shoulders, but actually there’s plenty of room and the upright driving position is very comfy.
Beyond the driver lies the familiar 90bhp, 230Nm 1.6-litre four cylinder diesel engine. It’s a touch noisier in this installation than we’ve noticed it being in other cars, but it’s still adequately refined. And pretty economical. Our average is currently working out at 6.1-litres per 100km (46.3mpg) but that can improve by a whole litre or more on a gently driven long run and seeing as most of our daily mileage is around town, 46mpg seems pretty good. Besides, and this is a purely subjective thing, it does seem to go forever on a fill of the tank.
What we really love, so far, about the C3 Picasso is its combination of style and practicality. The cabin is robustly built but still looks and feels a cut above the likes of a Toyota Verso-S, there’s lots of space but it feels terrifically wieldy in town and is a cinch to park (excellent visibility through massive windows helps there) and while many would accuse it of being a mumsy people mover, your 6’1” most-definitely-male correspondent feels entirely happy pootling around in it.
So, life feels pretty good in the Picasso household at the moment. No, it’s not a hot hatch to drive, but then it was never supposed to be. It’s showing none of the build frailties that French cars are supposedly prone to and frankly, if you’re going to have a practical family car, why shouldn’t it look this good?
No comments:
Post a Comment