News: Opel has 20,000 orders for Adam

Now, we all know that Opel was taking a massive risk by launching the new Adam. A rival to the likes of the Fiat 500, Mini and Citroen DS3, it tries to take Opel into a funky premium hatchback market that's a tough nut to crack. Tougher still when you're set to lose $1.5-billion in Europe in 2012 and you need a big hit to drag up both your image and your bottom line.

Road Test: Citroen DS3 Racing

Price as tested: €30,495

+ Fun, high quality, gorgeous
– Bit pricey, other than that not much
= Other may be purist but the DS3 is more fun

In a motoring world where convention is king (“I’ll have that in silver please, with black upholstery” is the phrase most often heard in Irish dealerships) it is refreshing, like zesty mineral water on a hot day, to drive something a bit naughty.

And naughty is not often a word that you would apply to Citroen. Quirky? Yes. Comfortable? Absolutely. But naughty? Not so much. That kind of changed when the little DS3 hatch was introduced. Take the chassis and engines from a C3, add a healthy measure of the kind of appealing styling and sporty driving experience that has made the Mini such a storming success, garnish with a sprinkle of the DS badge magic, shake over ice and pour... It’s been a storming success in Europe (albeit much, much less so in Ireland) and is a sharp-edged competitor to the Anglo-German hatch.

The Racing is all of the same ingredients, with about a quart of Wasabi added to the mixture. It takes the 150bhp DSport model as its basis, cranks the (BMW-sourced) 1.6-litre petrol turbo engine up to 204bhp, adds a chassis tweaked and balanced by the sorcerers at Citroen Rally Sport (which has utterly dominated the World Rally Championship in recent years) and served it up as a grey-and-blinding-orange, €32k playzone.

There are few things better in life than a quick, well-balanced hot hatch and the DS3 Racing is certainly not going to upset that assertion. It gives you all the performance you could reasonably ask for, unless you are a track-day junkie, yet it remains practical, spacious and comfortable enough for everyday driving.

Aside from the damage to your retinas that the paintjob will cause, the most abiding memory you will take from driving the Racing is the performance of its engine. And oddly enough, not because it is savagely powerful but because it seems so unassuming.

That’s a strange thing to say about a hopped-up turbo job, but it’s true. There is so little turbo lag and the power is delivered so linearly that you start to doubt, just a little that it really has its advertised power output. Its other significant rival, the RenaultSport Clio 200, has a similar grunt figure but it’s all delivered, in one mad dash, at the top of the power band, making it more exciting in extremis than that Citroen, but maddening and frustrating at all other times. The Racing, with its diesel-like low-down shove, is much more accessible, and yes, I consider that a good thing.

It’ll still do the 0-100kmh dash in 6.5secs (hardly blistering I know, but it feels pretty rapid in a car this compact) and will run on to a top speed of 235kmh (given space and legality, of course). Yet its fuel consumption is reasonable claimed 6.4-litres per 100km, which you should be able to match, or at least get close to, in real world driving.

It’s the chassis, rather surprisingly, that feels unruly and naughty. Normally, cars tweaked by motorsport departments are set up for cold, clinical apex-annihilation. Racers want cars that go as quick as possible, even if the quickest way sometimes looks and feels the slowest. The DS3 Racing, rather pleasingly, eschews this for a more on-the-edge feel. It’s not really anywhere near the limits of its abilities on the public road, it just likes to make you think that it is. It does this through steering that feels a touch ragged, with a nibble of torque steer at the edges, and handling that washes surprisingly quickly into understeer. Now, technically, this is not good, but it is enjoyable as you feel as if you’re really pressing on when in reality, you’re actually just cruising. A classic case of being better by appearing worse.

What I particularly like about the DS3 (in all its forms) is the way it really nails the static quality side of things. Renault’s hot Clio is all business-like plain plastics and underwhelming styling, preferring you to concentrate on the chassis and engine. Which is fine if you’re lapping the Nurburgring, but not so good if you’re stuck in traffic on the Wellpark Road, casting around the cabin for something nice to look at. The DS3’s funky exterior styling, its high-quality cabin (yes, in a Citroen) and its decent rear space and boot mark it out as a car that gets the true ownership essentials right.

So, it’s not a paragon of hot hatch handling, or even grunt for that matter. A Mini Cooper S Works offers (slightly) more power, a RenaultSport Clio has sharper steering and handling and, frankly, a VW Golf GTI has the lot licked for all-round appeal. But, like an engagingly naughty child, the DS3 Racing’s character shines through, and in a world of grey cars, that is truly something to be happy about.


Facts & Figures

Citroen DS3 Racing
Price as tested: €32,990
Range price: €17,490 to €32,990
Capacity: 1,598cc
Power: 204bhp
Torque: 275Nm
Top speed: 220kmh
0-100kmh: 6.5sec
Economy: 5.4l-100km (44.1mpg)
CO2 emissions: 149g/km
VRT Band: C. €330 road tax
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 87% adult, 71% child, 35% pedestrian, 83% safety assist

Long Term Test: Citroen C3 Picasso, 2nd Report

A few thoughts on our long term test C3 Picasso, mostly inspired by a long motorway journey with the kids on board...

1. That fish-bowl windscreen and the v-cut a-pillars really do give a fantastic view out. No more having your vision blocked through long corners or losing sight of pedestrians behind the a-pillar. It's like having your own portable IMAX theatre. Now showing: your life.

2. Subsequent to the above, the kids in the back have an almost equally good view out thanks to large windows and a low-set beltline. Crucial for establishing harmony on a long journey.

3. The way Citroen has managed to did space in this thing continues to baffle me. The C3 hatchback it shares components with is not the most spacious thing in the world, and the Picasso is unfashionably narrow, yet it is remarkably commodious. You can even get three child seats across the back bench at a pinch, our massive 3-wheel Phil&Teds buggy fits in the boot without overwhelming the boot and there's plenty of room up front too.y wife has described it as "the best family car ever" and I'm having a hard time disagreeing with her on that.

4. Its fuel economy is unspectacular but remarkably constant. 6.0-litres per 100km (mid forties MPG) is hardly cutting edge for a small, relatively light car running an efficient 1.6 diesel but it doesn't seem to matter what we do: Urban stop-start, long motorway hauls, trips to the petting zoo, the economy holds constant.

5. It looks utterly brilliant. I know ours is the specced up Code edition and the red-insert wheels and gleaming white paintwork really lift the Picasso'a game, but there simply isn't a better looking small MPV out there. Every other such car just looks like a tall hatchback or a shrunken van. The Picasso looks like nothing else and I love that. Not everyone will, true enough, but it's almost worth the €20k purchase price alone to see how the C3 stands out in a car park full of me-too silver-grey-black hatches and saloons.

6. Croissant crumbs and flakes are almost impossible to hoover up. Must stop stopping at Gourmet Tart Company for in-car snacks.

Long Term Test: Citroen C3 Picasso, 1st report

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?